Food Service Market

The foodservice market, valued at £50.4 billion, is vast and the routes to market are many and varied. It consists of a number of different sub sectors: from pubs, quick service restaurants (QSR) and full service restaurants in the commercial or ‘profit’ sector, to work place, college and universities. There is considerable opportunity for potatoes.

Latest market report – Foodservice Market Update December 2014

• There were 1.67 billion potato servings out of home in the year ending September 2014, with chips accounting for 73.3% of these. Overall, potato servings are down 3.3%, with a decline seen across all channels, but especially in full service restaurants, where servings of potatoes are down by 10% over the year.
• Servings of jacket potatoes eaten out of home increased by 2.9% year-on-year. The strong performance of jacket potatoes has been from a rise in consumption by most age groups, including a 68% increase with consumers aged 13-17.

A quarterly report is produced on the foodservice sector, based on NPD Crest data. The next report (year-ending June 2014) is currently being prepared and will be available free-of-charge to levy payers. Email: [email protected] to be added to the circulation list.

To view the foodservice reports please visit the foodservice reports section in the knowledge hub.

Potato Council marketing activity

The primary focus of Potato Council marketing activity is on the consumer, which benefits all routes to market. The fragmentation of the foodservice market creates a significant challenge for marketing at industry level.

Potato Council focuses its resources on:

Investment in tools to help your business:

Market Information

• Chip Shops: Traditionally activity has taken place with Chip Shops as they are an important sector for the GB crop – accounting for 10% of usage. National Chip Week has been the primary vehicle for the support.
• Pubs and Restaurants: In 2005 Potato Council first commissioned research into the profit sector, which revealed a lack of knowledge amongst caterers about potatoes. It also identified the primary areas of opportunity to increase potato dishes on menus in pub and restaurants. Since then, the market has moved on and there is general agreement that operators’ knowledge of potatoes has increased considerably.
• School Meals: When school meals hit the headlines back in 2005, Potato Council increased its focus on activity to educate caterers about how potatoes can help them meet the school meal guidelines. We now have a range of resources available to help promote potatoes in school meals and ensure the potato’s nutritional profile is recognised.

• There is an information section for each sector: chip shops, pubs and restaurants, and school meals. These are intended to provide a useful resource to direct your customers to and include downloadable resources which can add value to your customer relationship – or be used in new supplier meetings.

• An in depth study on the profit sector (70% by value) was completed in 2010. Download a copy of Behind the Menu: Potatoes In Foodservice.