CHICAGO - Visits to the leading fast-casual restaurant chains grew 17 percent over the last three years while the rest of the industry experienced its steepest traffic declines in decades, according to research by The NPD Group.
Fast casual restaurants, upscale quick-service restaurant concepts that offer more service and higher quality food, have a larger average check size than other fast food restaurants, according to NPD. For year ending December 2010, visits to the leading fast casual restaurant chains, like Chipotle, Five Guys, Noodles & Company and Panera, were up 6 percent versus a year ago.
"Fast casual restaurants have done an excellent job of satisfying their customers' needs for quality and service and have built strong customer loyalty as a result," said Bonnie Riggs, restaurant industry analyst at NPD. "The attributes that define the fast casual concept ?" fresh, food quality, and service ?" are the reasons why customers give them their highest satisfaction ratings."
Responding to growing consumer demand the major fast casual chains grew units by a double-digit rate over the last three years. Even with this unit growth, demand outpaced the rate of unit development, reflecting consumer satisfaction with the fast casual experience. Since 2007, fast casual unit availability expanded 12% and traffic has grown by 17%.
According to NPD's A Look into the Future of Foodservice, demand for fast casual restaurants will grow significantly over the next decade. Incremental traffic for fast casual will source to teens and young adults ?" particularly those between the ages of 10 to 30 (Generation Z) ?" and to a lesser extent, those 55 years old or more. By 2019, generation Z will be the single largest population group at 90 million strong.
"Fast casual concepts are in an excellent position for growth. We've seen other fast food customers trading up to fast casual and full service customers trading down to fast casual," said Riggs. "In addition, with imitation being the highest form of flattery, we're now seeing other segments of the industry duplicate what has made fast casual concepts so successful."