We are forecasting significant growth in the UK food-to-go market in the next few years. In this article we talk about how thinking about the different food-to-go missions can help to unlock new opportunities in this market.

Our recently released food-to-go market forecasts predict that by 2021 the market will be worth £21.7bn compared to £15.1bn in 2015. This significant growth not only makes it a market with significant opportunities, but also reflects the changing way in which shoppers shop for, and consume, food and drink.

Our ShopperVista data shows that shoppers claim to be shopping 26 times a month on average. However, this number does not take into account the food-to-go missions they may be undertaking in places such as coffee shops or food-to-go specialists.



Source: IGD research Base: All main grocery shoppers, Aug 14 – 16th 2015

Lunch is the most popular food-to go mission, our ShopperVista research shows that 70% of the UK adult population have bought something for lunch on-the-go in the last month. Just over half of shoppers (56%) bought a sandwich or wrap as part of their lunch mission, however the wide range of other products and categories which feature in the lunch mission reflect the diverse nature of the mission.

What are shoppers buying as part of the lunch mission?



Source: IGD research, Omnibus survey of 2,000 UK respondents, nationally representative and Online Community

While lunch will continue to be a very important food-to-go mission, there are also a number of other key food-to-go missions to consider. Working with shoppers we defined five top food-to-go missions:



Source: IGD research, Omnibus survey of 2,000 UK respondents, nat rep and Online Community

One way to unlock the opportunity with food-to-go is to increase the relevance of the offer beyond specific meal occasions and times. The snack food-to-go mission specifically highlights this opportunity. More than one in five (22%) snack on the go shoppers claim to have spent between £3 and £5 on their last trip. Shoppers are buying sweet and savoury snacks as well as fruit, soft drinks and hot food as part of this mission highlighting the broad way in which shoppers define a snack and the subsequent opportunity that provides for different products and categories.

Exploring food-to-go missions will be one of the topics we explore at the Food-to-Go Conference later this year, book your place here.