U.S. Pizza Market Tops $40 Billion

According to Packaged Facts’ recently released report, “The Pizza Market in the U.S.: Foodservice and Retail,” sales at pizza restaurants will reach $36.1 billion in 2012, up 3.8 percent from 2011. At retail, U.S. frozen and refrigerated pizza will register sales of $4.91 billion.

An August 2012 Packaged Facts survey reveals that 97 percent of U.S. adults eat pizza, and 93 percent have gotten food from a pizza restaurant in the past 12 months. On a monthly basis, 27 percent get pizza through restaurant delivery/pickup, 26 percent through restaurant dine-in, and 24 percent from frozen food cases in their supermarket.

These levels of penetration underscore why pizza has been called its own “food group,” but also the difficulty in growing sales in this commoditized market. Although pizza restaurants are losing share to other restaurant cuisine formats, major pizza chains have continued to grow sales. On the retail side, private label continues to gain sales – and steal share – in each of three mass-market pizza segments (frozen pizza, pizza products, and refrigerated pizza). On the store shelves, category growth is primarily on the natural and organic front.

Overall, food consumption trends toward healthier options and home-based cost savings, which can undermine sales of pizza in restaurants and in stores. According to David Sprinkle, publisher of Packaged Facts, the main message to pizza purveyors is evident: enhance the overall healthfulness of your pizza without sacrificing taste.

Menu trends reveal a wealth of cuisine-driven growth opportunities:

• Push more mileage out of fusion cuisine
• Use pizza to mainstream a wider variety of leaner proteins
• Leverage vegetable variety
• Up the sophistication ante through premium and more exotic natural cheeses and sauce experimentation

Packaged Facts, a Rockville, Md.-based division of MarketResearch.com, publishes market intelligence on a wide range of consumer market topics, including consumer demographics, shopper insights, health and beauty care, among others.