Fast casual dining feeds foodservice growth

Foodservice sales grew 5.7% globally in 2015, driven by strong growth in fast casual dining and continuing expansion of the Chinese market.

The research, released by Euromonitor International, highlighted fast casual dining as the industry’s best-performing segment, with 10.4% growth driving revenue growth of US$3.4 billion from 2014 to 2015. Asian restaurants achieved the next best growth rate of 9.3%.

China continues to be the largest market for consumer foodservice with sales totalling US$617 billion, an increase of 9.5% from 2014 to 2015. From 2015 to 2020, China is forecast to achieve US$235 billion in new foodservice sales, followed by the US and India with forecast US$48.8 billion and $35.7 billion, respectively.

“China was the true growth leader during the year and we expect it to continue to offer strong growth opportunities ahead, albeit within the context of very high competition. Over the forecast period (2015 to 2020), more growth is projected in China than we saw in the previous five years,” said Elizabeth Friend, consumer foodservice strategy analyst at Euromonitor International.

Online orders have become popular in China, Israel and South Korea, where more than 60% of home delivery sales were ordered online. Globally, China placed the most fast food orders online at 26%, compared to the US, where online fast food sales were less than 1% in 2015.

“Consumers are shifting their dining preferences, especially in developed markets,” said Friend. “Coffee shops, for example, saw a high increase in sales last year, which shows that the dining-out culture is continuing to evolve toward more modern, premium, casual and social experiences.”