Burgers – the eating out trend of 2015

Posted At: 03 February 2016 16:22 PM
Related Categories: Retail, Retailers

The news towards the latter end of 2015 seemed to be dominated by ‘upmarket’ burger brands either expanding their operations or making their debut in the UK market. It is therefore no surprise that analysis of 2015 booking data by Bookatable found that burger restaurants had seen the biggest increase in bookings over the last year.

A number of new burger operators, such as US brand Smashburger, are making their debut in the UK this spring on the back of the success of operators such as Five Guys and Shake Shack, both of which have also made a jump across the pond.

So what makes these burger operators so attractive? Surely a simple burger can’t give rise to this phenomenon in eating out? Apparently it can. These operators, such as British-born Gourmet Burger Kitchen, offer a large range of luxury burger options that cater not just for meat-eaters but for the vegetarians among us, with more options than your average McDonald’s or Burger King.

Perhaps this is why the likes of McDonald’s is now revamping its menus and introducing table service, and why Burger King is trialling the sale of alcohol as it looks to attract a wider customer demographic and compete with an influx of new competitors.

It will be interesting to see if the burger trend continues throughout 2016, what operators – if any – fall by the wayside, and if new eating out trends rear their head. It has been widely publicised that eating out is a growing trend in itself, but what the UK consumer will be eating remains to be seen.

Comments (0) |

Twitter