Chefs’ favourite adds value to pubs with consumer insight and festive season serving suggestions
Leading gravy brand Maggi has unveiled insight around pub goers’ roast dinner preferences, as well as inspirational serving ideas, to help licensees and chefs maximise the food opportunities this Christmas season.
With recent industry research revealing three out of four adults will visit a pub during Christmas*, and predictions that the eating-out sector is due to have its biggest ever Christmas Day service this year – with festive bookings for restaurants and pubs having more than doubled over the past few years** – it’s crucial to wow customers and leverage upselling opportunities around festive food.
Maggi’s research, which questioned almost 2,000 UK consumers, reveals that when eating a roast dinner, beef is the most popular meat for consumers in both Northern Ireland and the South West (43%), with chicken surprisingly preferred in Wales (31%), whilst Lamb is a firm favourite for people in the North West (26%). For men in general, beef is the firm favourite (42%), whilst more women prefer chicken as the meat for their roast dinner (32%).
The research also confirms that after potatoes, the nation’s favourite vegetables to accompany a roast dinner are sprouts in the West Midlands (20% of all respondents preferred this), carrots in Scotland (also 20%), and pubs in the South East should be stocking up on parsnips (17%).
Susan Gregory, head of food at Maggi, said: “Christmas is a key time for pubs, especially those serving food, and the roast dinner remains the favourite meal in the UK. Our research has uncovered useful insight which will help pubs deliver a great dining experience to their customers during the festive season.”
The nation’s favourite gravy flavour across all age ranges and gender in the UK was revealed to be beef, with onion second-favourite with 18-24 year olds (24%), and chicken gravy also popular with those aged between 25-34 (40%).
Earlier this year, Maggi revealed that 93% of consumers prefer to pour gravy themselves, and that 83% said they would be more likely to return to a pub if they were allowed to pour their own gravy. Furthermore, almost all of the 2,000 UK adults interviewed said good gravy was crucial to a roast dinner (96%), and that 94% of consumers would like to be given a gravy boat for their table when eating a roast dinner at a pub or restaurant.
Following the strong results, Maggi launched a campaign to bring back the gravy boat, which included free POS kits for pubs, to help them make the most of the opportunity and to ensure that customers visit again and again. The high-value kits, which included 10 gravy boats, were well-received in trade – with positive feedback around the increase in customer satisfaction – and all pubs involved requested receiving more kits when available.
Gregory continued: “If a venue can demonstrate generosity to a customer, then that customer is more likely to score their experience highly in terms of value-for-money, which is a key driver of repeat visits.
“Our aim is to support licensees and chefs in making the most of the enormous festive business opportunity, and crucially influence and increase repeat visits. This can be through using a gravy boat on the table for customers to pour themselves, or creating some of the festive serving suggestions like using wine, cider, or festive additions, such as redcurrant jelly or rosemary to your Maggi gravy.”
For more information on Maggi gravy, and more hints, tips and recipe and menu ideas, please visit www.maggi.co.uk.
* Pernod Ricard Oct 2014
** Bookatable Dec 2014
