UK: Diversity and sustainability

As on the continent, the food-to-go market is a mainstay of the baked products market in UK and is steadily gaining importance.

+The market is determined by two big trends. One is the constant hunt for new ideas with which to set oneself apart from the competition – one might also ask what will be the next bandwagon to jump onto.

Suppliers are endeavoring to differentiate their product ranges throughout the day as well, and are also enlivening the evening business in addition to breakfast, lunchtime and a snack in between. Starbucks and Costa, for example, have obtained alcoholic drinks licenses for a series of locations to enhance the attractiveness of their shops in the evening. Combined with a flatbread with goat’s cheese and artichokes, or a cheeseboard and small salad, that can certainly be a tempting offer. Café W, West Cornwall Pasty Co, Soho Coffee and Esquires have also obtained alcohol licenses, and Black Sheep Coffee even converts its locations into a wine bar in the evenings.

Another route to more customer contact is the kind of cooperation some businesses are entering into with established retail houses. The Crussh company, which specializes in juices and health-food, has opened its first location at Sainsbury’s in London, and another project, also in the capital city, is ongoing with Debenhams, a store chain that sells clothing, cosmetics and gifts as well as furniture and electrical appliances. Joe & the Juice-Outlets has also been seen in several Debenhams stores for some time, and also in John Lewis stores, and the Eat format concluded a corresponding agreement with Debenhams during last year.

Costa plans to increase its presence in football stadiums and transport hubs this year. Greggs, and also the Scottish bakery Stephens, are trying via drive-through shops to reach those people who are unwilling to get out of their mobile armchairs.

Greggs and Subway are experimenting with delivery services for those who don’t even want to come on board.

Whereas product range differentiation and the search for cooperation is aimed mainly at reaching more customers and/or selling more to them, the other topic stirring minds in the British food-to-go market in the past year and right up to the present day involves greater social cohesion and thus sustainability. As in this country, coffee cups are a hot topic in this respect. One group is attempting to organize the return of used paper cups in its own shops, while another offers discounts to customers who bring their own coffee cups with them, but none of that is the perfect solution yet, so Starbucks, Greggs, Costa, Pret A Manger, Caffè Nero and others have banded together to form a working group tasked with developing a national recycling concept for coffee cups.

Costa is campaigning for coffee cup recycling, and promises 500 million coffee cups will be recycled each year from 2020 onwards. That corresponds to about the number of coffee cups Costa gives out annually. A national recycling company has recently started paying Costa GBP 70 for each ton of recycled coffee cups. Customers arriving with their own cups receive a discount of 25 pence per cup