New BrandTrack Plus reveals important spending patterns at Britain’s eating-out brands 

Consumer spending in hospitality is holding up well despite the cost of living crisis, according to CGA by NIQ’s new BrandTrack Plus research.

The exclusive insight service shows 6.5 pence in every pound of consumers’ spending between January and July 2023 went on out-of-home eating and drinking—an increase from 6.2 pence in the same period last year.

The entertainment / leisure and travel categories also increased their share of spending, in a welcome sign that consumers remain keen to prioritise hospitality experiences even when money is tight.

The figures are revealed in the launch edition of BrandTrack Plus, CGA by NIQ’s powerful new research tool that combines consumers’ out-of-home preferences with card spending data to deliver expert analysis of engagement with key hospitality brands.

As well as highlighting more trends in consumers’ share of wallet, BrandTrack Plus provides important insights into spending at hospitality brands and their competitors, with extensive rankings of leading operators by various metrics.

Typically, consumers that visit Nando’s spend over a quarter of their restaurant budget there (27%) and 73% at other competitor restaurant brands. Ego (21%) and Pizza Hut (19%) rank second and third for restaurant groups with the highest level of consumer spending at brand relative to their competitors, while Dishoom, Hickory’s and Hawksmoor score highest for both guest satisfaction and Net Promoter Score.

The new service fuses CGA by NIQ’s long-running quarterly BrandTrack consumer survey with more than 1 billion anonymised transactions from leading bank and credit card companies to help operators benchmark performance by dayparts and track key metrics like frequency, spend per head and more.

It enhances leadership teams’ understanding of consumer behaviour and identifies ways to grow loyalty, boost engagement and gain share of spending from competitors.

Karl Chessell, CGA’s business unit director – hospitality operators and food, EMEA, said, “It’s encouraging to see that hospitality venues have increased their share of consumers’ spending this year, and it’s testament to the compelling experiences offered by Britain’s restaurants, pubs and bars.

“But in a competitive and fast-changing market, there is no room for complacency. Our data consistently shows the close correlation between satisfaction and sales, so all brands need to stay laser-focused on guest experiences and the fundamentals of hospitality.

“Cutting through the noise of data to get actionable insights is the first step to gaining share over the rest of 2023 and beyond, and our new BrandTrack Plus service is the ideal launchpad for successful strategies.”