Eating on the go is a big business for restaurants, and a major expense for companies.
In a survey of corporate expense managers by Atlanta-based business dining network Dinova says 40 percent of businesses spent $1 million or more on meals and entertainment in 2015.
Yet more than half of the respondents said that their companies don’t focus on meal expenses as an area of potential savings. Dinova says that business dining is an undermanaged area of corporate expenses, accounting for roughly 10 percent of the average business’s travel and expense budget.
Despite consumer spending remaining flat or decreasing throughout the year, 39 percent of the travel managers surveyed said that their company had increased its dining expenses in 2015. Of those, 41 percent said the increase was due to a higher volume of business meals purchased.
Some businesses are also spending more to provide meals at meetings or events: 19 percent of respondents said they increased their use of catering or large group carry-in orders.
Yet only 10 percent of the respondents said that 50 percent or more of the company’s meal expenses were incurred in the company’s home market.
Respondents were more likely to spend a small fraction on meals near home: 29 percent indicated that less than 10 percent of their overall dining expenses occurred in their home market.
More than half of the companies, 55 percent, said that an increase in travel to new destinations was a contributing factor in their increased meal expenses.
When asked how employees were using expense accounts to eat, managers said that fast-casual and independent restaurants accounted for the bulk of dining expenses: 34 percent of expenses were registered at independent restaurants, 33 percent at fast casual, 16 percent at chain-dining restaurants, and 14 percent at quick-service restaurants.
Eighty percent of the respondents said that meal expenses are eventually reported to management, but only 53 percent regularly report on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis.