Limited-Service Restaurants in Asia Pacific

Delivery

This report comes in PPT.

Key findings

Home delivery sales spike during the pandemic

The LSR channel was able to weather the pandemic better than most other areas of foodservice, helped by the fact that many players were already set up for takeaway or home delivery, which could easily substitute eat-in during periods when COVID-19 case numbers were spiking. Home delivery will continue growing over the forecast period, although LSR players are likely to increasingly move away from third party delivery services, which cut into their margins, and launch D2C ordering systems as they look to keep costs down.

Japanese convenience store LSR expand their offer

As Japan’s convenience store LSR see increasing competition from other foodservice players, they are expanding their own offer. For example, Lawson launched Yaki-imo, a slow-baked sweet potato that is a common winter snack traditionally sold through food trucks/carts, while Seven-Eleven introduced freshly baked bread from June 2021, and FamilyMart renewed the coffee line-up for its Famima Café, using more high-quality coffee beans and a new drip method.

Chained LSR dominate value sales

While independent LSR still dominate outlet numbers, chained operators lead in terms of value sales. Chained players also performed better when the pandemic hit the region in 2020 thanks to having greater financial resources to invest in improving digitalisation and takeaway/home delivery operations.

Positive growth expected over the forecast period

Asia Pacific returned to positive growth in real value terms in 2021, with this expected to continue throughout the 2021-2026 period, although the renewed lockdowns in China in 2022 could see the current forecasts downgraded. Digital technologies will help LSR players to reduce costs, enhance the consumer experience and build customer loyalty. A focus on digitalisation is therefore expected to play an important role in driving growth over the forecast period.