AUSTRALIA | McDonald's visits have dipped as emerging chains grow in Australia's QSR market, according to research from Fonto.
Australian Fast Food customers are looking for alternatives to the market leaders, with emerging brands continuing to increase presence amongst their customers as they deliver unique and fresher offerings, according to new data by Fonto.
The Moments in QSR data released by Fonto, which uses daily transaction data to track market share and understand competitive advantages within the category, showed significant movements when viewing the frequency of purchase and average spend metrics.
While McDonald’s market share remained stable for the period at almost 42 percent, customers visited it five percent less frequently and spent 5.4 percent less on average than the year prior.
Meanwhile, emerging brands such as Grill’d, Guzman Y Gomez and Crust managed to bring their customers back more frequently and to increase the average spend per customer.
Grill’d’s frequency of purchase increased by 14.9 percent, with average spend per customer lifting by 10.6 percent when compared to the December 2023 period. Crust Pizza, although a smaller player with just three percent market share, managed to increase its frequency of purchase by 10.5 percent and spend per customer by 7.3 percent.
Guzman Y Gomez, which recently announced a 27 percent increase in revenue, lifted customer frequency of purchase by five percent and spend per customer by almost six percent. Market share accordingly lifted from 3.0 to 4.2 percent, demonstrating significant growth on the back of new store locations meeting the increased demand.
While it’s worth noting that the average basket size for Crust and Grill’d dropped slightly, the gains per customer more than outweighed the loss in individual transaction size.
“We are seeing customers embracing alternatives, especially ones that promote fresher ingredients, even in the fast food space. Where Domino’s has recently faced challenges in product quality, Crust continues to bring customers back, spending more. Where consumers are looking for fresher, higher quality burger alternatives, Grill’d is taking share and loyalty away from the larger chains. GyG’s overall brand promise as healthier fast food is also clearly working, with their sales and profit up across the board,” said Ben Dixon, CEO of Fonto said.
With mental and physical availability still primary factors in the purchase decision (McDonald’s has more than 1,000 Australian locations), GyG and Crust plan to open 30 and 12 new stores in 2025 respectively. While Grill’d has not announced specific store plans for 2025, it opened 16 new locations in 2024.
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