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Catering Trends in U.S. Foodservice

27 Jan 2011 • by Natalie Aster

New York — “Emerging from a dismal 2009, the catering industry is on the rebound. Packaged Facts estimates that 2010 catering revenue among caterers, restaurants, foodservice contractors, and hotels reached $14.2 billion, a 9.0% increase from 2009.”

While businesses have yet to begin to hire enough workers to dent the unemployment rate, many of them may be seeing enough light at the end of the tunnel. Whether it’s because they are seeing light at the end of the tunnel or perhaps because they cannot ignore the fatigue and frustration in the faces of their recession-weary employees—companies are also stepping up their holiday party planning. This is very good news indeed for the catering industry, which saw sales tied to corporate events plummet during 2008 and 2009.

The report “Catering Trends in U.S. Foodservice” by Packaged Facts provides the insight and analysis market participants need to plan their catering and foodservice strategies. Key coverage includes the following:

  • A market size and forecast for the catering industry, including caterers; full-service restaurants; limited-service restaurants; snack and non-alcoholic beverage establishments; foodservice contractors; and hotels;
  • Key factors to catering growth: travel, hotels and accommodations, and holiday party spending;
  • Trended consumer catering expenditures by demographic;
  • Catering trends within the institutional foodservice category, with a focus on hospitals and colleges and universities;
  • Restaurant catering operation tracking;
  • Catering macro-trend analysis, including the economy; sustainability and environmental concerns; technology; food & celebrity chef familiarity; and health trends;
  • Insight on the “catered meals” consumer, including stand-alone analysis as well as restaurant, institutional foodservice and food retail context;
  • Catering operations analysis of a mixture of restaurant, food retail, foodservice contractor, and caterer companies, such as Panera Bread, Whole Foods Market, Compass Group, and Blue Plate Catering;
  • Catering “opportunity analysis” of significant life events (such as births, weddings, and funerals) as well as significant social events (such as the Super Bowl).

Report Details:

Catering Trends in U.S. Foodservice

Date: January 2011
Pages: 120
Price: US$ 3,995.00

As suggested, most signs point to a thawing in corporate holiday spending, with the major caveat that while more parties may be underway—and more guests per party—spending per plate remains pressured.

Thankfully, most industry observers agree that 2010 will not be worse than—or even a repeat of 2009. Cost and budgetary concerns remain the overwhelming issues. Caterers report a mixture of outcomes, such as fewer events but events with more guests; party sizes going up but price per guest going down; and the need to present catering clients with flexible plans to allow for less expensive menu substitutions.

Ultimately, success is dependent on those companies either performing well during the recession or coming out of the recession. But even these company need to beware of how throwing a lavish party can be interpreted by their employees, some of whom may still feel insecure about their own job status and/or have recently seen a fellow worker cut from the workforce.

More information can be found in the report “Catering Trends in U.S. Foodservice” by Packaged Facts .

To order the report or ask for sample pages contact [email protected]

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