March has been a positive month for Canada’s On Premise, with 92% of consumers visiting in the past month, and over half visiting over the past week. Over 4 in 5 consumers have visited the On Premise for food-led occasions and nearly 2 in 5 have visited for drink-led occasions.
Exploring the channels consumers are visiting in 2023, the report highlights that Hotel Bar/Restaurant has seen the largest increase in visitation over the past year (+18pp vs YA), with 35% of consumers visiting the channel more. Premium bars follow closely behind (+9pp), with 30% of consumers visiting more than a year ago.
The data shows an increased desire of consumers visiting premium venues. Fine Dining Restaurants (+5pp), also experience an uptick in visitation, with 25% of consumers frequenting more than a year ago. Fine Dining restaurants join Hotel Bars/Restaurants and Premium Bars in the top 3 channels. Between the growth of premium bars, as well as the bounce back in fine dining eating occasions, premium venues are being sought after, correlating to increased spending and premium On Premise experiences.
Previous CGA Impact report research identified that of the consumers visiting the On Premise more often than usual, 35% are visiting more to treat themselves. The data also highlights that drink-led venues including Premium bars perform the best in terms of satisfaction of consumers (77%) with value for money, followed closely by Hotel Bar/restaurants (75%) and Fine Dining restaurants (70%). This suggests that consumers visiting these premium venues are happy to pay more premium prices for treat occasions if value for money can be shown.
While premium venues have experienced a notable uptick in visitation this past year, independently owned restaurants (+1pp) and Casual dining chains (+1pp) visitation has remained consistent, with 21% and 20% of consumers visiting respectively are doing so more than vs a year ago.
Understanding these channel preference shifts of consumers and the motivation behind their visits is key to building an effective channel strategy in the On Premise. CGA’s upcoming OPUS (On Premise User Survey) Key Trends report will deep-dive into these essential insights and actionable learnings to tailor On Premise strategies.
Mitch Stefani, Client Solutions Director said “ Premium spend and visitation have been prevalent for the On Premise channel over the last year, and we see this behavior continuing. As operators continue to fight with increased costs, consumers are not shying away from their spend in bars and restaurants with the channel being a core avenue to social interaction.”
Mitch Stefani, Client Solutions Director said “ Premium spend and visitation have been prevalent for the On Premise channel over the last year, and we see this behavior continuing. As operators continue to fight with increased costs, consumers are not shying away from their spend in bars and restaurants with the channel being a core avenue to social interaction.”
CGA by NIQ’s On Premise insights and research through its core On Premise User Survey (OPUS) will be the latest, robust dataset assessing consumer preferences specifically in bars and restaurants tackling path to purchase behaviors, category and brand consumption, and in-outlet trends ranging from non -alcoholic offerings to RTD’s and more. CGA’s Outlet Index service is a robust segmentation database of all licensed outlets across Canada, further supports in-outlet dynamics with a size of the prize analysis and effective targeting and distribution strategies for suppliers.
CGA’s On Premise Consumer Impact Report is consumer research tracks current behaviour among On Premise visitors. To find out more about the full subscription of reports, including analytics, download more information here, and the latest On Premise snapshot can be found here, or email Mitch Stefani, Client Solutions Director – Americas at Mitch.Stefani@cgastrategy.com.
