4 May 2016 by Charles Manners

Whitbread’s a purchase of a 49% stake in Pure (London-based Healthy Retail Ltd, trading as ‘Pure’, for £6.8m, with the option to buy the remaining 51% within the next five years) is a sure sign that healthy food has gone mainstream and not just the provenance of artisan producers. Pure is an eight-strong food-led grab and go online delivery concept that specialises in fresh, healthy meals for the individual consumer.

Whitbread have a history of spotting trends and then investing in those companies, of late they have been focussing on their core brands of Premier Inn and Costa, but have begun to innovate with Hub by Premier Inn and with Costa they have opened Fresco.

As catering consultants our clients are often asking what the latest and future trends are, and at present we would answer that whilst health has been on the agenda for some time, we are now seeing this going mainstream, with all the grab & go operators selling products that would have previously only being produced by the smaller artisan producers.