The second edition of Casual Dining – the award winning trade event for the UK’s pub, restaurant and bar sector – has been hailed a big success. Brilliant, lively, informative, refreshing, and relevant – is just some of the feedback received from visitors so far; with Paul Pavli, operations director at Punch Taverns calling it “a must attend event”.
The show, which took place at the Business Design Centre in London last month, on 25-26 February, featured over 150 exhibitors and welcomed 3,608 attendees (from nearly 2,000 companies). Notably, over 30% of visitors cited a corporate spend of over £500k (a further 21% of survey respondents quoted over £5 million).
Casual Dining Design Awards 2015
Other show highlights included the announcement of the winners of Casual Dining’s prestigious Design Awards. Under the chairmanship of designer David Worthington, the three judges (Theo Williams, Afroditi Krassa, and Tina Norden) described the entries as producing great and exciting work, and discussed the role of design and branding in helping to create differentiation and enhancing visitor experience within the hospitality industry.
“Design plays a key role in any restaurant environment today – whether you pay £10 or £100 a head. The casual dining scene, in particular, is incredibly creative and over the last years has led the restaurant design world with its energy and new ideas,” says Tina Norden, project director at Conran and Partners.
This year’s shortlist included selected interior design projects from over 40 finalists; including high street brands like ASK Italian, Carluccio’s, GBK, Nando’s, Pizza Hut, Red’s, and Tortilla.
Faced with an extremely high standard of entries, The Perfectionists’ Café, Heathrow Terminal 2 (operated by The Fat Duck Ltd, designed by AfroditiKrassa) won over the judges in the Best Designed Independent Restaurant category. Praising the design’s attention to detail, the judges said they loved the way the space had been laid out and constructed.
Alston Bar & Beef in Glasgow Central Station (operated by Glendola, designed by Jestico + Whiles), and Smack Lobster Roll Deli in London (operated by Goodmans, designed by DesignLSM) were both also highly commended.
Hare & Tortoise in Chiswick (operated by Bronzemarch Trading Ltd, designed by SAY Architects) took away the winning trophy for Best Designed Multiple Restaurant. Summing up their decision, the judges said the design was “beautiful, simple, and elegant”.
Wagamama Uxbridge (designed by Blacksheep) was highly commended in the same category.
The Fable in London (operated by Drake & Morgan Collection, designed by Fusion Design and Architecture) was awarded highly commended in the Best Designed Casual Dining Pub category. After much debate by the judges, no overall winner was selected this year.
Casual Dining Innovation Challenge Awards 2015
Designed to promote and celebrate genuinely new ideas in the market, including new innovations and new twists on established concepts – the Innovation Challenge Live saw 12 finalists pitch their ideas to a panel of industry judges on the second day of the show.
Casual Dining Innovation Challenge Gold Award recipients were Aryzta Food Solutions UK for Bun Appetit – a new Pretzel Burger Bun made using traditional pretzel baking methods; and Gram UK for Superior Plus 72 – claimed to offer operators with the most energy efficient refrigeration available on the market.
Commended entries include It’s A Wrap’s Printed Grease Proof Paper, L’Aquila’s Roasted Tomatoes Au Natural, Manitowoc Foodservice UK’s Convotherm 4, Millenium Foodservice UK’s Individual Gluten-Free Pastry Cases, and Purbeck Ice Cream’s Dorset Wasabi Ice Cream.
Casual Dining Keynote Theatre
Alongside the show’s bustling exhibition, the Casual Dining Keynote Theatre was a hive of activity throughout. Powerful Keynotes – led by a stellar line-up of industry big hitters, including Karen Forrester (TGI Friday’s), Stephen Holmes (ASK Italian and Zizzi), and Alasdair Murdoch (GBK), enjoyed standing room only crowds. Whilst panel sessions hosted by CGA Peach, Propel Info and David Coffer Lyons sparked plenty of insightful debate from entrepreneurial operators like Martin Morales (Ceviche), Harald Samuelsson (Côte), Brandon Stephens (Tortilla), Simon King (Burger and Lobster restaurant group), Alex Reilley (Loungers), Kevin Charity (Bulldog Hotel Company), and Tim Foster (Yummy Pub Company).
Big name buyers and exhibitors
The show’s aisles were buzzing with a ‘who’s who’ of the sector, with many of the UK’s biggest pub and restaurant groups in attendance – including The Restaurant Group (owner of restaurant chains Frankie & Benny’s, Chiquito and Garfunkel’s); Mitchells and Butlers; Marston’s; Prezzo; wagamama; Giraffe; Strada; Byron; Fuller, Smith & Turner; Greene King, Stonegate Pub Co; Whitbread; Spirit Pub Company; Young’s; Carluccio’s; Pizza Hut Restaurants, and Casual Dining Group (the new name for Tragus, owner of the Bella Italia and Café Rouge brands).
More than 1,200 independents (including restaurants, bars, pubs and hotels) were also represented, as were big contract caterers like BaxterStorey, Bidvest 3663, Elior UK, Compass Group, and Sodexo.
A thriving market
Casual Dining is big business in the UK – and with growing consumer confidence and spending, it’s set to get even bigger. According to Peter Backman, managing director of the insights firm Horizons (and host of the show’s opening Keynote), “the casual dining market is thriving” and now worth over £7bn.
“This is certainly the most intense and ferocious period in licensed hospitality I can remember, with sophisticated operators expanding and evolving to meet the demands of increasingly savvy customers,” says Kate Nicholls, chief Executive of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR), during her session at the show.
“They say that talent thrives during periods of adversity and, as we emerge from a recession, the very best and brightest in the sector are making a name for themselves,” she says. Discussing the ALMR’s 2014 Benchmarking Report, she said that licensed hospitality was “outgrowing the wider economy”, with “food-led and town centre venues seeing 9.8% like-for-like growth”. Nicholls also revealed that 1,000 new restaurants opened in 2014, with a further 1,000 predicted for this year.
Casual dining formats predicted to thrive in 2015 included all day/flexible, premium fast food, premium casual dining, and street food/pop-ups.
King of Craft
Innovation is also key to the success of the growing craft beer and cider markets – currently enjoying their biggest renaissance in years. Attendees were able to enjoy tasting sessions from all eight of the Craft Beer & Cider Showcase exhibitors in the new Drinks Innovation Theatre. Bru Ri, an Indian Pale Ale (IPA) brewed by Bru Brewery in Ireland, was the recipient of Casual Dining’s first ever ‘King of Craft’ Award (voted for by visitors to the show).
Save the date for 2016
Looking ahead to 2016, around 80% of exhibition space has already been reserved, with many exhibiting companies having already requested to increase the size of their stands. To accommodate growing demand, organiser Diversified Communications UK has also revealed that exhibition space will be expanded to include more of the Upper Feature Level at the Business Design Centre next year.
The expansion will grow the show from 151 to around 190 exhibiting companies for its third edition. They’ll be in great company, as 87% of surveyed visitors have already indicated that they intend to revisit when the show returns to the Business Design Centre in Islington, London, on 24-25 February 2016.
Next year’s Casual Dining will also feature the launch of the recently announced Casual Dining Restaurant & Pub Awards, which will take place on the evening of the show’s opening day – Wednesday 24 February.
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