Over the past decade, fast casual and supermarket prepared foods have been the fastest growing foodservice industry segments. For different reasons, they have resonated with consumers and gained hard-earned market share. While they continue to grow, the segments are experiencing a definite and, some might say, surprising slowdown.
In the case of fast casual, several factors seem to explain the downturn:
• Too much reliance on new units vs. same store sales for growth. The segment has been opening about 2,000 new units per year. This has led to a supply and demand imbalance.
• Saturation in the “better burger” and, arguably, sandwich and pizza categories. We are now seeing signs of a shake-out in the fast casual pizza category.
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