The foodservice industry will win its battle to claim a majority share of the US food dollar by 2010, according to a new report. Over the next 10 years foodservice will build up a 51% share in a market which by then will be worth an estimated $934bn. And in some US cities, eating away from home will account for nearly 60% of food expenditure, said John Gray, president of the International Food Service Distributors Association, which commissioned the McKinsey report. The Scottish Food and Drink conference was told that trends in the US inevitably found their way across the pond to the UK. Gray told the conference the growth would be fuelled by a number of factors including the fact the nation was getting older, richer, had more women working, and an ethnic community increasingly prepared to eat away from home. However, a lot of growth will come from the 36 million Generation Y' consumers, today aged between 15 and 25 and who spend 50% to 55% of their cash on food away from home. "This group is learning early not to cook but to eat out," said Gray. However it's not all bad news for retailers. Gray said the baby boomers would "rediscover the kitchen as a form of recreation" and would start buying more stuff from grocery stores. Supermarket foodservice operations will enjoy growth of 3.8% up to 2010, when they will generate sales of $18bn. And c-stores, which have been investing heavily in food to go, will see their share of the foodservice market climb by 3.1% to $9bn. "These c-store gas stations are the centre of life for many smaller towns in the mid west," said Gray. {{NEWS }}

Topics