The Foodservice Packaging Institute, a trade association for foodservice packaging in North America, has published its “Market Research Study on Foodservice Packaging Products.”

Over 75 percent of the 1400 quick-service restaurant operators surveyed said they expect their foodservice packaging purchases to remain the same or increase in the next year. Only 2.4 percent of QSR operators said they expect their purchases to decrease. When asked by what percent they expect an increase or decrease, the result is a net increase of 2.1 percent.

Researchers from The Qume Group conducted interviews in February through July of 2007. The voluminous data they collected includes operator surveys on Incidence of Use, Product Volume, Past and Next Year Purchases reported by QSR segment and by United States region. The QSR segments included in the report are Pizza/Italian; Sandwich/Sub; Coffee/Snacks; Ethnic (other than Italian); Chicken; Hamburger; and Other.

In addition, operators were asked a number of other foodservice-packaging related questions:

  • Percent of business from drive-thru, take-out, on-premise, and delivery: Fifty percent of QSR business is take-out service, 25 percent is on-premise, 20 percent is drive-thru, and 6 percent is delivery service.
  • Operators’ purchase sources for foodservice packaging products: The full line distributor is the dominant source for foodservice packaging purchases.
  • Number of different distributors used for foodservice packaging purchases: QSRs reported purchasing foodservice packaging products from an average of 1.15 distributors
  • Primary distributor used for food and supplies purchases: The distributors from whom the widest variety of food and supplies were purchased were the major systems distributors for the national chains and the major corporate broadliners for the regional chains/independents.
  • Use of name or logo on foodservice packaging products: Sixty-eight percent of QSR operators report having a company name or logo on the cups they use; sixty-one percent report a name or logo on food containers; and 15 percent report a name or logo on laminated sheets.
  • Use of distributor-branded foodservice packaging products: Twelve percent of QSR operators report using distributor brand cups. Four percent of QSR operators report using distributor brand wraps in rolls.

An overview of the report also available on FPI’s Web site at www.fpi.org.

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