Against tough competition from other sandwiches and flat to declining restaurant traffic, burgers ordered at U.S. restaurants and foodservice outlets had a banner year in 2014, finds foodservice market research from The NPD Group, a leading global information company. There were 9 billion servings of burgers ordered at U.S. restaurants and foodservice outlets last year, an increase of 3 percent compared to prior year, according to NPD’s ongoing foodservice market research.
Corresponding with the servings ordered at restaurants are ground beef shipments from foodservice distributors to restaurants and other foodservice outlets. Bulk ground beef unit shipments to total foodservice outlets increased by 2 percent, reports NPD’sSupplyTrack, a monthly service that tracks every product shipped from major broadline distributors to foodservice operators. Bulk ground beef case shipments to quick service restaurants increased by 3 percent, by 4 percent to quick service hamburger restaurants, which drive 70% of bulk ground beef sales, and 1 percent to full service restaurants.