Pan-European Survey: Culinary Store Experience

 
It's all about a new generation of in-store restaurants. Generally aimed at attracting customers and making their stay as long as possible, this service was long considered to be too personnel intensive and characterised by fluctuating quality and negative results. Standardisation and, in many cases, the self-service principle have put the genre on track for success. Today, major department and furniture stores, as well as book and shoe shops, use their own or outside foodservice brands as a supplementary attraction offering additional value. Not to mention supermarkets for which associated F&B units represent a marketing and testing module for their product ranges.
 
Part 1 of our pan-European survey.
 

 
UK
 
As in most European countries, the UK instore catering market mainly comprises self-service restaurants and cafes trading all through the day during shop hours, with three main segments apparent:- traditional department stores, representing about half the in-store catering market in terms of sales.- grocery supermarkets and superstores (both majoring on food but with non-foods growing in significance at the larger superstores). The cafes operated at most of the larger shops represent 25-30% of the instore catering market.- variety stores and large niche retailers account for around 20%. In many ways this has been the most active sector for catering with chains like Marks & Spencer and BHS continuing to invest in brighter formats but it is also a sector which has experienced turbulence, as with the collapse during 2009 of major players such as the large Woolworth's chain, pioneers of variety retailing, and the Borders book-store chain.
 
Long-range Mintel forecasts for the sector were revised downwards last year with the total market for catering at all types of store in 2009 thought to be worth GBP1,363 m (down from a forecast GBP1,550 m) and forecasts for this year of GBP1,412 m.
 

 
Like department stores but with fewer floors, higher traffic and a more tightly defined range of fast-moving merchandise, variety stores have increasingly competed with branded high street coffee bars and convenience foodservice outlets. Most notable examples have been Marks & Spencer (M & S), well-known in the UK and at its international franchised stores for its combination of quality apparel, home goods and fresh food; and the 186-store BHS chain, with well-established 80-120 seat self-service restaurants noted for their freshly cooked fish and chips and other traditional British fare. The latter chain has recently softened the canteen style of its restaurants with more comfortable seating (including armchairs) and separately developed an Starbucks-style espresso cafe format.
 
M & S has increasingly seen foodservice as a means of increasing the store experience for customers while encouraging them to spend longer in store. Menus help promote ingredient provenance and act as samplers for products which can then be purchased in food halls. Over the past decade, the chain has updated and extended its foodservice offer with Café Revive, an in-house branded coffee offer with Starbucks-style beverage menu alongside familiar fresh food products. Design strives for a comfy, emotionally engaging experience for the predominantly middle-aged, middle class housewives who represent the core M & S shopper.
 

 
Launched in 2000 and rolled out nationally in various sizes and locations (typically upstairs), Cafe Revive exceeded GBP100 m sales by the mid-2000s, with an estimated three-quarters of all regular M & S shoppers visiting the cafes. A more contemporary look has spread nationally in the past five years along with re-branding to M & S Cafe and a simpler menu. The coffee offer has become 100% organic and Fair Trade in line with the group's ‘greener' positioning.
 
The number of M & S Cafes exceeds 270. A variety of other in-store offers have also been rolled out for specific types of location, such as Hot Food To Go, serving fresh-toorder soups and fast-foods; Deli Counter, a more aspirational offer enabling customers to buy sourdough bread with various toppings plus glasses of wine; and a new café format called Kitchen.
 
The UK's fiercely competitive grocery industry has turned up the heat on restaurants during the recession, promoting the components for gourmet dinners at home at hard-to-match prices (such as GBP10 for two courses including wine). Yet this glamour and excitement does not necessarily rub off on grocery retailers' own foodservice efforts.
 
Exceptions tend to be found mainly in stores serving affluent neighbourhoods. For example, the flagship Waitrose Food and Home store at the Canary Wharf office and residential complex east of London has sought differentiation and aspirational values in no less than eight eateries assembled around the periphery of the single floor, 73,000 sq ft supermarket. Particular emphasis has gone on fresh ingredients and up-front preparation, exemplified by a salad and juice bar, a steak & oyster bar and a sushi bar (a concession run by Moshi Moshi, the pioneers of conveyor belt sushi restaurants in London). There is also a pizzeria with a large open oven and a bar offering fine wine, beer and champagne with tapas-style snacks.
 

 
The 222-store Waitrose chain, rated fifth in Britain's Big 5 supermarket chains, is the grocery division of the John Lewis department store chain and pursues a more upscale positioning than its supermarket rivals. It operates 52 café-restaurants and also franchises Costa coffee bars at five of its branches. At Canary Wharf, the presence of 100+ foodservice units trading in the vicinity, which houses the staff of major financial and media organisations, demanded a more creative response.
 

 
Read in the full article more about the following countries:
Part 1: France, UK, Italy and Nordic Countries
 

 

 
| 17 February 2010 |