CASE STUDY:

Responding to Changing

Market & Consumer Demands

for Healthier & Vegetarian

Foods.Connie Goring-Morris, Assistant Brand Manager

Case Study: Carluccio’s

Carluccio's is an Italian restaurant chain founded in London in 1999.

Founded by Antonio Carluccio, we have always been inspired by our

Italian heritage, working by Antonio’s life motto of MOF MOF -Minimum

of Fuss, Maximum of Flavour.

Produce 2 main menus/year & monthly specials as well as seasonal

menus around Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mothers’ Day & Easter.

Growing Demands – Market Trends

MCA Menu & Food Trends Report (2017):

Innovation is Important with vegetarian dishes at the forefront.

Fastest 5 Growing cuisine influences over the next 3-5 years:

Healthier Eating (1/5) & Vegetarian (3/5).

Vegetarian expected to see the fastest growth.

Growing Demands - Consumers

The number of vegans in Britain having risen by more that 360% in the

past decade and with around one in very 118 people giving up meat*.

*From a poll of almost 10,000 people carried out by Ipsos MORI for the Vegan Society and Vegan Life magazine,

May 2016

Inspired by Antonio & our Italian

heritageAll my life I have eaten more vegetables than meat.

This is how Italians are – they do not have a meat and two veg way of thinking. For them, [vegetables] can be the stars of the show too. Although Italians love meat, they will eat whole meals made up entirely of vegetables simply because they do not assume a meal has to contain meat. Meat and vegetables are equally valued.

Abridged quote, Antonio Carluccio, Vegetables, 2000

Where We Were

SS17

• 2x Vegan Starters – Tomato Bruschetta &

Panzanella

• 2x Vegan Mains - Tomato Linguine & Stuffed

Peppers

• 5x Vegetarian Starters

• 8x Vegetarian Mains

For mains we were lagging behind some of our competitors.

Seasonal Set Menus such as Menu Festivo & Valentine’s did not have

enough veggie/vegan choice to encourage larger bookings/work

parties.

The Challenges

How make light, fresh, veggie/vegan dishes in winter without using

meat.

How to make healthy exciting.

How to develop vegan dishes that even a meat eater would enjoy.

The Process

The Brief:

To improve vegetarian & vegan options by developing dishes that even

a meat eater would enjoy – reflecting the shift towards a more

flexitarian approach in dining.

To improve current vegetarian & vegan options.

How we met the brief:

Enlisted the help of Vegetarian/Vegan food writer Anna Barnett to work

with Antonio Carluccio bring new ideas to the kitchen.

Held a veggie/vegan taste panel to test our new dishes.

The Result

SS17 AW17

VG V VG V

Starter

s2 5 2 5

Mains 2 5 4 7

Zucca con Verdure

Arrostite

Orecchiette al Cavolfiore Spaghetti con Polpette di Pane

Tomato BruschettaCrostini ai Funghi

The Result

New vegan dishes (Oricchette & Polpette) account for 11% of the pasta category, with the veggie/vegan dishes around 40% of total pasta sales.

Year on year, sales for veggie/vegan dishes has increased by 10%, now taking up around 42% off total sales.

Cucina Verde

Inspired by the Meat-free Monday campaign,

we created a pop-up in our Covent Garden

restaurant serving only our vegan and

vegetarian dishes. This proved popular with

increased bookings and lots of press coverage.

On-Going

Vegetarian/Vegan Trend is growing, with vegan options expected as the norm – shown through Christmas ranges at many supermarkets & grab & go outlets including vegan food.

Xmas Menu/Valentines - making sure there are choices on the menu for everyone

Specials - looking to include more V/VG dishes on each set of specials.

SS18 looking to develop more plant-based seasonal dishes as well as looking further into vegan desserts.