Fast Casual Ideas Are Still Driving Growth Across the Restaurant Industry

After 25 years, fast casual is still in the driver’s seat. New data from Euromonitor International shows strong growth in the overall consumer foodservice market, with quick service markets, like fast food, restaurants offering delivery and takeout exclusively, and cafes and coffee shops poised to grow fastest in the U.S. over the next five years. “I think what we’re seeing there, and this is a global trend, is the casualization of almost everything, even fine dining,” Michael Schaefer, global lead of food and beverage at Euromonitor, told Skift Table. The fast food market, already massive at close to $250 billion in 2017, is poised to grow at 2.3 percent per year for the next five years, a cumulative growth of 12 percent. At the same time, the much smaller delivery-takeout market (excluding third-party delivery services like Grubhub and Uber Eats) is projected to grow 18 percent