By: Natasha Archary
South Africans would rather drive-thru than dine-in, as consumers “dining-in” behaviour changes to reflect that convenience and quick meals on the go trumps a restaurant experience.
Andrew Fulton, Director at Eighty20 join Gugulethu Mfuphi on Kaya Biz to share some insight into how South Africans’ relationship with food has changed.
According to Andrew, Covid-19 changed the restaurant dining experience in many ways, initially stalling growth in the industry during the hard lockdown, and now contracting over the past 3-years while the fast food industry notes a considerable growth.
During Covid, takeaways and fast food outlets recovered quickly, while restaurants and coffee shops still struggled.
Before Covid hit, the fast food industry was a third the size of the restaurant industry’s growth, but now it has increased to more than two-thirds, showing just how much consumers dining behaviour has changed.
Andrew shares that KFC dominates the fast food space, with Chicken Licken and Debonairs closing up the top 3 fast food outlets.
“Chicken, burgers and pizza make up an estimated two thirds of all fast food spend, with chicken dominating fast food preferences in the country.
The Top 10 list of fast-food outlets, according to MAPS 2023 has one pizza restaurant, 3 burger joints and 4 chicken eateries.
KFC is particularly dominant, topping the list overall and beating out the chicken competition by some distance. In fact, when South African adults are asked which fast food outlet they last purchased from in the past 4-weeks, more than a quarter answered KFC.”
McDonalds, Hungry Lion, Spur, Nandos, Burger King, Steers and Wimpy conclude the Top 10 fast food outlets in SA.
Listen to the conversation on Kaya Biz:
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