Non-Traditional Restaurants Booming

Shopping at IKEA it’s not all about the furniture or the FREE organic baby food with any purchase that drives success.  It just may be about the restaurant sales it’s the quality fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food. Surpassing $ 2 Billion in annual sales of fresh prepared food IKEA is a Restaurant / Grocerant success story.

IKEA and other non-Traditional fresh food retailers have been exploring, entering, or exploiting the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food space aka the Grocerant Niche, at an increasing pace, and with outstanding success.  Walgreens and Pinkies Liquor stores are both selling fresh prepared food, Brooks Brothers is entering and both Costco and Ikea sell over $ 2 Billion dollars a year in Ready-2-Eat fresh prepared food alone.  Is your chain selling $ 2 Billion a year?

Ikea a Swedish company best known for its inexpensive furniture and household products has very large Blue and Yellow stores around the world. What many of you may not know is that they also sell fresh prepared food. In an article in the Wall Street Journal Ikea’s Johannes Ledel explains how the fresh food unit brings in nearly $2 billion in annual revenue.  

Two Billion in annual sales places Ikea in the top tier of food retailer’s period. Non-traditional food retailers in this case a furniture store sells much more food than most of the chains reported on in restaurant industry magazines.  These retailers are often not considered competitors.  Selling food and winning is about garnering share of stomach.  Ikea garners $2 billion year and has become a destination for food.  

Regular readers of this blog know Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™ Steven Johnson regularly writes about and includes Ikea slides at industry conferences and client presentations.  IKEA’s Food division rivals Panera Bread and Arby's, with nearly $2 billion in annual revenue. Ikea “estimates about 700 million people this year will eat in one of the cafeterias that are located in 300+ IKEA stores world-wide. What are your sales per store? Ikea is a food destination.   

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us   Outside Eyes for Inside Results Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging integration strategy. Visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us ,

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