New Business Dining Data Signals Increased Corporate Catering Spend

Dinova’s Spring 2024 State of Business Dining Report, in partnership with Technomic, highlights the rise in large business dining transactions and opportunities for restaurants.

Dinova Inc., the authority in business dining, and Technomic, the leader in foodservice insights, released the Spring 2024 State of Business Dining Report: Catering Edition. Offering exclusive business dining data and trends, the new report provides valuable insights for restaurants looking to capitalize on the recent surge in corporate catering.

“Business dining has emerged as a critical post-COVID relationship and culture-building tool,” said Dinova CEO Alison Quinn. “Our report illuminates the tremendous growth opportunities in catering.”

Since 2020, the report has analyzed business dining recovery, measured by the BDIndex, using Dinova’s proprietary corporate cardholder data and Technomic’s consumer insights. Among the latest report’s highlights:

• BDIndex reached 103 in Q3 2023 and 98 in Q4 2023.
• Driven by meeting and event recovery and employees returning to the office, catering purchases (over $250) comprise over a third of business dining transactions.
• 5 of the top 6 industries in Dinova’s dining program have shown an increase in catering transactions in recent years.

Technomic, which recently released a separate study focused on off-premise catering business, also emphasized the growing significance of catering as a restaurant revenue driver and strategic focus area.

“Traffic patterns driven by everyday occasions are relatively flat, which places extraordinary importance on catering services to boost transaction count and size,” said Rich Shank, Technomic’s Senior Principal & Vice President of Innovation. “Understanding post-pandemic shifts in corporate catering needs and behaviors will be key to capturing that market share. With that in mind, we’re launching an update to our off-premise catering study in the coming months.”

The State of Business Dining report also breaks down the main business catering use cases and key decision factors when choosing a restaurant based on recent interviews with gatekeepers from large companies.

“As costs remain high, restaurants must find creative ways to deliver value and boost revenue,” said Quinn. “Business catering is a lucrative avenue, and Dinova aims to not only inform but empower restaurants to position themselves strategically in this dynamic market.”

The free report can be found at dinova.com/dining-report.