BELLEVUE, Wash., Nov. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Concur
(NASDAQ: CNQR), the world's leading provider of spend management
solutions and services released an analysis today showing business
dining is helping fuel a rise in restaurant revenue. Supported by
insights from Table8, the analysis also sheds light on business
dining trends in the US that restaurants can leverage to
effectively increase revenue by targeting business diners. Table8
is primarily backed by Concur's Perfect Trip Fund, and offers
patrons exclusive last minute access to sold-out restaurant
reservations.
According to the National Restaurant Association, total
restaurant sales hit a record high in October 2014 and sales are likely to continue
rising in the coming months. Business dining, a key driver for
restaurant revenue, is expected to contribute significantly to this
uptrend.
The analysis shows:
- Business Dining Is a Bright Spot in Overall Dining
Sales: While overall dining sales in the US grew approximately
1.4 percent[1] from Q1 2013 to Q1 2014, Concur studied the dining
habits of its business users and found that frequent business
diners increased their dining spend by six percent
within the same period. This business dining spend represents a
variety of expense types including meals while traveling, client
meetings and team outings.
- Business Dining Is a Top Employee Expense: Notably,
since 2011, business dining has averaged a five percent increase
year-over-year– indicating that business dining continues to be a
top expense for employees. This growth in business dining spend at
a faster rate than leisure dining is similar to the accelerated
growth seen in corporate air, hotel and ground transportation
spend.
- Busiest Business Dining Days Balance Revenue for
Restaurants: Business diners are most active Tuesdays through
Thursdays, and Wednesdays are consistently the busiest day of the
week for business dining. Reservation data from Table8 shows that
leisure dining peaks on Fridays and Saturdays. Thus, restaurants
that can effectively target business diners can have a more
consistent flow of patrons throughout the week.
- Best Cities for Business Dining: Among Concur's 25
million users, New York City,
Chicago and San Francisco were the top three business
dining cities by total spend for the 12-month period from
August 2013.
- Most Extravagant Business Diners: Within the same
12-month period, the most generous business spenders were found in
New York ($152 per dining check); Boston ($121 per
dining check); Miami ($120 per dining check); Chicago ($118
per dining check); San Francisco
($117 per dining check).
- When More Is Less: Interestingly, in the last 12 months,
business users from technology companies transacted most frequently
(about 5 times per person), but spent the second lowest in
business dining, at $84 per check.
During the same timeframe, financial company employees transacted
less frequently (about 3 times per person), but spent the
most in business dining, at $123 per check.
"Business dining is big business, especially right now, as our
data shows. From our Expense IQ Report of last year, dining ranked
as the third largest spend category for companies in the US,
trailing only airfare and lodging," said Brian Camposano, Senior Vice President of
Corporate Strategy, Concur. "With business travel predicted to rise
in 2015, we expect to see overall corporate expenditure –
especially for business dining – go up as well."
For restaurants, these insights present opportunities to pursue
business diners. "Our restaurant partners tell us that business
diners typically spend up to 2-3 times more than the average social
diner," said Table8 CEO Peter
Goettner. "Restaurants that recognize the importance of
business diners can devise smart marketing strategies to attract
more business diners through their doors and increase margins on
days of the week where they typically see lower traffic from the
social diner."
"Business dining is critical to the success of the Lark Creek
restaurants," noted Quinn
McKenna, Senior Vice President Operations for
Lark Creek Restaurant Group. "Building strong relationships
with local diners fills seats on the weekends and holidays, while
business diners keep us busy for lunch and mid-week dinners. At our
15 restaurants, we find that business diners spend more per person
and dine in larger groups."
Lark Creek Restaurant Group operates 15 fine dining restaurants
in the San Francisco Bay area and Southern California.
"Business travelers tastes and focus on quality and diversity of
venues has evolved significantly," said Ahmass Fakahany, CEO &
Owner of the Altamarea Group and Table8 Advisor. "It is no longer
only about a basic business meeting in a restaurant; it is now
about dining in the right setting, enjoying quality food, and
receiving high client attention simultaneously."
About Concur
Concur is the leading provider of spend
management solutions and services in the world, helping companies
of all sizes transform the way they manage spend so they can focus
on what matters most. Through Concur's open platform, the entire
travel and expense ecosystem of customers, suppliers, and
developers can access and extend Concur's T&E cloud. Concur's
systems adapt to individual employee preferences and scale to meet
the needs of companies from small to large. Learn more at
www.concur.com or the Concur blog.
About Table8
Table8 is a restaurant reservation
platform that reintroduces the element of spontaneity to eating
out, by allowing anyone to make last-minute reservations at the
most popular restaurants that are usually sold out well in advance.
For additional information, please visit www.table8.com.
Press Contact:
April
Moh, Grayling for Concur, april.moh@grayling.com
Rachel Walensky, Wagstaff Worldwide
for Table8, rachel@wagstaffworldwide.com
[1] Calculated from quarterly sales figures taken from the
National Restaurant Association's "total eating and drinking place
sales" charts
SOURCE Concur
