Operations

Consumers buy more pizza from restaurants than retailers

Photo: Adobe Stock

December 15, 2023

A good majority, 86%, of all consumer spending on pizza is via foodservice operators, with 14% spent with retailers, according to Technomic, a forecasting and metrics tracking service for the food-service industry.

That is a top finding in a deep dive into how the away-from-home and at-home pizza category is evolving, according to a press release.

"Pizza sales have dipped slightly across the foodservice industry over the past year to 18 months. Both price and a bit of pizza fatigue have had an effect," Wade Hanson, senior principal at Technomic, said in the release. "But that fatigue shouldn't be completely unexpected as many consumers' frequency of ordering pizza had really spiked during the pandemic years. Consumer affinity for pizza is still very real, however, and Technomic has forecasted growth rates to begin climbing again as soon as 2024."

The study found 86% of operators who have pizza on the menu view pizza as important to business success. Gen Z and millennials are consuming more pizza than two years ago, while Baby Boomers and Gen Xers are consuming less.