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Healthy eating edges out cafés
The traditional café is losing out to sandwich bars and coffee houses claims a report on the market for consumer foodservice in the UK by research analyst Euromonitor.
While cafés remain the second most significant sector after pubs in terms of units, transactions and value sales, increasing awareness of health concerns and growing competition from fast food outlets - such as burger restaurants and sandwich bars - has resulted in their appeal becoming increasingly limited. Between 1997 and 2001, the number of café units has declined by 11.7 per cent.
'Cafés suffer from an old-fashioned and unhealthy image,' the report says. 'With a generally low level of innovation and a reputation for a lower quality of service, they are witnessing a dwindling customer base.'
Sandwich bars are seen to be growing in popularity, mainly thanks to stressing the health or luxury of their varied and unusual ingredients and appealing to 'a growing trend towards consumer gastronomy'.
Speciality coffee houses have enjoyed the sector's strongest growth, with sites in areas of high consumer traffic - such as shopping areas or on commuter routes. Speciality tea, however, has failed to attract the interest that coffee houses have.
'Premium tea does not involve the same mystique in preparation as coffee, with no need for complicated machinery or the flourish that a latte or mocha offers,' says the report. 'As a result, while many coffee houses also offer premium teas, it seems unlikely that dedicated tea houses will become an established presence.'
However, such outlets do tend to be concentrated in urban centres, so there is growing concern of saturation: McDonald's sold its Aroma coffee house chain in 2001 after losses and 2002 has seen Starbucks and Costa Coffee halting or reducing expansion plans.
The rise of the sandwich bar is also likely to take its toll, as people view it more convenient to buy coffee with their lunch rather than from a separate outlet - hence the success of Pret a Manger which offers premium coffee as a secondary offering at its sandwich bars. Details: www.euromonitor.com