New Research: Dinner Trends in the U.S. Foodservice Market

Packaged Facts estimates that dinner daypart restaurant sales dropped 5% to $174 billion in 2009, and is forecasted to drop another 3% in 2010. But all is not lost, Packaged Facts research indicates a spending renaissance is already underway. By combining investment-grade industry analysis with key trend analysis, Dinner Trends in the U.S. Foodservice Market not only helps foodservice industry participants address challenges unique to the dinner daypart but also helps participants contour their strategies to meet consumers’ evolving needs. By providing insight on the dinnergoer’s decision-making process, this report provides direction on how and why the consumer decides on a specific restaurant from which to obtain dinner, and how and why that consumer decides what to order from the menu. Selection factors are analyzed according to the following categories: convenience; dinner menu items; meal cost thresholds; dine-in and takeout partner; menu positioning and advertising; health positioning; and bundled offers. More Information>> Research Features: “Share of stomach” restaurant dinner sales analysis, which includes 5-year sales trends for the fast food/quick-service restaurant and full-service restaurant segments, with forecasts for 2010 and 2011. Guest traffic frequency analysis of leading dinner-centric restaurant brands, giving a directional perspective on current sales trends. Trended analysis of demographic dinner daypart expenditures, including 4-year sales historical sales trends and spending according to key demographics, such as age, income, region, and race/ethnicity. Thorough psychographic analysis of Budgeters, Alcohol Indulgers and Healthy Eaters, key psychographic groups shaping the dinner daypart. The report also conducts trend analysis on key dinner-centric restaurant brands, including menu strategies and new menu item introductions, core users; snacking tendencies; food, diet and health attitudes; as well as trends sales metrics. We focus on recession-driven responses and menu strategies taking the brands into 2011. Coverage extends to fast food/QSR, coffeehouse, smoothie shop, ice cream shop, family restaurant, casual restaurant, and fine dining restaurant segments; as well as prepared foods segments at convenience stores/gas stations and grocery stores/supermarkets. More Information>>

Dinner Trends in the U.S. Foodservice Market is part of Packaged Facts' new Foodservice Market Insights collection. Additional titles include: Lunch Trends in the U.S. Foodservice Market Dinner Trends in the U.S. Foodservice Market Breakfast Trends in the U.S. Foodservice Market Snack and Dessert Trends in the U.S. Foodservice Market Prepared Food and Ready-to-Eat Foods at Retail: The New Competition to Foodservice The U.S. Foodservice Landscape 2010: Restaurant Industry and Consumer Trends, Momentum and Migration The insights you need, all in one collective series from Packaged Facts. Download our Foodservice Market Insights brochure and get the full details on data methodology, foodservice consumer perspective and analysis, and more. View the brochure See sample pages

"Students are 60% more likely than average to have dinner foodservice at a grocery store/supermarket & 40% more likely to have dinner at a convenience store/gas station." - Dinner Trends in Foodservice Market Study

Breakfast Trends: Fierce competition sparks innovation

Think a restaurant breakfast is just an Egg McMuffin consumed mid-commute? Think again. Breakfast is being reinvented chefs and industry innovators, many of whom are interested in offering an alternative to the typical diner or quick-serve-restaurant morning meal. Though the majority of breakfast business is done on the go, these trendsetters are still making an impact, serving upgraded breakfast sandwiches and mixing organic ingredients and global flavors into the most important meal of the day.

Fact is, breakfast isn’t just hot: it’s cold, eaten in the form of whole grain cereal and customized granola; it’s gourmet, made into elaborate artisan breakfast sandwiches; it’s a beverage, served all day in the guise of salad with poached eggs and bacon or dessert waffles. Breakfast is so much more than it used to be—and it’s more popular than ever in foodservice, despite the economic downturn.

Fierce competition in every sector for the breakfast dollar is pushing innovation in today’s breakfast foods, along with a number of key drivers exemplified in the report’s trend profiles:


Artisan Breakfast: These traditional breakfast dishes are made by hand, using the freshest ingredients and incorporating global flavor twists.

