The battle between these commercial segments (fast food & casual dining ) is an old one and as old as the foodservice industry in its own right, in recent years, the competition between QSR and Fast Casual has increased and the line between these segments has begun to blur as they fight for survival and also have commercial viability to maintain a hold on the consumer base as it was and has been for sometime and the opportunity to increase profit margins, as do all businesses.
QSR concepts are stepping into the fast casual realm, and vice versa. The clear winner will be the organisation that has a clear business strategy and one that has been developed and redeveloped its strategy as the plan is rolled out, developing and maintaining these strategies is a key function we offer in our business portfolio at Stuart Lee & Associates Limited.
The consumer drives every segment within the global foodservice industry thats a given in todays world, and it’s no secret that consumers seeks to have familiarity which is a comfort for them in many ways or as i call it comfort factor! This helps explain why the fast and casual segment is so popular. In recent research 95 percent of the QSR market is made up of chains and in 2013 posted an 11 percent sales increase.
This means that consumers recognize and identify with a favoured brand and the quality of food and service offered. Consumers return to QSR operators because they feel the food is of higher quality than casual eating venues. which is a debatable in some ways, as it could be said for both either way, if a QSR operates correctly there can no fresher food and the speed they are designed to service you with if executed correctly should be second to none in customer satisfaction.
The QSR segment is unique in that it satisfies customers based on speed and accuracy. The food is fast, reasonably priced and easy to consume often on-the-go. During tough economic times, the QSR segment thrives; people don’t want to pay for sit down casual food therefore the drive-thru satisfies their needs. QSR’s have had time to study the fast casual segment and have started to “up scale” their menus in an effort to win over the fast casual sit down consumer in recent times.
Just as QSR’s are up scaling their menus, Sit down restaurants are working on speed and food quality which the key driver food along with healthy options and unique foods and services to combat the challenges they are facing with the QSR’s.
In more recent years, the use of terms like “fresh,” “handmade” and even “gluten-free” are becoming the norm around the world, Most QSR’s now offer menu items for all age groups starting with salads as “fresh-made,” for the mums and then moving across the menu board with there younger demographics and interestingly different times of the day.
There is a great deal to be learnt and digested, as the industry is continuously changing and developing not only in there food offering we are seeing more and geographical offerings moving cross the world which is not a bad situation to have its an extension of our global village that is mythically talked the world is decreasing in size, and more value added services are creeping in, where would be without wifi services?
As more research is being carried out, the results at the end of the day in my humble view the answer will always come back to a single key point, its the consumer’s decision and choice and that will only benefit us in the food industry, we will see more business growth and more companies fail which will be the organisations that simply dont understand the need of a business model that is adaptable and is constantly being monitored, to survive one needs to adapt and focus on the future, not on the past on some organisations do.
Stuart Lee & Associates are there to assist and support you, call today for a free consultation in how we can support your business development.
