Food halls grow by 31%, bucking the downward trend in hospitality

The number of food halls in the UK has increased by 31% in the past year, and there is more growth predicted in the year ahead, a new industry report suggests. 

This bucks the general trend seen in the wider hospitality industry, where rising product, energy and labour costs, as well as high business rates and declining consumer spending, have made trading incredibly difficult over the past few years and led to many closures.

MVOs are growing fast

The report from guest data & CRM platform, me&u, used ordering data taken from 30 multi-vendor operators (MVOs) between January–December 2025. The team also carried out a survey and compiled answers from 25 anonymous venue-level participants. 

The team found a clear growth trend. The number of trading food halls in the UK has gone up from 114 in March 2025 to 149 venues now. Looking into the future, the researchers predict that there will be more growth with 65 venues in development. 

This is in stark contrast to traditional pubs and restaurants. Data from UHY Hacker Young, reported by This Is Money last weekend, states that around 789 pubs and bars closed last year in England, Scotland and Wales. This is double the number recorded five years ago. 

Businesses and trade organisations continue to lobby for business rates reform and lower tax burdens, warning that ventures will collapse in huge numbers without this support.

Do food halls have a competitive edge?

Food halls are bucking this trend for a variety of reasons. For one, there’s a much lower cost of getting started. You need much less capital up front to be a vendor in a food hall than you would to secure a lease on a building and open a restaurant.

Further, the demand for casual dining experiences has never been higher, and the choice that they offer customers all under one roof is hard to beat. In these tricky times, letting customers “shop around” and check out prices before they pick what they want is a clear advantage. 

me&u’s report reveals that the average food hall footprint was 14,000 sq ft, which is room enough for nine vendors and two bars. A food hall of this size has room for 350 covers, which is huge compared to the average business pub or restaurant. So, there’s guaranteed footfall that venues like restaurants and pubs simply don’t have access to. 

Vendors may be competing against each other for customers, but there are also benefits to the close proximity to your rivals, as well. Neighbours can decide to pool resources, like kitchen spaces, and even share staffing when it comes to cleaning tables and delivering drinks. 

Potential to grow

Venues like food halls have a huge amount of potential; the fact that they’re often large enough to host live music performances and other kinds of entertainment gives them a competitive dimension that smaller outfits just don’t have.  

For traditional pubs and restaurants, this is simply the latest evidence that they’ll need to hone in on what makes them unique and deliver top customer experiences to tempt diners and drinkers back through the door. 

Being open to digitising aspects of the ordering process to cut down wait times will also go some way to keeping pace with these newer, more streamlined experiences.

Discover the ales and ails of hospitality

Planet of the Grapes founder Matt Harris has over 25 years of experience in hospitality. Read his bi-monthly column for Startups now.

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