Bubba Gump opens in London today: Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, the American seafood chain that takes its inspiration from the film Forrest Gump, opens today (Wednesday) at 11am in the Trocadero in Piccadilly, central London. The 400-cover restaurant, set across two floors, will be open seven days a week, 11.30am until late. It will also have a “retail market” selling merchandise and open daily at 9am, and a bar on the first floor, plus a “Gump House” for group parties. The menu is expected to feature shrimp in 19 different styles, plus fish, steak, chicken, ribs and salad. Signature dishes include Coconut Shrimp, Lobster Linguine and Dixie Style Baby Back Ribs. Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, which was set up in 1996 and now has 33 outlets around the world, was created by Viacom, owner of Paramount Pictures, distributor of the 1994 movie Forrest Gump. The brand is now owned by the restaurant group Landry’s. Its European franchisee, Mubarak Al Hassawi Restaurant Development (UK), spent £1.85m clearing, refurbishing and fitting out the 12,000 sq ft first-floor restaurant and 1,200 sq ft ground-floor shop at the Trocadero, a space previously occupied by Planet Hollywood.

BBPA reports beer duty cuts has created 16,000 jobs: The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) has released its ‘Cheers 2014’ report, detailing how consecutive beer duty cuts have created 16,000 jobs and boosted beer sales, at very little cost to the government. The report, produced in partnership with CAMRA and SIBA, was presented to Chancellor George Osborne at the Conservative Party Conference, along with a new, special-edition beer, ‘George’s Budget Booster’, to celebrate the benefits of the duty cut. On the report itself, the BBPA commissioned Oxford Economics to examine the impact of the Budget decision to discontinue the beer duty escalator and cut two consecutive pennies off a pint in 2013 and 2014. It is forecast that by next year an additional 16,000 more people will work in the sector than if the escalator had remained in place. The successive cuts have boosted beer sales by over 500 million pints, and channeled an extra £44 million in capital investment (alongside over £400 million already planned) into the brewing and pub sector. The report also indicates that price increases have slowed since the escalator was removed. Since the Budget, prices for bitter and lager have risen by just 1%. Brigid Simmonds, BBPA chief executive, said: “The Cheers report contains really good news, on jobs, on pubs, and on investment in our industry. I hope this boost for our sector results in further action on beer duty in the March Budget. A hat-trick would do very nicely!”

Camra names Cider Pub of the Year: A traditional 16th century thatched roofed pub in a small Dorset village has walked away with the top real cider award from the Campaign for Real Ale, after being named Cider Pub of the Year. The Castle Inn, West Lulworth, has been run by the Halliday family for more than 30 years. Alex Halliday, the current landlord and the third generation of his family to run the pub, said: “It’s absolutely fantastic to win the National Cider Pub of the Year competition. We’ve been pushing real cider for years now and hope that us winning this award will put Dorset cider on the map. At any one time we have around 50 to 60 different real ciders available in the pub and we believe that once people try proper real cider they will realise how much better it is than commercially produced stuff, which often only contains around 30% apple juice.” Real cider is made from 100% natural apple juice.

Ten minutes on Tuesday with Hugh Osmond: For those who missed our breaking story yesterday afternoon, Propel has partnered marketing and PR agency Elliotts to launch a fortnightly podcast series featuring a ten minute interview with a senior industry figure. Today, Elliotts executive James Hacon interviews Hugh Osmond on his acquisition of Strada for £37m. Osmond tells Hacon about his career in hospitality, his view of current high street foodservice, which brands he particularly likes, why the time is right to invest in a restaurant business and the opportunity for Strada going forward. Last but not least, he answers speculation linking him to the acquisition of Ask Italian and Zizzi. Click on http://youtu.be/vgAaLSgd8kM

Wagamama franchisee closes Australian sites: The Australian franchise of Wagamama has entered liquidation and all of its Australian outlets are now closed, just under a year after it collapsed into voluntary administration. Nathan Landrey of FTI Consulting was appointed as liquidator of Edible Concept Holdings on 25 September, after Stephen Vaughan and Ian Hall of KPMG were appointed as administrators in October 2013. The first Wagamama store opened in Australia in 2002. At its peak, Wagamama operated as many as ten restaurants in Australia. According to details available from the former chief executive of Edible Concept Holdings, Mark Rowland, on LinkedIn, the Australian Wagamama restaurants were at one stage turning over more than A$25m (£13.5m) a year. The company said: “We are disappointed to inform you that we have recently closed all of our Wagamama restaurants in Australia. We are currently looking for a new franchise partner and we’re hoping that some of our restaurants will be re-opening soon. We will keep you updated as soon as we have any news to share.” Earlier this month Edible Concepts Holdings said it was seeking buyers for its stores, with Business Spectator reporting at the time that the company was “in talks with a number of potential buyers and other restaurant operators, both within Australia and offshore”.

