Back-to-school weather, purchasing criteria, packaging…GECO Food Service deciphers the subjects that drive the sector

« The JOPs proved one thing to us: when we want to do something exceptional in our country, we succeed despite difficulties and doubts. », smiles Michel Sanson. Elected president of GECO Food Service last year, he participated in rewriting the missions and values ​​of the association, which plays a role of scout in order to support its members towards an innovative, agile and responsible logic. A positioning that is more essential than ever: out-of-home catering still suffers from consumers’ degraded perception of their purchasing power, despite a rather positive economic context. Indeed, inflation has slowed to reach +2.7% in 2024, while GDP increases by +0.8% (source Banque de France), with also an improvement in household morale in August. Not enough to boost consumption: since the end of 2023, the French have entered into a logic of precautionary behavior. They therefore monitor their current expenses and scrutinize prices: 59% of people surveyed by Circana last May declared that prices in restaurants had increased too much for them… which has a direct impact on their frequency of visits, reaching 4.6 billion visits in the first half of 2024 compared to 5.1 billion over the same period in 2019 (CREST Circana panel source). In total, 7.4 billion meals were served away from home in 2023 in France in commercial and collective catering, in 282,300 establishments and points of sale. However, food and catering represent a small part of the budget (14% for food, 6% for hotels and restaurants in 2021 according to INSEE): there is an oversensitivity among consumers on the subject of price. Beyond economic variables, the sector has suffered from external elements such as poor weather.

In this context, certain channels are doing well, such as collective catering (stable thanks to its attractive quality/price ratio), but also bakeries and pastry shops (1st contributor to the increase in visits to fast food restaurants), supermarkets or ethnic catering.

Both breakfast and gourmet breaks are developing, being inexpensive and finding their place in ever more nomadic habits, with more unexpected behaviors. However, we can also observe that cafes, bars and brasseries are regaining popularity, which shows that consumers like to sit down when they go out,” notes Frédérique Lehoux, general director of GECO Food Service.

The JOPs will not have brought any improvement, attendance remaining limited to establishments close to the competition venues and bringing a public reluctant to spend due to other costs (travel, accommodation). Parisians have, for their part, massively left the capital.

Faced with inflation, the purchasing habits of restaurateurs are changing

The combination of these constraints has a direct effect on the investments and supplies of restaurateurs. The Strateg’eat firm, in partnership with Shenkuo Business Partners, carried out a study on behalf of GECO Food Service in order to analyze and understand the purchasing criteria in commercial catering. Carried out among 800 independents and chains, it made it possible to identify five typologies of actors, characterized by their main concerns. “A quarter of the market (26%) is focused on price. These are mainly operators from the bakery, collective or fast food sectors, whose budgets are more constrained. Thus, they are very sensitive to promotions and clearance sales,” explains Nicolas Nouchi, head of the Strateg’eat firm. Next come products (23%), brands/suppliers/manufacturers (16%), services (11%) and constraints (5%). Clear differences emerge in expectations depending on the activity or the size of the company. “Commercial catering structures are more sensitive to price on non-food items, while chains favor brands, which are losing ground overall, due to their ability to support them with service and advice. » Inflation will have reinforced concerns about prices, with a strong appetite for stability. “Blocked prices constitute a major expectation, because they provide visibility,” notes the consultant, who was also able to observe the difficulty for professionals to estimate the fair price of each reference: “Only 25% of operators declare themselves in ability to do this on all products, the knowledge being more marked on raw raw materials. »

On the distributor side, these are the services that stand out as essential, the trauma of the Covid period not being far away: regularity, availability, assortment, responsiveness… all major points to guarantee the sustainability of the commercial relationship. More broadly, it is the very position of companies with regard to purchasing that is unpleasant: “ The user is alone in his purchasing behavior. Restaurateurs don’t like this aspect of their job. Other countries approach this task differently, such as in Denmark where it is worked on as a team. “. Subjects such as CSR still remain sales and communication arguments, especially in commercial catering, which is not subject to regulatory requirements similar to those applicable to the collective side.

The catering industry is racing in the face of erratically deployed regulations

This famous CSR nevertheless has ever more marked impacts on the daily lives of operators in the sector. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) indeed induces new charges: as soon as a company generates waste, it must contribute to the management of this waste, which materializes in an eco-contribution to be paid to finance the eco-design, recyclability, or even reuse. Thus, restaurateurs will ultimately have to contribute to three different REP sectors (REP Household Packaging – 80% of the packaging used by restaurateurs, REP Catering Packaging – 20% of the sector’s packaging, REP EIC). “The logic of our members is very different from that of companies in the retail sector. The packaging is functional and designed for a restaurant user, it is part of the process and does not change for cosmetic reasons. This implies that the transition movement will be slower than in retail, in addition to having to respect the operational constraints of each company,” says Frédérique Lehoux.

This complexity is accompanied by a lack of visibility on the contribution for next year, in addition to the possible merger between REP Emballages Restauration and REP EIC or the redefinition of product scopes induced by the European PPWR regulation. GECO Food Service alerted the public authorities on the subject before the summer, prompting the reaction of the CITEO and CITEO PRO organizations and making it possible to initiate a constructive dialogue. “There is a French paradox: agri-food and non-food companies want to engage in this dynamic, they know that it is essential. Everyone is listening and wants visibility. On the other hand, the project is carried out in an unprofessional manner, sometimes with contempt,” says Michel Sanson. A change in method is as urgent as it is necessary: ​​food service companies need to know changes in contribution (or at least trajectories) at least six months in advance in order to be able to construct their prices (since the impact could amount to hundreds of thousands of euros) and respond to public markets, while being better involved in the process. Operation will also need to be simplified. “ The current system is too cumbersome, many companies are getting lost, which poses the risk that they will give up contributing » and be accompanied by appropriate communication in order to increase everyone’s understanding. “ GECO will be engaged and looking forexcellence on the subject, with high standards linked to economic and societal issues », concludes the president. Enough to predict a surge in debates for the months to come…

Rémi Héluin