Casual Dining – the hotly-anticipated trade event – proved a big hit with buyers. The two day show, which ran at the Business Design Centre in London on 26-27 February, attracted 3,655 attendees (excluding revisits) from across the casual dining sector.
Bustling trade exhibition + packed programme
Combining a bustling central trade exhibition with a packed programme of standing-room only Keynotes, Casual Dining delivered on its promise to be the dedicated event that this dynamic sector had been waiting for.
In addition to hosting the show’s awards, the Casual Dining Keynote Theatre was a hive of activity throughout. Powerful Keynotes – led by a stellar line-up of industry big hitters including Jens Hofma (Pizza Hut Restaurants), Peter Martin (CGA Peach), Simon Stenning (Allegra), Alex Reilley (Loungers), and Andrew Guy (Ed’s Easy Diner Group) – ensured that the comprehensive free education programme was one of the most commented upon features of the event.
Offering established and new casual dining operators the opportunity to meet up with existing and potential suppliers, to network, discover new products, and keep up with changing market trends, Casual Dining was hailed as a significant and overwhelming success by its organiser, Diversified Communications UK.
Busy, vibrant, relevant, innovative, excellent, and essential
More importantly, feedback from across the show floor has been full of praise for the launch. Busy, vibrant, relevant, innovative, excellent, and essential – are just some of the words attendees have used to describe the 2014 show so far; with one visiting Orkney hotelier commenting that it was “well worth the 1,500 mile round trip”.
Louise Direito, from the pipeline innovation team at YUM Restaurants International, was another satisfied attendee. “Casual Dining is an excellent show. It is great to have an event that finally brings the industry together,” she says.
“Casual Dining was packed full of quality seminars with excellent speakers and great suppliers,” agrees Paul Pavli, operations director at Punch Taverns. “It’s a trade show that I’m sure will become a must do every year.”
Anthony Pender, managing director at The Yummy Pub Co (who appeared at the show as part of the Future Directions of the Pub Sector panel, hosted by Propel Info’s managing director Paul Charity), was equally upbeat – calling Casual Dining a “welcome change” to the trade show calendar, and complimenting its “diversity of stands”. He added that he “would definitely recommend more pub operators visiting Casual Dining next year”.
In attendance were…
The show’s aisles were buzzing with a ‘who’s who’ of the sector, with many of the UK’s biggest pub groups and branded restaurant chains in attendance – including Amber Taverns, Ask Italian Restaurants, Browns Restaurant & Bar, Carluccio’s, Drake & Morgan, Enterprise Inns, Fuller, Smith & Turner, Giraffe Concepts, Gondola Group, Greene King, Hard Rock International, Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group, JD Wetherspoon, LAS Iguanas, Living Ventures, Mitchells and Butlers, Nando’s, Spirit Pub Company, T G I Fridays UK, The Restaurant Group, Tragus, Wagamama, Wahaca, Whiting & Hammond, Whyte & Brown, Yo! Sushi, and Zizzi Restaurants.
More than 1,300 independent outlets were also represented; of those, around a fifth (21%) cited a corporate spend in excess of £500,000.
Restaurants, pubs and bars, and wholesalers and distributers were by far the show’s biggest audience (31%, 23% and 15% respectively), followed by contract caterers at 12% and hotels at 9%.
Casual dining market growing
The high turnout at the show (both in terms of quality and quantity of visitors) reflects the growing popularity of casual dining within the hospitality industry. Having doubled in size in just over a decade, the casual dining market is now worth £7bn, according to Peter Backman, managing director of the insights firm Horizons (host of the show’s opening Keynote). For many, the launch of the show itself was a clear sign that casual dining was thriving and gaining in both recognition – and sales.
Casual Dining Innovation Challenge Awards 2014
Designed to promote and celebrate genuinely new ideas in the market, including brand new innovations and new twists on established concepts, the Innovation Challenge Live saw 15 finalists pitch their ideas to a panel of industry judges on the second day of the show.
Casual Dining Innovation Challenge Gold Award recipients were Haywood Drink Products for Liquor Whipped – a 14% premium vodka infused drink and dessert topping; and Purbeck Ice Cream for Dorset Blue Vinny Ice Cream – a natural and versatile ice cream made with Dorset Blue Vinny Cheese.
Winterhalter’s UC Series DeMatik warewasher was also commended for it eco-credentials.
Casual Dining returns…25-26 February 2015
Looking ahead to 2015, Diversified UK estimates that over 85% of the show’s 118 exhibiting companies will rebook (many have already requested to increase the size of their stands). Whilst growing interest from a raft of new companies ensures that exhibition space will certainly be expanded to include some of the Upper Feature Level at the Business Design Centre next year.
Casual Dining (including the Design Awards and Innovation Challenge Live) will return to the Business Design Centre, Islington, London, on 25-26 February 2015.
For more information click here