Corporate catering is the business of providing food for employees of a company. Companies operating in the corporate catering market offer a wide range of choices: boxed meals or buffets, fast food or healthy food, local or international…

 

The corporate catering market can be divided into two parts:

• One-time events like conferences, conventions or tradeshows
• Daily meals on-site or at-home

 

The corporate catering market in California includes companies offering catering for corporate events, restaurants that offer catering services, corporate food service providers, platforms connecting offices with restaurants and grocery delivery and pick-up services.

 

Before 2020, the national corporate catering market catering was valued at about $90 billion with much of the sales concentrated in larger regions in the U.S. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the market has undergone tremendous changes as the nation embraced remote work. Social distancing and stay at home orders have shut down events across California while workers started working at home full time. In the early days of the pandemic, the corporate catering industry collapsed, but it did not disappear.

 

Events or lunch and dinner orders have been replaced by virtual cooking classes, grocery delivery or individual delivered meals as companies shifted their business model. Online sales have increased significantly to reach workers scattered across the country. The acquisition of Foodee by Sodexo in June 2021 highlights the ongoing consolidation in the market. Sodexo sought to strengthen its existing corporate offering and reinforce its position in the corporate catering market.

 

Even though offices gradually reopen as employees come back to offices, activity is still well below pre-pandemic levels. Remote wok is here to stay, and the change is striking in the Bay Area that hosts more people capable of working from home than anywhere else in California according to the Bay Area Council.

 

However, the corporate carting market in California should benefit from several long-term trends. Over the past ten years, the turnover has increased a lot in the region. On one side, free meals and beverages have become a standard perk, resulting in a growing number of businesses and a larger customer base. On the other side, the choice of meals has been expanded to meet the specific needs of everyone. Recent trends include the use of sustainable packaging and low emission delivery methods as well as healthy-options and local products.