Providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date information and analysis of the COVID-19 and Food & Drink market, including the behaviours, preferences and habits of the consumer.
While scratch cooking and baking boomed while people were confined to their homes for much of 2020 and the first half of 2021, it is surprising how eager many young people are to continue with these activities when restrictions ease. 36% and 34% of under-35s plan to do more cooking from scratch and baking respectively compared to before the pandemic. The continued appeal of these trends will be underpinned by health and emotional drivers, more home-centric lifestyles as more people work remotely and an improved culinary knowhow among the younger generation.
The value of food sales through retail shot up by 8.6% year-onyear in 2020 to reach £93.1 billion, owing to the seismic shift in calories consumed from foodservice and catering to retail during the pandemic. While the market will fall from its peak, sales will continue to be elevated from their pre-pandemic projections. Meanwhile, both the non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks categories’ overall sales were hit by the demise of the on-trade in 2020, with annual value declines of 21% and 27% respectively, but will start to rebound from 2021.
The long-term shift to home-based working threatens food and drink retail categories that cater to on-the-go consumption and rely heavily on impulse purchasing. These typically high-cost products are not expected to fully regain ground from the larger, better value formats ideal for at-home consumption, suppressing average prices. This change to working habits will also hamper the on-trade drinks market’s recovery.
The accelerated trends around wellness fuelled by COVID-19 offer lucrative opportunities for the food and drink market. Widespread concerns around weight will provide some much needed reinvigoration for the ‘diet’ food and drink market and pave the way for more innovation in L/N/R products and formats promoting portion control. Meanwhile, forging associations with emotional benefits would be timely given the heightened appeal of ‘mood foods’.
Read on to discover more details or take a look at all of our Food and Foodservice market research.
Brands: Wall’s, Morrisons, Go Ahead, McVitie’s, Swizzels, Barratt, Bonds of London, Viabiotics, BumbleZest, Fungtn, Marks and Spencer, Fever-Tree, Taste the Difference, Aldi, Warburtons, Hovis, School of Wok, Mr Kipling, Smirnoff, Kopparberg, Lidl, Smarties.
Written by Emma Clifford, a leading analyst in the Food & Drink sector, her extensive knowledge delivers in-depth commentary and analysis to highlight current trends and add expert context to the numbers.
Despite the inevitable fall of retail food and drink sales from their 2020 peak, pandemic-related factors, especially the new era of remote working, will keep these elevated above their pre-COVID levels. The ongoing revival of scratch cooking/baking and the shift towards shared household meals, as well as the accelerated trends around healthy eating, ‘mood foods’, sustainability and buying British stand out as key themes for companies to harness.
Emma Clifford
Associate Director – Food and Drink Research
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