Fri 30th May 2014 - Breaking News - Top UK brands outperform US counterparts UK top 100 foodservice brands out-perform US counterparts: The UK’s top 100 pub, restaurant and foodservice brands out-performed their US equivalents in sales growth and unit number growth in 2013, a new report on the UK’s top 100 brands produced by insights and research firm Technomic has found. The UK’s top 100 brands saw sales growth of 6.4% in 2013 compared to 3.4% among the US top 500 brands. “In the US, we’re definitely seeing a maturing of the marketplace,” Technomic executive vice president Darren Tristano said. “By comparison, we’re seeing much stronger (growth) in the UK marketplace (among the leading UK brands).” Unit numbers among the top UK brands rose 4.1% compared to 2.1% among the US’s top 500 brands. Total sales among the top 100 UK brands grew to £15.5bn in 2013, which compares to a figure of £10.9bn in 2008. UK sales among the leading 100 brands are still dwarfed by the 500 leading brands in the US, which achieve total sales of $264.4bn. Total site numbers operated by the UK’s top 100 brands rose to 19,025 in 2013, which compares to 14,920 in 2008. The fastest growing segment in the full service menu category is Asian with 12.2% sales growth, followed by French (11.9%), Bar & Grill (8.4%), Italian (7.9%) and steak (6.9%). Overall, the full service category among the top 100 brands grew sales by 6.8%. The fastest growing full-service brands were Bill’s, Ed’s Easy Diner, Byron, Chimichanga and Loungers. “Bill’s proves an offer across the day-parts and is particularly popular with females,” said Tristano. Within the limited service menu category, patisserie was the fastest growing segment with 17% sales growth followed by coffee café (10.9%), Italian/pizza (8.2%) and sandwich (7.1%). Overall, the limited service menu category grew by 6.2%. The fastest-growing brands within the category were Papa John’s, Patisserie Valerie, Sayers, Costa Coffee and Itsu. The limited service burger category grew by a modest 1.6%. “The ability to grow is a struggle for some of the burger brands,” said Tristano. The fast casual category has produced a 12.6% Compound Annual Growth rate between 2008 and 2013, followed by the pub sector (10.6%), casual dining (7.4%) and quick service (5.3%). Technomic concluded that transparency is playing a more important role in consumers’ food purchasing decisions and UK menus show a battle between health and indulgence for customers’ attention. “One solution has been to give indulgent menu offerings a healthy makeover,” said Technomic vice president David Henkes. Technomic also noted an increased ranging of menu items across a broader range of price points. To obtain more information on the Technomic 100 Top UK brands report or to buy it, e-mail agreaves@technomic.com. Technomic and Propel are holding a UK and US food and beverage menu trends conference on Tuesday 10 June in London. E-mail jo.charity on jo.charity@propelinfo.com for more details