Pizza Rossa launches Kickstarter campaign: Pizza Rossa, the by-the-slice pizza concept that raised £440,000 last year through the crowd-funding platform Crowdcube, breaking the European record for a start-up, is now hoping to use a campaign on another crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, to fund the next stage of its development. Its first outlet opened as a long-term pop-up in June at Leadenhall Market in the City of London, and two more venues are already scheduled to open in the autumn. Now it is looking to raise at least £2,000 through Kickstarter to buy a cargo bike, a cart and an additional oven, to increase its capacity for corporate deliveries. Corrado Accardi, founder and Managing Director of Pizza Rossa, said: “If things go spectacularly well with the campaign, we would even consider opening another pop-up in a railway station in London.” Rewards for pledgers range from free use of the Pizza Rossa shop in Leadenhall market for a pizza party for 50 people for pledging £1,000, down through a Pizza Rossa master class from the company’s head chef for pledging £250 to a Pizza Rossa apron for pledging £40 and a Pizza Rossa base for pledging £10. The campaign can be found at http://kck.st/1yx5ztw and closes on 31 October.

Chapel Down crowd-funding tops £4m mark: Fund-raising by the Kentish wine maker Chapel Down on the crowd-funding website Seedr has now hit £4.14m, which is almost three and a half times more than the original target. The offer still has a further 430 days to run, but so far the investment will secure around 14.68% of the company’s equity. Chapel Down is already well beyond the previous crowd-funding record of £2.58m raised by Seedr itself in January 2014.Chapel Down is planning to use the money raised to plant more vines to meet demand, build a new winery and a brewery as well as extending its Tenterden hospitality facility. The crowd-funding investors get a range of extra incentives including one third off wines bought direct from the winery if you have pledged more than £560. Chapel Down has 23 acres of vines across a 68-acre estate. It also owns Kent’s largest vineyard in Aylesford, and sources grapes from 13 vineyards across the south east.

Alistair Darby – ‘strong growth of our breakfast business is diluting spend-per-head’: Mitchells & Butlers’ chief executive, Alistair Darby, has told City analysts that spend-per-head at the company was being diluted by strong breakfast business growth. He said: “Our efforts to drive volume back into our business spread across a whole range of initiatives. So clearly, providing exciting menus that have got good value on them is important; attractive offers. You may recall that, at the half-year, we talked about offers such as £9.99 in Harvester where, giving people an all-inclusive deal so they know what the bill is going to be at the end of the evening is really important, so that’s obviously contributing. I think another thing I would say that will have an impact on spend per head is the growth of our breakfast business which, of course, breakfast is at a lower ticket price than say an evening meal, for example. So there’s also a bit of spend-per head dilution that is coming from the strong growth of our breakfast business.”

Wetherspoon eyes Devon coaching inn: JD Wetherspoon is in talks over taking over Manor Hotel in Cullompton, Devon (population: 7,609) in a deal worth £650,000, according to local media reports. The company was rumoured to have attempted to take over the pub in 2011 but plans fell through, but discussions about a deal have resumed since the building was vacated by tenant landlords a month ago. Jimmy Sivlal, who owns the historic coaching inn, has placed the property on the market for £650,000. The Grade I listed building in Fore Street is in need of extensive repair work.

Belfast nightclub sold for £3m: Belfast’s best-known gay nightclub, The Kremlin, has been sold for circa £3m. The venue was owned by Seamus Sweeney and Andre Graham, who opened it in 1999 and expanded it over the years. The new owner is Anthology NI, the company which has been leasing and operating the venue. The sole shareholder of Anthology NI is Anthea Wilson. She said: “We are absolutely delighted to now own the freehold of The Kremlin having been the tenant for the past five years. For us its business as usual, but with a few exciting new additions planned for the complex over the next 12 months as we expand on demand and increase our diversity.” The selling agent, CBRE, said the deal is one of the largest pub sales in Northern Ireland in recent years.