Third Wave Coffee: Coffee enthusiasts are going beyond espresso to reinvent this ancient caffeinated beverage, creating a superlative cup of Joe that’s brewed with care from only the best beans.

New Whole Grains: As consumers are looking for gluten-free alternatives and better-tasting, healthful breakfast options, whole grain cereals and breakfast pastry are diversifying beyond whole wheat.
Waffles Gone Wild: Waffles can be used as a carrier or simply solo, and are taking on new savory and sweet forms everywhere from fine dining to street food.
Breakfast Pizza: America’s favorite savory pie gets a breakfast twist, topped with ingredients such as eggs, bacon--and even fruit!
Eggs All Day: Eggs are a flexible protein that can be healthful or decadent, down-home or gourmet, and they’re being adapted for all dayparts by magazines for home cooks.
Breakfast in a Bowl: Breakfast foods ranging from the savory to the sweet, combined together in a bowl for a portable, convenient, one-size-fits-all breakfast.

MORE>>

Frozen food manuf. find themselves in spot during the recession

Marketers of frozen convenience food have found themselves caught between a rock and a hard place during the economic downturn. Though fresh convenience food has gained through positioning that casts it as a less expensive alternative to restaurant food during a time of recession, frozen convenience food is frequently viewed as a more expensive, less fresh alternative to cooking from scratch at home. The frozen food categories that have been able to grow substantially in this environment are therefore the ones that have been able to elude this paradigm.

Specifically, the mammoth frozen pizza category and the spunky hand-held breakfast category have both found a way to go head-to-head with restaurants; and the prepared vegetable category has been able to triumph on the freshness front via the development of steaming techniques. According to Packaged Facts, these three categories have led the way sales-wise, enabling an otherwise ambivalent market for frozen convenience foods to grow by a modest 2.0% in 2010 to reach sales of $16.8 billion. Packaged Facts expects that marketers in other categories will soon adopt similar strategies, driving sales of fresh convenience foods up another 10% by 2015, to $18.6 billion.

Frozen Convenience Foods in the U.S. : Packaged Facts

Breakfast Trends: Culinary Trend Mapping Report Think a restaurant breakfast is just an Egg McMuffin consumed mid-commute? Think again. Breakfast is being reinvented chefs and industry innovators, many of whom are interested in offering an alternative to the typical diner or quick-serve-restaurant morning meal. Though the majority of breakfast business is done on the go, these trendsetters are still making an impact, serving upgraded breakfast sandwiches and mixing organic ingredients and global flavors into the most important meal of the day. Fact is, breakfast isn’t just hot: it’s cold, eaten in the form of whole grain cereal and customized granola; it’s gourmet, made into elaborate artisan breakfast sandwiches; it’s a beverage, served all day in the guise of salad with poached eggs and bacon or dessert waffles. Breakfast is so much more than it used to be—and it’s more popular than ever in foodservice, despite the economic downturn. Fierce competition in every sector for the breakfast dollar is pushing innovation in today’s breakfast foods, along with a number of key drivers exemplified in the report’s trend profiles: Artisan Breakfast: These traditional breakfast dishes are made by hand, using the freshest ingredients and incorporating global flavor twists. Third Wave Coffee: Coffee enthusiasts are going beyond espresso to reinvent this ancient caffeinated beverage, creating a superlative cup of Joe that’s brewed with care from only the best beans. New Whole Grains: As consumers are looking for gluten-free alternatives and better-tasting, healthful breakfast options, whole grain cereals and breakfast pastry are diversifying beyond whole wheat. Waffles Gone Wild: Waffles can be used as a carrier or simply solo, and are taking on new savory and sweet forms everywhere from fine dining to street food. Breakfast Pizza: America’s favorite savory pie gets a breakfast twist, topped with ingredients such as eggs, bacon--and even fruit! Eggs All Day: Eggs are a flexible protein that can be healthful or decadent, down-home or gourmet, and they’re being adapted for all dayparts by magazines for home cooks. Breakfast in a Bowl: Breakfast foods ranging from the savory to the sweet, combined together in a bowl for a portable, convenient, one-size-fits-all breakfast. More | View Table of Contents

Going-Gluten-Free

Rapidly growing bases of consumers and retailers have gluten on their minds.

