We are a nation of homebodies, unwilling to leave our sofas and Slow Horses and hit the glittering nightspots, was the message being sold at conferences around the country this month.
At the Propel summer party Robin Rowland OBE, operating partner, TriSpan, told attendees that “we need to teach the younger generation to eat out”.
At the CMS Hospitality Conference Jeavon Lolay, head of economics and market insight, Lloyds Banking Group, said that tourism and recreation was at the bottom of demand according to S&P UK output PMI, with Lolay commenting: “Domestic demand is strong, but people are getting more discerning about their pound and what they are going to do with it.”
Lolay added: “This sector is not immune to challenge, you’re going to have to differentiate”, and pointed out that the so-called revenge travel (and revenge eating out and revenge drinking, no doubt) was behind us and normal service saw hospitality competing with a cosy night in, maybe with some chips.
According to SIAL, Spain is the country where people eat out most per week, at 4.6 times, followed by Canada and the US (3.8 and 3.6) and the UK at tenth, with 1.1 times. The organisation credited Spain’s tapas culture, which actively encourages going out for drinks and tiny plates, and the low cost of food. The UK was identified as one of the more expensive countries on the list to eat out.
And you won’t need your Phd to have already worked it out. The UK is cold when you leave the house and often expensive. If you want to lure us into our big coats, it has to be really, really worth it, something backed up by CGA, which has reported appetite for special nights out.
Back in the days when Nandos and its ilk first bought casual dining to our mouths, forecasts were that we would be eating out every day, happy faces smeared with chicken - and appropriate vegetarian alternatives - and a whole new era of leaving the house would begin. Tony Blair thought much the same after one-too-many summers in Tuscany encouraged him to liberalise licensing laws so we could all sit around in the town square drinking Aperol and philosophising. That doesn’t really work in a country where you have to drink to keep warm.
The tough truth for restaurant concepts hoping to take over the world is that demand is more muted than other countries. Experience is a thing, of course, as we hear almost as often as we hear ‘AI’, but maybe the sofa is too.
Takeaway is treated as the slightly filthy cousin by most outlets, cursed with high distribution costs. Yet during the pandemic, high-end restaurants were eager to show off how they could deliver more than just burgers and chips, but quality and, yes, experience. That fell by the wayside when normality returned.
The hotel sector has fought back against its own distribution issues in the form of the OTAs, with loyalty schemes and booking direct. Loyalty has yet to penetrate beyond coffee and might there also be a case for restaurants in one area to band together for their own personal delivery person?
There’s a reason we love our sofas. Don’t fight it, feed it.
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