Top 111: The Leaders of the Pack

 
The Top 111 foodservice operators in Europe had combined sales of €75.4 bn in 2006. These 111 companies are based in 18 countries but they operate in practically all 41 countries across Europe. This latest ranking once again underlines the major role of two sectors – quickservice and contract catering. The dominance of companies from the US, the UK and France is highlighted by the fact that players based in these countries account for 76% of Top 111 sales.
 
Research was carried out by Gretel Weiss and Stefanie Maurer (FoodService Europe & Middle East) with additional information on the UK provided by Peter Backman (Horizons). This article was written by Peter Backman.
 

 
The 111 largest foodservice operators in Europe grew at a combined rate of 5.8% in 2006 (‘05: 5.2%; ‘04: 4.8%). Their sales currently account for more than 22% of the total European market and continue to increase their share. At a time when the overall eating out market is believed to have grown at about 5-5.5%, the growth shown by group operators is not only an increase on each of the two previous years but it also underlines the growing importance of group operators as a whole. The list covers all foodservice, including QSR, fullservice restaurants, contract catering, hotels, and indeed any other type of outlet where food is served away from home. However, places that mainly act as retailers, such as petrol/gas stations, are excluded. As usual, we have taken great care to exclude non-foodservice activities, such as accommodation, from our ranking. Most operators, except in the case of restaurants and quickservice players, do not normally publish foodservice sales in a format suitable for this listing.
 

 
Accordingly, we have developed a series of factors to allow us to transform available information into the foodservice sales form required for this listing. Where necessary, currency conversion into Euros is done at average annual exchange rates for 2006. So that we measure real growth (rather than that arising from exchange rate fluctuations), growth rates are shown in terms of each company’s national currency. In the case of McDonald’s, however, we have been able to show their growth rate ‘in constant currency’. Growth champions The top performer in 2006 was Subway, repeating its growth-leading role of the previous year. In 2006, the US-based sub concept grew by 65% putting on an additional €220 m to reach pan-European sales of €560 m. But Subway was not the only operator showing hugely impressive growth; Do & Co from Austria showed a 45% growth in sales and US hotel chain Starwood increased its food and beveragesales by 43%.
 

 
| 3 December 2007 | Gretel Weiß |