Vegan meals are the UK’s fastest growing sector of the takeaway market, with a 388% growth in vegan takeaway orders between 2016 and 2018, according to latest figures from BTC, an umbrella group launched by Just Eat in 2017.
With consumer demand for vegan, vegetarian and healthy options increasing, 90% of takeaway restaurants now offer vegetarian options and more than half cater to gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan customers.
The report found that changes in consumer trends are leading to healthier options. Over a third of takeaway restaurants give customers calorie and nutritional information, with 73% of takeaway restaurants offering a choice on portion sizes and 50% offering low-salt options.
Meanwhile the sector has seen significant growth, with total consumer spending on takeaways rising from £10.6bn in 2015 to £12.5bn in 2018. Meanwhile, the number of dedicated takeaways has risen from 30,189 in 2015 to 37,732 in 2018.
The use of technology has been vital to the growth of the sector with new and innovative ideas for small, independent takeaway’s seeing, among other developments, nearly 35,000 takeaways and restaurants now using online apps.
BTC chair Ibrahim Dogus said: “Over the last three years the takeaway sector has transformed. Go back twenty years or so and the choice of food-to-go on the local high street was typically limited to just a few cuisines – an Indian curry, an Italian pizza, a Chinese chow mein, an American burger or some fish-n-chips.
“Now over 100 cuisines are available at a click of a button- from Japanese sushi or Kurdish kebabs to Lebanese mezze and Ghanian jollof rice, so many UK towns and cities have food from all corners of the world available on their doorstep.
The report also found that:
Consumer spending
- The average household spent £38 per month on takeaways in 2018 – a 25 percent rise on the last decade.
- Takeaways now account for almost 15 percent of household expenditure on food, an increase from nearly 11 percent in 2015.
The state of the takeaway sector
- The number of takeaway restaurants is up 25 percent since 2015 – from 30,189 to 37,732.
- The number of jobs is up 5 percent since 2015 – from 273,961to 286, 798
- 40% of takeaway owners are first-time entrepreneurs.
- £5.9 billion of additional direct wealth was created for the UK economy in 2018 as well as a further £3.2 billion through its supply chain and £3.2 billion from spending by those employed in the sector.
- The value created by takeaways makes up almost 12% percent of the entire food services industry
