Food-to-go sector set to overtake quick service restaurants by 2022

The UK's food-to-go sector will be worth £23.5b by 2022, with the market share of food-to-go retailers overtaking that of quick-service restaurants, according to new research.

Training charity IGD predicts that the value of the food-to-go market, occupied by the likes of Leon and Pret, will reach £7.7b by 2022, while the quick-service restaurant market will stand at £6.3b.

It believes that the overall food-to-go sector will grow from £17.4b in 2017 to £23.5b in 2022.

Gavin Rothwell, Senior Insight Manager at IGD, said: "Across all our five market segments we're seeing some highly innovative product and menu development, much of this inspired by shopper trends towards health and wellness and global flavours and tastes.

"Food-to-go specialists are really setting the pace on product innovation and range development, as well as expanding quite rapidly outside London, which is why we're forecasting them to become the biggest part of the food-to-go market by the end of 2022."

He added that health and wellness was becoming an increasingly important focus, with 76% of shoppers satisfied with the choice of healthy options available in-store, higher than any other segment of the food-to-go market.

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