With more consumers being diagnosed with celiac disease—which causes problems in digesting gluten, a protein found in wheat and common in such foods as bread, crackers and pasta—a greater array of suppliers and retailers are developing and marketing gluten-free products.

While still a relatively small sector, the gluten-free market is rapidly expanding. Packaged Facts, a Rockville, Md.-based research firm, estimates 2009 gluten-free retail food and beverage sales at $1.73 billion, up 11 percent from 2008.

While the recession is slowing the sector’s annual growth rate—which ranged from 25 to 30 percent from 2005 to 2008 and is projected to reach 9 percent in 2010—the sector is expected to rebound, Package Facts notes.

Indeed, Ed Weiss, Packaged Facts senior market analyst, predicts the growth rate will jump to 16 percent in 2011 and 20 percent in 2012, with sales totaling $2.6 billion.

“There still are a lot of undiagnosed people with celiac disease who will find out they need gluten-free products,” he says.

Other factors that will drive demand is the medically unproven belief by some consumers that a gluten-free diet will help relieve other medical conditions, such as autism, irritated bowel syndrome and multiple sclerosis, Weiss states.

“The demand for gluten-free foods is consumer driven,” he says. “The initial marketers were shoppers with celiac disease who could not find gluten-free products in stores and started developing the items themselves.”


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Starting An Online Pet Business

by genesower on Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

Is Now A Good Time To Sell Pet Products Online?

Natural Pets World asked David his thoughts about starting an ecommerce pet business in a down economy and he offered these insightful thoughts in this 90-second excerpt:
View

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FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT FOR NATURAL/ORGANIC CATEGORY

In a recent poll conducted by Packaged Facts, they reported that 62% of dog owners and 56% of cat owners purchased natural/organic pet products in the last three months, with 16% of dog or cat owners purchasing organic food within the same period. Moreover, nearly half of pet owners would buy more natural/organic pet products if they were more widely available and almost two-thirds would do so if they were more affordable.

Indulge your hunger for knowledge at Weight Management 2010 - the virtual conference and expo

Indulge your hunger for knowledge at Weight Management 2010 - the virtual conference and expo

FoodNavigator-USA.com will host the first virtual conference and expo dedicated to weight management, showcasing the latest trends and strategies in weight management for the food, beverage and dietary supplements industries.

The live one-day event called Weight Management 2010 Virtual Conference and Expo will be taking place on Thursday November 4. The conference will cover key topics from high-profile industry personalities from Nestlé, Unilever, The Federal Trade Commission, Packaged Facts, New York University, Université Catholique de Louvain and University of Sussex.

Organized in association with NutraIngredients-USA.com, the virtual event allows visitors to network, attend conferences, and visit suppliers online – without having to book flights or hotels.

Virtual versions of trade shows and conferences are becoming increasingly popular as marketing budgets come under pressure in the recession and IT companies develop new and improved platforms for online events.

Networking

Cost saving is not the only attraction of the virtual format. Visitors to Weight Management 2010 can easily navigate their way around the virtual floor and can network simply with both visitors and suppliers through forums at stands, and using a chat facility.

In addition to networking, attendees of the show can come to stands in the virtual exhibition hall to pick up product brochures, technical papers and case studies, and tune in to videos. The select group of suppliers showcasing their very latest ingredient and formulation innovations include: DSM, Roquette, Sensus, National Starch, Pharmachem, Bio-Serae, Cognis, Frutarom, Nutrition21, OmniActive, P.L. Thomas and Tate & Lyle.

Conference line-up

The program will start with an overview of the weight management sector, from Don Montouri, publisher of Packaged Facts, with special focus on dietary programs to achieve weight management, from Atkins to GI and Weight Watchers.