Latest innovation in retail food to go from across Europe

Food to go represents one of the most resilient parts of food and drink spend, in both retail and away from home settings. Driven by impulse and convenience, food to go often remains an area where shoppers want to engage and spend money, even when budgets may be tight. This means there is high competition for food to go spend, with retailers and foodservice operators competing for food to go missions on range and price. This competition is being seen across Europe, with retailers looking to grow their share of food to go spend as the category represents one of the most promising areas for volume growth.

Poland: Żabka extends high protein options

Following the protein trend, the Polish convenience operator has added a range of high protein salads, ready meals and sandwiches under the promotion ‘sculpture for spring’. Packaging clearly displays the protein content per portion, allowing shoppers to make quicker conscious choices. The ready meals have a reduced price on Thursdays, helping to drive footfall on specific days and Żappka app prices on other products in the range will encourage usage of its loyalty app.

This is different in Poland because it brings clear, protein‑led, fitness‑inspired ready‑meal messaging into a mass‑market convenience setting at an everyday price. The initiative makes functional, filling food easy, affordable, and habitual, while repositioning convenience retail as a credible place for intentional, healthier meal choices.

Norway: 7-Eleven’s mission-led meal deals

In Norway, 7‑Eleven is sharpening its mission focus, building solutions around the needs of on‑the‑go shoppers. Its Boost Your Energy meal deal combines complementary products, such as energy drinks, coffee, and a sandwich, creating a clear solution for shoppers looking for a quick lift during the day.

The concept is executed consistently across in‑store fixtures and advertising outside the store. This reinforces the retailer’s mission focus even before shoppers enter the store. This approach shows how convenience retailers can use mission‑led deals and simple value cues to drive higher conversion on key grab‑and‑go occasions. By aligning product curation, pricing and communication around a specific need state, 7‑Eleven strengthens its role as a dependable stop for quick energy boosts.

Switzerland: Manor Food adds new meals to its offering

With a focus on cuisines from around the world, Manor Food in Geneva, Switzerland has added several new products to its extensive food to go range. With fresh pasta and lasagna, salads and poke bowls, the offering has a seasonal touch with summer-ready meals that suit a number of palates and dietary restrictions. There is also a meal deal on offer with pasta and dessert, targeting dinner occasions. We have seen more retailers and away from home operators globally extending their meal deal offering to more dayparts to expand their value proposition and remain competitive throughout the day.

Germany: Lidl launches first lunch deal

The success of the lunch time deal in the UK has been inspiring global retailers, and the German discounter is the latest to incorporate the deal. The deal features six drinks and ten bakery items for shoppers to choose from via the app, which generates a 30% discount coupon. The initiative will encourage more shoppers to download the Lidl app, and drive additional usage from existing members, growing Lidl’s loyalty base and shopper data.

The deal isn’t a traditional meal deal in the sense of having a set price point. This is one of the features of the mechanic that is most valued by food to go shoppers, as it helps them fit food to go into planned budgets and avoid bill shock when they reach the till. However, the reputation of Lidl bakery as good quality at a low price may mean that this set price point is less important to shoppers, as they will likely anticipate this deal being cheaper than most other food to go options.

3 key takeaways for retailers

• Lead with need states: whether mission-first, or health-focused (e.g. high protein meals), make the food to go fixture easy to shop for time-pressed, impulsive shoppers

• Leverage loyalty to encourage habit building: offer more value via loyalty schemes to encourage repeated engagement to keep shoppers from visiting competitors

• Win more dayparts: build convenient and accessible solutions across afternoon and evening solutions as well as lunch time.

3 key takeaways for suppliers

• Support retailers in executing mission-first thinking: develop complementary products that clearly support different need states that retailers can bundle together, and shoppers can clearly identify when creating their meal deal

• Partner on loyalty activation: develop app-exclusive or limited-time offers that support the retailers’ overall loyalty strategy

• Support daypart expansion beyond lunch: with particular emphasis on dinner, create meal solutions that help retailers compete with foodservice operators for more food to go missions