Branded restaurant market to reach £22bn by 2018

The Project Restaurant 2013 report, which looks at all sub-sectors of the branded restaurant market, including fast food, pub restaurants and casual dining restaurants, predicts turnover to hit £16.4bn this year through expansion and positive like-for-like performance. 

However, with consumers' eating-out habits changing to become less structured and more informal, the operators who offer all-day dining will be the ones to benefit the most, the report found after it interviewed 22,000 consumers about their eating-out habits and 120 industry leaders about their expectations for the industry. 

“The ability to eat out at any time of day is leading to a change in day-part frequency as consumer visits at breakfast are growing, while lunch and dinner are under pressure. The slow economic growth is less impactful than feared, though consumers are employing various money saving tactics in order to maintain their eating out habits," said Anya Marco, director of insight at Allegra Strategies. 

Pub restaurants​

Pub-restaurant chains are predicted to take the greatest share of the growth, according to the report. Branded and managed pubs are forecast to turnover £7.6bn this year across 8,488 outlets with Tim Martin's JD Wetherspoon leading the way it said. 

"The Pub Restaurants channel is the most frequently visited by UK consumers, and JD Wetherspoon’s is the nation’s favourite restaurant brand for the first time. Make no mistake, pub restaurants will become an increasing force to be reckoned with," said Marco. 

The fast food sector, valued at £4.5bn across 5,343 outlets will also benefit from the all-day dining trend while the casual-dining restaurants may not see such robust growth due to their inflexibility of offering Allegra predicts. 

"The inability to successfully offer a fast, quality breakfast menu will hamstring many of the leading casual brands," it said. "Casual brands are already under pressure as their key day-parts, particularly lunch, face intense competition from the widening eating out market. 

"Giraffe is one of a few good examples of branded casual restaurants catering to the all-day trend, influencing the strategic investment by Tesco.  However, in a fragmented segment the branded casual chains must re-evaluate their offer in order to enhance relevance." 

Project Restaurant 2013 - the figures: ​

• 35 per cent- since 2007, branded outlets have seen their share of total turnover value rise to 35 per cent. 
• 43 per cent - Allegra Strategies predicts the branded restaurant market will hold 43 per cent of the value of the eating-out market by 2018.
• 50 per cent - Branded pubs will hold 50 per cent of the total branded restaurant market by 2020.  

The Project Restaurant 2013 report will be presented at the Arena foodservice and hospitality networking event​ on 17 July before a lunch and keynote speech by ASK Italian managing director Steve Holmes. For more details visit www.arena.org.uk​​