21 Hospitality Group boss Terry Laybourne to be consultant to bistro at the Lakes Distillery: Terry Laybourne, the chef-restaurateur who owns the 21 Hospitality Group in Newcastle upon Tyne, has been announced as the consultant of the planned bistro at the Lakes Distillery near Cockermouth in Cumbria. The bistro and bar, at what is to become England’s largest whisky distillery, will be housed in the converted Victorian model farm close to Bassenthwaite Lake where the distillery will be based. The bistro will seat a total of 130 inside and out, with outside heated seating in the distillery’s courtyard, and will be open from 11am to late, catering for the expected 55,000 visitors to the distillery each year, and as an evening destination for locals and visitors. It will also house the distillery’s boardroom, a private dining area for 30 people where casks of maturing whisky will be on show. Laybourne, the first chef to bring a Michelin star to north east England in 1992, an accolade he and his 21 Queen Street restaurant held for nine years, before he changed focus to develop a string of more casual bistro-style eateries, said: “I will act in an advisory role but the bistro is about the chef and his team developing a seasonal menu that will reflect innovation and passion for quality. We’re aiming to create something genuinely unique, a bistro that will take its food and service seriously, a venue we hope will become one of Cumbria’s most popular destinations.”

Eclectic aims for two more Lowlanders in next 18 months: The premium bar operator Eclectic is aiming to open two more Lowlander sites in the next 12 to 18 months. Chief executive Reuben Harley reported that the existing site in Covent Garden, central London, acquired in March this year, is trading well and the offer, with its focus on craft beer is “in vogue”. He told Propel: “We’re going through the process of looking at different sites in places like Liverpool, Manchester and London but have nothing signed yet. But I can see a couple opening in the next 12 to 18 months.” Harley also said that the company did not rule out a group acquisition. “I think what’s really good about our business is that we have a platform we can work off – we’re quite happy to look at groups of sites.”

Ulster’s Ground Espresso in multi-million expansion through Next stores: The Northern Ireland-based coffee bar chain Ground Espresso is to open three more outlets in Next stores, with another with another six cafes in Next sites yet to be finalised across Ireland. At the same time the company is making a £100,000 investment in opening two outlets in Belfast. The three named new Next outlets will be in Newry and Newtownabbey, and the company’s first opening in Dublin. Karen Gardiner, who owns the chain of stores with her husband Darren, said: “This investment in our Belfast stores marks the next chapter in the Ground story. Our concessions in Belfast are bigger and better, meeting the needs of families as well as the growing number of people who use our coffee shops as a place to conduct meetings, work and gather socially. This is a significant investment for a local company and we look forward to further investment and job creation in the coming months, with a multimillion-pound expansion plan with Next, where we have already confirmed two new sites in Newry and Newtownabbey and finalising a further six locations across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, creating in excess of 100 new jobs in the next 12 months. Plans are under way for the expansion into new stores and concessions and we are delighted to be partnering with Next to open our first store in the Republic of Ireland, where works have already commenced in the first unit in Blanchardstown and there will be an official opening in the coming weeks.” Ground Espresso currently employs more than 120 staff across 11 stores in Northern Ireland, including a concession in Waterstone’s in Belfast. It was established 13 years ago.

Beefeater brand extends £4.99 discount offer: Whitbread’s Beefeater pub restaurant brand has extended an offer of five main menu items for less than £5 to Monday 13 October. The Whitbread brand is offering a choice of gammon steak, fish and chips, lasagne, paprika chicken or cheese and tomato quiche for £4.99. Customers need to quote a code and the offer is available between midday and 5pm, Monday to Saturday. A total of around 20 sites in the Beefeater are not participating.

SSP to open licensed Starbucks at Euston Station: Transport hub foodservice specialist SSP is to open a licensed Starbucks at Euston Station in North London late this month (October). The company is advertising for a manager for the new opening on a salary of £26,000 to £28,000 plus 30% bonus.

Prezzo lines up former Strada site in Newcastle for opening: Prezzo, led by Jonathan Kaye, is to open its second site the north east of England. The company is investing £500,000 on the transformation the former Strada restaurant site in Old Eldon Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, into a Prezzo Italian restaurant, which will bring 15 new jobs. Prezzo Newcastle will join its popular venue in the Manor Walks Shopping Centre, Cramlington, which opened last year. The firm said the new venue is due to open in two months’ time.

