Delivery gains ground as Euros and summer heat shape spending habits: Britain’s leading managed restaurant groups have seen a year-on-year (YOY) increase of 9.4% for delivery sales, CGA by NIQ’s latest Hospitality at Home Tracker reveals. July saw another consecutive month of unbroken sales growth, reflecting sustained consumer demand for delivery options, despite a deceleration from the double-digit growth recorded in May and June. Conversely, takeaway and click-and-collect sales remain static, with a slight decline of -0.2% in July compared to the same month last year. This is a marginal improvement from the -1.1% decline in June, suggesting the rate of decline is slowing. Overall, combined delivery, takeaway, and click-and-collect sales in July 2024 were 5.3% higher than in July 2023. This represents the 14th consecutive month of YOY growth for the sector, further solidifying its resilience despite shifting consumer behaviours and external economic pressures. The split between food and drink sales in the delivery and takeaway channels has remained stable, with food sales comprising 90.3% of the total and drink sales accounting for 9.7%. This consistency highlights the ongoing preference for home-delivered meals over other options. The comparison with July 2023 sales highlights shifting consumer preferences, with consistent delivery sales growth indicating convenience and in home dining is firmly in favour. While delivery sales growth has cooled slightly from June’s Euros spike, it remains clear consumers value the convenience of having meals brought directly to their doorsteps. Additionally, consumers are taking advantage of the good weather to enjoy meals on the go, or as a more budget-friendly option during a month when many focused their spending on events like the Euros tournament and Olympic Games. Karl Chessell, director at CGA by NIQ, said: “Looking ahead, restaurants can continue to capitalise on these trends by offering versatile menu options catering to both delivery and takeaway customers. Plus, seamless customer experiences are crucial for maintaining this positive momentum, from online ordering to timely delivery. Furthermore, pushing drinks remains an opportunity to up-sell and generate incremental sales that are easily added to food-based orders, while offering consumers greater choice than they are likely to have available at home.”

‘Radical rethink of hiring practices needed to help tackle sector’s staffing crisis’: A radical rethink of hiring practices is needed to help tackle the sector’s ongoing staffing crisis, a new report has suggested. It outlines findings from the two-year Westminster Works scheme, funded by Westminster City Council, which supported more than 400 businesses and saw 27,000 candidates register interest in job vacancies. The report said while the initial goal of the scheme was to attract more candidates into the industry, it soon became clear that a lack of appetite was not the problem as more than 7,000 people registered interest during the first six weeks. The focus instead turned to the methods businesses were using to hire entry level candidates. A new approach involving ‘experiential recruitment’ and bespoke training modules for candidates with no previous hospitality experience was trialled, with a first of its kind ‘recruitment restaurant’ event run at Westminster Kingsway College. This allowed candidates to take part in live trial shifts and secure on-the-spot interviews for vacant roles. Jackie Bedford, chief executive at Step Ahead, one of the key delivery partners in the initiative, said: “In the early days of the scheme, we quickly realised that the key to attracting and retaining quality staff was not in making the roles more desirable to candidates, but in changing the way businesses approach recruitment. Outdated, CV based applications were causing many people with huge potential and the right personal attributes to be overlooked due to lack of past experience, so this was something we set about to change.” Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, added: “It goes to show the benefit that can be had by looking at existing recruitment practices and trying new methods, with those tested in this scheme clearly providing benefit for both applicants and businesses. Hospitality provides jobs for everyone, whether you have previous experience in the sector or not, and I hope insight from this scheme can enable more people to embark on a rewarding and exciting career in hospitality.” Westminster is home to more than 3,700 restaurants, bars and cafes and a further 4,000 leisure businesses, supporting around 120,000 jobs in the city.