Takeaway food services

What is fast food?

Fast food is generally sold over the counter for consumption on the premises, or for takeaway or home delivery. These establishments are putting a great deal of thought into their packaging solutions. Historically disposable and made of plastic, restaurateurs are thinking about more eco-responsible packaging made of recycled materials or glass, with a deposit-refund model.

Historically a cuisine associated with junk food, snacking is evolving and now offers healthy, balanced and varied products suitable for all generations. This evolution responds to society’s new eating habits, with a need for fast, low-cost “minute” catering over a wide range of hours. A genuine competitor to company catering, a significant proportion of employees use their meal vouchers in this type of establishment for lunch.

To combine quantity and quality, takeaways often focus on a particular theme (e.g. pasta corners, sandwiches or burgers). The fast-food craze has led to the creation of the street food trend, with hyper-concentrated, high-productivity distribution outlets. Snacking concepts have grown significantly with the development of delivery platforms such as Deliveroo and UberEats. This has been accentuated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with traditional catering companies developing a takeaway offer for home delivery or click-and-collect.

At the same time, the catering business plays a key role in the food industry, offering banquets, cocktails and buffets, as well as ready-to-eat takeaways. These companies often have a highly diversified range of products in their catalogs, and pay particular attention to the scenography of their dishes.

Our best practices

One of the keys to success in the snack food market is price, since it attracts a large number of young students. It is therefore highly recommended to set entry-level prices strategically. Building customer loyalty also means renewing the offer. This can be put into practice with a daily offer. It also sends out a signal of quality, highlighting the product of the moment, the season and the region. In fact, local sourcing is a fundamental trend and one of the expectations of snacking consumers.

Faced with an increasingly hurried office clientele and a need to increase the profitability of m2 , fast-food operators are seeking to limit queues. A meticulous study of production areas, the use of new technologies (such as touch-screen terminals) and the installation of self-service refrigerated shelves all play their part.

Originating in North America, food-courts made their appearance in France a few years ago, offering variety and flexibility to consumers by grouping together retail outlets with different themes in a single location. Unlike traditional linear self-service, the food court reduces queues by breaking up the flow of diners over several counters or kiosks.

Last but not least, catering services can be optimized with good management and anticipation of laboratory production. To achieve this, it is essential to establish sales forecasts, work with up-to-date technical data sheets, separate production from finishing, and use sous-vide cooking methods.

Opening a food truck is another attractive opportunity in the fast-food sector. This mobile concept brings you closer to your customers and enables you to offer a diverse range of products and services in a variety of locations. Food trucks are particularly popular in urban areas, at events and festivals.

The support we offer

Ducasse Conseil brings together chefs and consultants to help you create and optimize your snacking concept. From creating a culinary identity to optimizing production work and training your teams, we adapt to your operational constraints.