Delivery and takeaway sales soar ahead of hospitality's reopening

16 April 2021

Delivery and takeaway sales continued to rise in March as consumers filled the void left by restaurant, pub and bar closures, CGA’s new Hospitality at Home Tracker shows.

The exclusive monitor of at-home sales from the UK’s leading hospitality groups shows that orders in March were 9% up on February. As well as deliveries and takeaways, orders include at-home food and drinks kits, which have soared in popularity in lockdown.

March’s sales were 346% higher than in the same month in 2019, when the sector was fully operational for eating out. Growth has been fuelled particularly by deliveries, accounting for more than 62% of operators’ sales.

Orders are expected to reduce as hospitality venues start to reopen over the next few weeks. But with record numbers of both consumers and operators engaged with the at-home market, sales are likely to continue to run well ahead of levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Consumers who have been kept at home for so long have embraced hospitality at home to make up for lost eating and drinking out experiences, and orders have been a lifeline for many brands while their venues are shut,” says Karl Chessell, CGA’s business unit director - hospitality operators and food, EMEA.

“The big question now is the extent to which habits of lockdown have become engrained in consumers’ behaviour, as venues re-open and they start to return to eating and drinking out. For all brands, understanding the balance between out-of-home and at-home preferences, and adjusting marketing and operational activity accordingly, is going to be a key consideration in the months ahead.”

CGA’s Hospitality at Home Tracker is the authoritative new source of data and insight for the delivery and takeaway market. It provides monthly reports on the value and volume of sales, with year-on-year comparisons and splits between food and drink revenue as well as a benchmark by which brands can measure their out-of-home sales performance, and participants receive detailed data in return for their contributions.