Salt Yard group venue to host Flat Iron pop-up: Ember Yard in Soho, Central London,, the fourth venue from Salt Yard Group, will host Flat Iron, the Charlie Carroll-led restaurant brand, for a one-night pop up next Tuesday (7 October). The menu will feature ten different cuts of Dexter breed beef, from Flat Iron’s own herd in Yorkshire, offering customers the opportunity to try some rare and lesser known parts of the animal. The 34-month-old pedigree Dexter selected for the event has been on a bespoke finishing diet of barley, molasses and beer for the past nine months and will be butchered in Flat Iron’s restaurant on Denmark Street in Soho. Ember Yard specialises in Spanish and Italian methods of cooking over charcoal. Chef director Ben Tish and head chef Jacques Fourie of Ember Yard have worked with Flat Iron to experiment with a variety of techniques such as smoking and grilling to prepare the unusual cuts of meat.

Faucet Inn knocked back over bid for late-night licence for first Kupp venue: Faucet Inn has failed in its attempt to get a 1am licence for the first in its new Kupp chain in Merchant Square, Paddington, West London. Kupp is a new Scandinavian-focused “all-day casual dining” concept with plans for a minimum of ten venues between the UK and Scandinavia in the next 18 months. It will have a casual dining offer that runs from breakfast to dinner with a focus on provenance, quality and Scandinavian ingredients, coffee, premium wines and craft beers. Faucet asked Westminster Council for a licence that included on and off sales until 1am, arguing that there were no residents nearby. However, the council’s environmental health officers told its licensing sub-committee that a 1am licence would mean customers dispersing at a late hour and having to walk past residential areas to reach transport, including Paddington station. Customers would also be more likely to be speaking loudly, having left an establishment with music playing, they said. Councillors decided to grant “core hours”, meaning a terminal hour of 11.30pm Monday to Thursday, midnight Friday to Saturday and 10.30pm on Sunday. Conditions attached to the licence included that there would be no outside drinking after 9pm unless customers were seated. Faucet is also recruiting for its new £1m Neighbourhood bar and restaurant, due to open shortly in Stratford, East London, which is described as “celebrating the best of urban culture, with a diverse street food influenced menu complimented by a vibrant bar offer”.

Date set for opening of London’s fourth Roka Japanese restaurant: The Roka group is to open its fourth and largest Japanese robatayaki restaurant in London at 71 Aldwych in the last week of this month (October). The new outlet, the second London opening this year, which marks the tenth anniversary of chef-entrepreneur Rainer Becker’s flagship Roka opening on Charlotte Street in the West End, seats more than 150 customers in the restaurant and bar. The Italian designer Claudio Silvestrin, who designed Becker’s Oblix restaurant and bar, has used materials including porphyry stone, natural tanned leathers, stained grey timber and dried green oak in the interior of the Aldwych venue. Cocktails will be served in hand-made Japanese clay vessels, and Roka’s group executive chef, Hamish Brown, has created specially tailored dishes such as Japanese Wagyu beef tartar, smoked soya sauce, wasabi and Nori crackers; Langoustine and cod cheek skewers, shiso and ume boshi; and Hokkaido-style Japanese cheesecake with crispy apple wafer to sit alongside signature dishes from the Robata grill. Other Roka restaurants are in Canary Wharf and Mayfair in London, and Hong Kong.

Café Pistou set for Exmouth Market opening this month: Café Pistou, the all-day Provençal brasserie, opens on Exmouth Market towards the end of this month. Serving Provençal inspired food and drink with a focus on small plates for the table, the café, restaurant and bar will open from breakfast until late. Café Pistou also offers a weekend brunch, artisan coffee, a playfully evocative cocktail list and a wine list focussing on the south of France. The 95-cover restaurant, situated at the entrance to the famous market, features a horseshoe bar at its heart, with an additional 40 covers for outside dining. Founder Charlie McLean, previously with CAU and Gaucho, has hand-picked a specialist team to bring his vision to life. The menu was created by Alex Mackay, who trained and worked with Raymond Blanc before setting up a cookery school near Saint-Tropez and writing an award-winning book, ‘Cooking in Provence’. French cocktail specialist Anthony Bannier and coffee enthusiasts Dunne Frankowski have created a drinks offer that imaginatively reinterprets the region’s traditions and flavours. 

