Sandwiches filling a gap in the market

What do City firms Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have in common with the likes of Google, IBM, Sir Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital and Dyson? They are among a growing number of companies looking to boost the average amount of time their employees spend in the office.

Google has just embarked on a crackdown on office attendance by scrapping fully-remote working for any new employees and it is looking to switch existing remote workers onto a hybrid arrangement. For current hybrid employees who are failing to attend the requisite number of days (typically three per week) there is the threat of it negatively impacting on their performance reviews.

This must bode well for developer Related Argent that will soon be welcoming around 4,000 people into the new one million sq. ft. Google headquarters in King’s Cross. Their spending power across the area will give a big boost to the development’s food and beverage operators – who are already trading up on pre-covid-19 levels across King’s Cross and Coal Drops Yard. The plan is to add further F&B operators to the area such as the recently announced Mare Street Market.

It’s absolutely the case that work from home has reshaped the working landscape (and the commercial property market) but the direction of travel for many workers is obvious – it’s back to the office for more hours per week than they have been enjoying since covid-19 hit. When jobs were aplenty employees had some power to determine the amount of time spent at home but as the jobs market has become more competitive employers are exerting more pressure.

This scenario is supported by figures from Regional REIT, which has found workers now spend on average 4.2 days per week in its properties. Further evidence comes from property firm Argyll that has enjoyed occupancy levels of as much as 90% across its buildings – higher than pre-pandemic and the financial crash of 2008.

This is feeding directly through to many F&B players such as Just Eat for Business that has enjoyed 56% growth in office catering orders over the past year. It has been adding brands such as YO! and Coqfighter to its offer that includes Pasta Evangelists and Pizza Pilgrims. The company says the return to the office is a prominent theme in 2023.

This back-to-the-office trend has been reflected in the sale of sandwiches. While carb-light meals and bowls containing seeds and pulses of all descriptions have been a hot food trend we should not forget about that lunch stalwart the sandwich. Sales are back to 85% of their ￡8 billion pre-pandemic level, according to the British Sandwich & Food To Go Association, and the trend is looking good for the humble sandwich.

Let’s take a step back from that humble description because it does not tell the whole story of the sandwich right now. A growing number of operators are injecting a shot into the arm of the traditional sarnie that will no doubt ride on the back of the return-to-the-office dynamic. Leader of the pack is Max Halley who has just branched out from his modest Finsbury Park restaurant to supply his unique spin on sandwiches to the Hippodrome casino.

This has a nice circularity to it as the sandwich was supposedly invented as a convenient way for the Earl of Sandwich to eat without having to take a break from the gaming tables. Whereas the Earl had roast beef Halley will be delivering his Meatball Bonanza panini, Bacon Chop BLT, and Prawn Cocktail creation that includes crushed prawn cocktail crisps on brioche to today’s hungry gamblers.

Talking of brioche we have also seen the opening of the first permanent site for Crunch, in Spitalfields Market, with brioche-filled delights including the Bulgogi Steak Sandwich containing Korean Bulgogi beef steak, Onngi Kimchi, Gochujang mayo and red lettuce. Other sandwich purveyors cranking up the stakes are Sexy Buns, which opened a unit in Market Hall’s in central London, to serve the likes of a Thai chicken bun containing free range chicken, Thai red curry sauce, crispy Asian salad, coriander and spicy chilli garlic oil.

And Sven-Hanson Britt earlier this year launched The Sandwich Shack from the Bar Rex unit that sits next to Oxeye restaurant in the Embassy Gardens development.

Expect to tuck into things like the Pamboza that is described as a Mexican sandwich stuffed with chorizo fried potatoes, sour cream, lettuce and guajillo chile salsa.

With the great return to the office picking up pace more people will be able to try these glorious creations but whether they will actually be able to stay awake long enough to do any work after consuming the likes of a Bulgogi steak sandwich or a Pamboza is debatable.

Glynn Davis, Editor

This piece was originally published on Propel Info where Glynn Davis writes a regular Friday opinion piece. Retail Insider would like to thank Propel for allowing the reproduction of this column.