Catering has been on the rise…until now

Off-premise catering reached an impressive $64 billion in 2019, up from $58 billion just two years earlier, according to research firm Technomic.

And check out these encouraging stats from 2020:

As of late April, 37% of operators were targeting new catering business, even if it looked a bit different.
40% were promoting their catering menus as family meals, smartly leaning into existing packaging and food offerings.
27% had expanded their catering menus to include grocery items.

With many people working from home for the foreseeable future, social catering will likely surpass the traditional office meal.

…even still…

There are creative ways to keep both types of catering going this year.

Social catering

Repurpose your corporate catering packages as family meals. Perfect for potlucks at home or dinner and a movie night.

Offer meal prep and pantry items such as pre-chopped veggies, flour, and other provisions. 24 Carrots Catering & Events is a great example of how to start serving customers at home.

Promote individually wrapped meals for…

Outdoor summer parties, practiced with social distancing, depending on state regulations
Drive-by parties like birthdays, graduations, engagements, weddings, and anniversaries. See Sweet Daze Dessert Bar’s take on the drive-by birthday concept:

Corporate catering

“One of the keys will be watching how long it will take to restore the type of face-to-face meetings that used to drive business catering.” — Melissa Wilson, Technomic

Valid concern, but don’t just wait for things to return to normal! Here are some creative ways to keep business catering going right now:

Work-from-home (WFH) catered meals for big company events, such as a quarterly/annual meeting, town hall, Employee Appreciation Day or awards ceremony.

Keep in mind the margins will be much higher if you drop off at the office and let employees drive by to pick up the food versus delivering to employees’ homes 1:1.
Another option is to let the organization pre-pay and then give employees special promo codes to order through your delivery service.

Catered meals for essential workers such as hospital employees, police officers and government officials.

According to Austin-based Happy Chicks, catering business is back to about 10% to 15% in the past month, with most orders coming from construction companies, research labs and the medical industry.
You could even offer single meals for frontline workers that are sponsored by customers like this:

In late March, Kroger’s Columbus, Ohio, division placed a $50,000 catering order of more than 4,000 Donatos pizzas to feed its employees, the largest single pizza order in Donatos’ history:

For those who have returned to the office, consider a contactless catering solution like ezCater’s Relish. Many office buildings with cafeterias may no longer be an option for employees. Instead, turn to a contactless delivery service with individually wrapped meals.

Learn more here (not an affiliate link!)