The fast food market - United Kingdom

Fast food is defined as food that is prepared quickly and which is ready to be taken away for consumption. This market study includes all types of fast food restaurants, stalls, and tea shops. It does not include retail sales through vending machines. The global fast food market has experienced years of positive growth, driven mainly by emerging markets and the increasing penetration of fast food restaurants, together with higher disposable income. On the other hand, the US’s growth has been low whilst Europe demonstrated moderate growth. In the UK, the fast-food industry has been growing strongly over the last couple of years, cannibalizing on the sales of traditional diners. This growth has been driven by a wider product offering as well as susceptibility to societal trends, including healthier products. The UK fast food market is highly fragmented with a large supply of different chains and independent distributors within different food segments such as pizza, burgers, tacos, and sandwiches. Notable market players include McDonalds, Starbucks, Costa, and Domino’s. Trends within fast food are impacted by the growing health consensus in society; in response to this, several distributors for example offer vegan friendly meals together with alternatives which are less rich in sugar, fat, and salts. For example, in 2019 Deliveroo reported a 168% year-on-year increase of vegan restaurants on its platform. [aviko]