Manchester House wins three awards at Manchester Food and Drink Festival awards: Manchester House, the restaurant set up by Tim Bacon and Aiden Byrne, has won a hat-trick of awards at the Manchester Food and Drink Festival awards. They include Best Restaurant (taking over from The French which won last year), Best Bar and Best Newcomer. The French took the high profile Best Chef title for Adam Reid. Manchester House’s trio of awards is the first time a hat-trick has ever been won by one venue in 17 years of the MFDF event. Living Ventures boss Tim Bacon was also honoured with the Outstanding Achievement award.

Leeds Council rejects McDonald’s plans for the fifth time: Leeds Council has rejected plans for a McDonald’s fast food restaurant in Tingley for a fifth time. The company originally applied for permission to build a two-storey restaurant with a drive-through, outdoor seating and a car park on the site of the derelict White Bear pub, in Dewsbury Road in 2012. One local councillor, Neil Dawson, said: “This is a great victory for people-power and reflects the hard work put in by many local residents over the last three years. Leeds Council has backed the case put by local residents and councillors and firmly rejected the plan from McDonald’s for another out-of-town restaurant.” The application was met with numerous objections from local residents although some have questioned the absence of an alternative option for the site. Planning officers were critical of the plan’s scale, proposed access and associated noise issues.

KFC blames ‘ban’ on alcohol-based hand wipes on misunderstanding: KFC has apologised to a customer who was refused an alcohol-based hand-wipe at a restaurant trialing halal meat, saying the incident happened because of a “misunderstanding” among staff, who reportedly told the diner that the wipes could offend some Muslims. Graham Noakes, 41, told The Leicester Mercury that staff at the KFC outlet in St George’s retail park, Leicester refused to give him a hand-wipe, claiming it was against its halal policy because the wipes are soaked in an alcohol-infused liquid. Alcohol is forbidden by the Quran. However, in a statement, KFC said alcohol-based hand-wipes were approved for use in all its restaurants, including those taking part in its halal trial. It said: “There was a misunderstanding at the store in question, but the wipes are now being used again. We’re sorry for the customer’s experience.”

Southend Council hopes big-name cafe chain will take prime unit empty for a decade: A 2,000 sq ft unit opposite Southend Pier which has been empty for a decade is being marketed for the first time in the hope that it will attract a big name such as Costa Coffee or Starbucks. The circular unit, which includes open-air space for a stall on its roof, was built as part of the Pier Hill redevelopment in 2004, but never opened. It is now being marketed by the commercial letting agent Dedman Gray for Southend Council. Mike Gray, director of Dedman Gray, said: “It’s unusual to find a new unit of this size so close to the seafront, the Royals Shopping Centre and the pier itself. In terms of a seafront unit, it’s right smack among the action. We can imagine this could be one of the first occasions on the seafront where we attract one of the high street chains, like Costa or Starbucks.” The unit’s 15ft height gives space for a mezzanine floor.

British Land to develop 13 restaurants in £40m Plymouth leisure scheme: British Land has signed an agreement with Plymouth City Council to develop Drake Circus Leisure, a circa 100,000 sq ft leisure scheme next to its 570,000 sq ft Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth city centre. The £40m development will include a 12-screen cinema operated by Cineworld, 13 restaurant units and 450 car park spaces. The site currently houses a coach station which will be relocated. A detailed planning application for the scheme is now being developed and will be submitted in early 2015. The leisure development will complement Drake Circus Shopping Centre, establishing it as an evening destination and extending its trading hours, the developer said. Since its acquisition by British Land in 2011, Drake Circus has attracted a range of brands, including Apple, Fat Face and YO! Sushi. 10,000 sq ft of were agreed recently, adding new brands such as schuh Kids, Boux Avenue, Regus Express and Ed’s Easy Diner, and bringing occupancy to 100%. David Pollock, retail development director for British Land, said: “Plymouth has a very strong local catchment, and a vibrant and successful city centre, which will be further enhanced by our investment. The proposed leisure scheme creates an opportunity to take Drake Circus to the next level, and with a number of new brands added, is a very strong example of our strategy to create ‘places people prefer’. We are delighted to be working with Plymouth City Council on this project to establish Drake Circus as the West Country’s retail and leisure destination of choice.” Plymouth has a large and affluent catchment of 560,000 people and benefits from a thriving tourist trade, which welcomes 3.4 million visitors annually. The catchment has a comparison goods spend of £1.4bn and £103m catering spend potential.

