The online catering marketplace, ezCater, published The Catering Opportunity: Understanding a $60+ Billion Market, a comprehensive report on the U.S. catering market with in-depth data and insights to help restaurants develop successful catering strategies.
The report combines insights from a new survey conducted in partnership with Technomic, a leading foodservice industry research firm, with data from millions of orders placed on the ezCater Marketplace. Technomic surveyed more than 450 foodservice leaders representing 45,000 restaurant locations on their attitudes about, experience with and investment plans for catering.
Key findings include:
- Catering is growing 50 percent faster than the overall restaurant industry, with business catering driving much of the growth.
- 90 percent of restaurants consider catering important to their business.
- 91 percent of respondents who reported increasing catering revenues are investing in their catering operations, with top investments in personnel (34 percent), technology (25 percent), and marketing (24 percent).
- Demand for catering is coming from a wide range of industries, with healthcare, finance, IT/technology, advertising and construction among the top 10 sources of orders.
- The average check size of a catering order is $283.
- Large orders drive efficiencies in food and labor costs, which drive a larger portion of dollars to the bottom line than smaller consumer orders.
“Catering is different,” said David Meiselman, Chief Marketing Officer at ezCater. “It’s huge, it’s driving significant incremental profit and it’s growing fast. Our goal for this report was to shine a light on what sets catering apart, what business catering customers want and which catering investments are being made by the brands that are growing the fastest in the market. We’re excited to provide restaurant operators with critical insights to help build and grow profitable catering businesses.”
To download The Catering Opportunity: Understanding a $60+ Billion Market, visit cateringdata.com.
