Late-night dining, budget cuts and food trends also included in the 2013 B&I Census.
- There were a total of 58 B&I locations in our 2013 census.
- 17% are self-op, 78% are contract managed and 5% are partly self-op and partly contract managed. Locations that have annual purchases of $5 million or more are significantly more likely to be contract managed than locations with smaller annual purchases.
- 55% are located in an office building in an urban area; 31% are in a combination office, plant and/or factory in a rural/urban area; 10% are in an office building in a rural area; and 4% are in a factory in a rural/urban area.
- 55% are subsidized. Locations in the Northeast are significantly more likely to be subsidized than those in the South and West. For those locations that are subsidized, the average subsidy is 37%. The average subsidy in the West is the lowest—24%. The West is also the least likely region in which to find subsidized accounts, at 38%. Locations that serve 5,000 or more meals/transactions each day have a higher subsidy—53%—than locations that serve fewer meals. Most operators (52%) report that their subsidy remained stable in the past year. Twenty-six percent reported an increase and 23% saw a decrease. Forty-eight percent of operators expect their subsidy to remain the same in the next year, while 32% expect it to decrease.
Revenue Boost
The majority of operators—at 59%—saw an increase in their foodservice revenue in the past year. Locations that are subsidized were sigificantly more likely to report an increase, with 69% of operators seeing an increase in revenue last year. For those locations that saw an increase, the average jump was 10%. For operations that reported a decrease in revenue, the average drop was 10%.
Average Daily Meals/Transactions
Locations in the South serve the most, while the West lags behind.
10% is the average amount of food purchases that are organic, for those operators who purchase organic food items.
A Look Ahead
In most cases, operators expect business conditions to remain the same in the coming year.
Foodservice staff
Operators with annual purchases of fewer than $1 million are significantly less likely to expect an increase in staff (5% versus 31% for operations with more than $1 million). Operators in the Northeast are the most likely to anticipate a decrease in staff, at 40%.
Menu offerings
This is an area where more operators foresee an increase. Operators in the Northeast, at 73%, are the most likely to expect an increase, versus 44% in other regions. Eighty percent of operators with annual purchases of $5 million or more anticipate an increase in menu offerings, versus 41% of those with lower annual purchases.
Equipment budget
Operations that serve 5,000 or more meals/transactions per day are significantly more likely to expect a decrease in their equipment budget than those with fewer meals/transactions, 50% versus 11% respectively.
Food/beverage budget
Nearly half of operators at locations that have annual purchases of $5 million or more expect to see a decrease in their food and beverage budget in the next year, versus 7% for those with lower purchases. None of the operators in the West expect an increase in their food and beverage budget, versus 31% of those in the rest of the country.
Customer base
Locations that are self-operated are significantly more likely to expect an increase in their customer base (78% versus 34% for contract). Locations that have 5,000 or more meals/transactions per day are more likely than operations with smaller meals/transactions to anticipate a decrease, 33% versus 5% respectively.
Dining Late? Better Eat at Home
B&I locations less likely to offer dinner or late-night service. Operations in the South and Northeast, at 41% and 33% respectively, are significantly more likely to offer dinner service than operations in the central region of the country. Only 8% of these operations offer dinner.
Over Run
Facing Challenges
Forty percent of operations say they are experiencing a decrease in participation due to more off-site competition. Not surprisingly, operators in accounts that are not subsidized are significantly more likely to report this as a challenge. Fifty-two percent of operators at non-subsidized locations report this as an issue they are facing, versus 30% for operators at subsidized locations. Self-operated locations are significantly more likely to say they are not facing any of these challenges, at 67%, versus 35% for contract-managed accounts.
Client Relationships
Most operators report that because clients view foodservice as an important employee benefit, foodservice is not a target for budget cuts. Operators in the West are significantly more likely than other regions to report this, at 88%, versus 48% for the rest of the country. Operations that are subsidized are also significantly more likely to report a favorable view toward foodservice programs, with 65% of operators at subsidized locations saying their clients do not view foodservice as a key target for budget cuts, versus 40% at non-subsidized accounts.
Local Sourcing
Produce and baked goods are the two food categories most often purchased from local sources. Operations that have $5 million or more in annual purchases are significantly more likely to purchase baked goods from a local source (93%) than those with less than $5 million in annual purchases (52%). Locations with daily meal counts of 5,000 or more are significantly more likely to source meats locally, at 83%, than those locations with fewer meals/transactions (22%). Twenty-two percent of locations with fewer than 1,000 meals/transactions per day do not source any products locally, versus 4% for locations with 1,000 or more meals/transactions daily.