Dunkin’ Donuts signs deal for stores in Austria: Dunkin’ Donuts has signed a master franchise agreement with M&D Restaurant Development to begin opening restaurants across Austria. The master franchise agreement calls for the development of 25 Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants throughout Austria over the next five years, with the first store due to open in Vienna in November, another in the Austrian capital before the end of the year and three more in the first quarter of 2015. Paul Twohig, president, Dunkin’ Donuts US and Canada, said: “Austria has a rich and vibrant coffeehouse culture, so we are very excited to announce our entry into the country. Our new master franchisee has a leadership team with a strong background in the retail industry. We look forward to partnering with them as we develop the Dunkin’ Donuts brand across Austria in the years ahead.” Dunkin’ Donuts currently has nearly 11,000 restaurants in 33 countries around the world, including nearly 150 locations across Europe, in Bulgaria, Germany, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Welcome Break to invest £8m after food sales success: Welcome Break is to spend £8m rolling out a new look at its motorway service stations after the first site with the “next generation” format, at Birchanger Green in Essex, saw a 15% year-on-year increase in sales. The site, on the M11 near Stansted, has a £1.2m makeover to create what Welcome Break said was an open, more welcoming environment, with the use of large glass windows and a triangular glass roof which lets in large amounts of natural light, new seating and a multi-screen video wall. The site, which originally opened in 1995, now features a premium food court with brands such as Tossed, Starbucks, Papa Johns, Waitrose and Subway alongside Burger King and KFC. Visitor numbers increase by more than 2,000 vehicles in the month after the revamped site’s opening, and Welcome Break saw a 20% rise in business at its new food courts and like-for-like non-fuel sales growth of around 10% across all sites. Rod McKie, chief executive of Welcome Break, said: “We see Birchanger Green as the future of the motorway service station and are thrilled with its success so far. It offers a far more relaxed, comfortable environment, with a host of great brands for the customer to enjoy, and the growth in sales demonstrates this is what the customer wants. We’re now in the process of rolling this out to other Welcome Break sites and plan for these to be similarly successful.” A revamp of the Oxford services on the M40 is now complete, with the new line-up of brands and design features in place, and South Mimms, on the M25 in Hertfordshire, is next on the list. More than £8m has already been set aside for this project for 2015. Welcome Break runs almost 30 service stations across the UK.

Fulham Shore aims for 40 Real Greek sites after £13.9m buy: Fulham Shore, the vehicle headed by restaurant veteran David Page, is to launch on AIM after a conditional agreement to acquire 99.04% of Kefi Ltd, owner of the seven-strong Real Greek Restaurant Group. Fulham Shore says there is potential for 40 Real Greek sires across the UK “and a good number of potential locations have already been identified”. A successful opening in Windsor has demonstrated the ability of the Real Greek’s model to operate successfully outside London in towns with populations of more than 20,000, Fulham Shore said. The directors are actively seeking more sites, initially in, and within manageable reach of London. An eighth Real Greek restaurant, in Berwick Street, Soho, central London, is scheduled to open in early 2015. For the year ended 29 June, 2014 Kefi generated revenues of £8.6m and a profit after tax of £800,000. The aggregate consideration for the acquisition is £13.9m, to be satisfied by the issue of 222.26 million ordinary shares and the payment of £552,000 in cash. Fulham Shore will withdraw its ordinary shares of 1p each in the company from trading on the ISDX Growth Market and seek admission to trading on AIM. It will also launch a conditional subscription to raise approximately £1.6m at 6p per ordinary share. 

Nielsen – global snacking market worth $374bn, up 2% in the past year: Consumers globally spent $374bn on snack foods annually between 2013 and 2014, a year-on-year increase of 2%, according to a global report released yesterday by Nielsen. While Europe ($167bn) and North America ($12bn) make up the majority of worldwide snack sales, annual snack sales are growing faster in the largely developing regions. Asia-Pacific ($46bn) and Latin America ($3bn) increased 4% and 9%, respectively, while sales in the Middle East/Africa ($7bn) grew 5%. Susan Dunn, executive vice-president for global professional services at Nielsen, said: “The competitive landscape in the snacking industry is fierce. Demand is driven primarily by taste and health considerations and consumers are not willing to compromise on either. The right balance is ultimately decided by the consumer at the point of purchase. Understanding the ‘why before the buy’ provides the foresight necessary to deliver the right product to the right consumer at the right time.” The Nielsen Global Survey of Snacking polled more than 30,000 online consumers in 60 countries to identify which snacks were most popular around the world and which health, taste and texture attributes were most important in the selection criteria.