Tell us about the lunch! Show in 2026 – and how it has developed. 

For 18 years, lunch! has been the unmissable event for the food-to-go sector. We’ve seen start-ups take their first steps on our show floor and grow into names that define the industry. For example, Vita Coco, Pip & Nut and TRIP, alongside long-standing suppliers like Kellogg’s (Kellanova), Samworth Brothers and Lindt. It’s what keeps lunch! a firm favourite in the calendars of café and coffee shop operators and major supermarket retailers (like Pret, Tesco, Costa, Sainsbury’s, M&S and Waitrose to name a few). This year, the show reaches a new milestone with the launch of The London Food & Drink Festival, making it our biggest edition yet.

We are uniting lunch!, The National Restaurant, Pub & Bar Show, (the new) London Drinks Exchange, Natural & Organic Food Show and Artisan Food & Drink Show, creating a single destination for the entire hospitality and retail sector. The numbers speak for themselves: 15,000 attendees, 600+ exhibitors and eight stages of content. We’re really looking forward to delivering the biggest event for the sector this autumn. 

How do you keep abreast of the latest trends?

People often comment that lunch! is the industry show for innovation. Once again, we will be running our popular Innovation Challenge and are hoping to have a record-breaking number of entries!

In addition, we are also constantly talking to operators, buyers and suppliers, and those conversations are often the earliest signal of where things are heading. Long before something becomes a trend report or headline, someone on the show floor has told me about it! 

Obviously, there are huge financial obstacles right now. What responses have you seen?

While times remain challenging, what stands out is the resilience of the sector. FTG has consistently outperformed the wider foodservice market, and operators are getting smarter with technology and menu innovation, rather than necessarily growing footprint. What’s also caught my attention is the role of brand consistency and community building – businesses that invest in both are seeing it pay off. In a crowded market, that sense of identity and loyalty can make all the difference.

How important are trade events in the current climate?

They create a community and get the industry together when everyone is so busy. lunch! has always been that place – where operators discover suppliers, deals get done and everyone takes stock. Nothing replaces face-to-face business, and this year we’re taking it to another level with the festival elements, making it an experience as much as an event. The fact that operators and buyers keep coming back, in bigger numbers, tells us the appetite for events is only growing.

Is the demographic of exhibitors changing?

We’re seeing more challenger brands come through than ever before. Alongside that, there’s real growth in the functional health market, including mushroom coffee, collagen water, prebiotic fibre drinks and protein bars.

At the same time, the established names are still there, including exhibitors like Simply Lunch, Around Noon, Flexeserve, Yeo Valley, Zombie Snacks and The Coconut Collab, who have supported lunch! for years. But they are increasingly sharing floor space with brands that didn’t exist five years ago. That mix is one of the things that makes the show feel so alive and exciting. It's one of the things that I’m most proud of about lunch! – it will always be the show that moves with our industry. 

What does the future hold?

The outlook is genuinely positive. Lumina are forecasting 3.4% growth for FTG in 2026, and you can feel that momentum in the market. 

More brands are thinking about experience, trust and quality, with operators investing in infrastructure. On the menu side, hot and healthy is becoming a sustained focus rather than a trend, simple to execute but with real variety. Global flavours, functional health and protein are all high on the consumer agenda right now. We’re already seeing it play out with major brands: Black Sheep Coffee is now serving lion’s mane, collagen and prebiotic fibre drinks across its UK estate, and Starbucks has just launched Protein Cold Foam. These aren’t experiments – they’re signals of where the market is heading.

And for anyone on the fence about attending, I would say this: the relationships you build in two days at lunch! can take months to replicate any other way. Face-to-face business is about people, trust and those conversations that simply don’t happen over email. Whether you’re looking for your next supplier, stay ahead of the competition or just take the pulse of where the sector is heading, lunch! is where it happens!