DAWN FARMS TOP 9 | ISSUE 41| 2018

GLOBAL UPDATE ON CONSUMER, MARKET AND MENU INSIGHTS. 

1.  READY-MEALS COMEBACK

UK consumers are eating a third more ready-meals than they were 4 years ago. Two billion ready-meals were bought last year as Britain is seeing more divorces, late marriages and an ageing population meaning more people eat alone. Older consumers are driving this renewed demand along with consumers’ busy lifestyles as about 45% of total meals are eaten alone. Sainsbury’s has identified this trend and released its Supper Club range of premium ready-meals which includes lasagne, fish pie, beef stew, Thai chicken curry, and dumplings just to name a few. With this new range available on shelves, Sainsbury’s ready-meal sales are up 30% over the past 2 years.

2. DOMINO’S NEW SALES RECORD

A newly remodeled Domino’s restaurant in Texas has broken the company's sales record by selling nearly 8,500 pizzas in its opening week. Breaking records previously held in Hawaii and Scotland, the newly remodeled restaurant is of popular interest due to its new store design, something the company calls a ‘pizza theater’. This design features an open viewing area of the kitchen where guests can see how their pizzas are prepared. In the same week, Domino’s UK has relaunched its Mexican Fiesta Pizza due to consumer demand which is topped with Mexican chili chicken, red onions, green and red peppers and finished with a drizzle of sour cream and Domino’s paprika sauce.   

3. PAPA JOHN’S UK PROFIT BOOM

Papa John’s UK has reported a 19% increase in turnover accumulating to £6.4 million pre-tax profits in the year to 31 December 2017. Papa John’s is the UK's third-largest pizza delivery company and believes their turnover has increased due to store growth and increased like-for-like sales from continued operations in their franchise network. This is the 12th consecutive year of growth for the company, however stiff competition remains with significant promotional discounting continuing to take place into 2018. Papa John’s stated that Friday’s and Saturday’s contribute to 44% of weekly sales, as consumers expectedly wind down on the weekends.

4. HALOODIES LAUNCH INTO MORRISONS

Morrisons will become the first retailer to stock Haloodie’s new frozen beef burgers which will greatly extend their halal product offering. Haloodie’s burgers are made with 80% grass-fed Irish beef and are halal-certified. They are set to go on sale in 60 Morrison’s stores, beginning in areas with a strong Asian demographic. In the past, halal food choices have been limited however, nowadays the consumption and awareness of halal products as hygienic and nutritious drives demand in both Muslim and non-Muslim communities alike.

5. VOICE-ORDERING APP 

The U.S. tech company, Jetson, has launched a new Artificial Intelligence voice-ordering app for restaurants called the Jetson Voice Assistant. With this app, restaurants can now offer voice-ordering and easier delivery to their customers. The Jetson Voice Assistant allows customers to shop, order, and make payments. It saves the consumers’ preferences for future orders and offers useful analytics to restaurants. Voice-ordering is three times faster than customers using screen interfaces, according to Stanford University. New technologies like this app have been driving innovation in the food industry and have been making it easier for companies to quickly respond to the changing needs of their consumers.  

6. GAME FOR READY-MEALS

Wild and Game, a company that specializes in game, is on a mission to turn the UK into a nation of game-eaters starting with unique range of ready-meals. They have recently launched a variety of ready- meals including grouse with a mushroom and peppercorn sauce; pheasant breasts with a pancetta, mushroom, and cider sauce; pheasant breasts Florentine; and pheasant tikka masala. The ready-meals will retail at £12.50 with four servings in each and £7 for two packs. The new high-quality ready-meals focus on favourite familiar dishes yet substitute game for the more commonly used meats such as beef and chicken. 

7. AUGMENTED REALITY PIZZA ORDER 

Kabaq, a food tech start-up company, has recently developed an Augmented Reality (AR) platform that is expanding into the restaurant and food service space. This enables chains to present products with 3D visualization using advanced scanning technologies. Domino’s Pizza has developed an AR social media campaign on Snapchat allowing customers to scan their surroundings and see what their pizza would look like in front of them. Click here to watch Domino’s AR pizza ordering in action. Grocery is next on Kabaq’s sights by presenting food to consumer with stories about how the product is sourced and be able to show ingredients and recipes. 

8. CASHIER FREE STORES 

Amazon is planning on opening 3,000 “Go Stores” in the next 3 years with locations in the U.S. and U.K. The exact format of these stores has not been made known to the public yet but they will be split between a small grocery store format and a prepared foods primary focus format. The stores will not have cashiers or checkouts as they will use computer vision technology and artificial intelligence to detect when a shopper picks up or returns an item. Amazon appears confident that this new store format can win in an already crowded retail market place and are currently in the process of acquiring multiple small retail sites in the UK.

9. OKTOBERFEST EATS 

No better way to soak up all the beer at Oktoberfest than enjoying some of the traditional Bavarian specialities on offer. The choice of flavourful dishes is staggering. Each of the 36 large food tents at Munich’s Oktoberfest has a food menu much like a restaurant, with some tents being solely dedicated to specific Bavarian favourites such as Bratwurst, Currywurst, and Weisswurst, which is called white sausage because it is without skin. Other favourites such as pork knuckle or ‘Schweinhaxen’ and slowly roasted Ox have been a tradition at Oktoberfest for over 133 years.  In 2017, over 480,000 rotisserie chickens and 206,535 pairs of pork sausages were reportedly consumed during the two-week event.