The boozy lunch is making a comeback, with new figures showing beer, cider and wine gaining share of consumption at lunchtime while soft drink share declines.
The figures, from M&C Allegra Foodservice’s EatingOut Panel Q3 2015 Report, show lunchtime bucking the trend of an overall decline in alcohol consumption.
Alcohol share of lunchtime drinks up to 14% (+2%)
The figures, compiled from over 18,000 in-depth online interviews each quarter and continuous surveys, show beer and cider accounting for 8.1% of total drinks consumed across all channels at lunch – up from 7% in Q3 2014. Wine represented 5.1% of drinks sold, compared to 4.1% a year ago. At the same time consumption of Cola dipped from 10.4% of total drinks to 9.5% while fruit juice fell from 6.4% to4.6%.
In total, alcohol increased its total share of lunchtime drinks to 14% (+2%), while soft drinks (including tap water) fell 3% to 51.4%. Hot drinks maintained its position at 34.6% of the total with coffee remaining the most ordered drink overall.
Chain restaurants the driver
The results from the EatingOut Panel show it was chain restaurants which were the driver of lunchtime alcohol sales with a 6 percentage points rise year-on-year. In this category it was beer and cider which saw the biggest sales boost, accounting for 10.1% of sales, up from 6.1% in Q3 2014. In pub restaurants beer and cider sales, although still dominating the share of total drinks, fell from 34.1% of the total in 2014 to 31.7% this year, however wine sales accounted for 13.1% compared to 11.5% in 2014.
Growth in wine and beer and cider
Gareth Nash, head of consumer insight at M&C Allegra Foodservice said: “Alcohol consumption has been falling for quite some time now so the figures from M&C Allegra Foodservice’s latest Eating Out Report will be welcome news for the on-trade. There are opportunities for alcohol to benefit from the growing eating out market and we are seeing that coming through most clearly at lunch time.
“What’s interesting is that the growth isn’t just in wine but beer and cider. It seems that the recent resurgence in cider and the growing interest in craft beer have given that segment a lift. You are seeing operators making a much conscious effort recently to match food with beers and ciders, as well as wine, and clearly that is paying off.”
Alcohol share falls in the evening
The latest figures from the EatingOut Panel show the positive news for the on-trade does not extend into the evening, where alcohol’s share of total drinks fell 7 percentage points to 38.4% of the total compared to the 8% lift for soft drinks to 51.7%. Hot drinks were again flat at 9.9% of the total.
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