October 7th, 2025

Having attended ‘Lunch’ this year, members of the Hatched team were lucky enough to see Gavin Rothwell speak about how food-to-go continues to evolve across Europe and North America. An insight that we took away was that food-to-go is no longer an afterthought, it’s a driver of excitement, routine and loyalty.

This thinking resonates deeply with our ongoing work on Tesco The Coffee Shop. The challenge was clear from the beginning, how exactly do you evolve a brand and its message to elevate the ‘grab & go’ status beyond that of a quick fix and turn it into something the consumer actively seeks out?

When conducting our own research, we believed the answer could be found in two powerful forces: convenience and quality. By elevating the experience through barista craft and fresh preparation, the offer becomes a ritual, one that squeezes its way into the busy lives of its consumers.

Urgency is excitement.

“I need coffee.” We’ve all said it, we’ve all heard it. Whether it’s the morning rush, the afternoon lull, or simply a small daily ritual, urgency is at the heart of food-to-go. Hunger works in the exact same way: it shapes behavior in the most direct terms. We look up, we look around, and we want an answer (fast).

It suddenly becomes about being more than simply visible brands. It is now about becoming a beacon. Sometimes that means bold design, sometimes it means smarter use of space, perhaps even creating a “yellow brick road” that guides the shopper directly to the solution. Think ‘Golden Arches’, not just because of the size, but because of the certainty – at the end of that long car journey, that overnight flight, you see it and you know what you’ll get, and above all, you are excited.

Excitement becomes the fuel of food-to-go.

Standing out from the crowd

The competition for food-to-go loyalty is fierce. To cut through, it’s not enough to match the market. When doing a competitor analysis for The Coffee Shop, we saw that retailers up and down the country have already laid down gloves of their own. Waitrose have Waite&Rose, Morrison’s have Market Street, IKEA have embedded food into their retail ecosystem, there’s John Lewis, Whole Foods and more.

The competition is busy, but the customers are the same. They aren’t only choosing on price or product anymore, they’re choosing on habit. They want food that fits into the rhythm of their day – the 7am caffeine fix, the 12:30pm grab-and-go lunch or the 4pm pick-me-up. This means retailers, cafes, restaurants and fast food vendors all have to create routine, capture urgency and deliver excitement, all at the same time.

That’s where the challenge really begins.

Sustaining momentum and the challenges

To make a splash and engrain into routine, food-to-go has to work harder than a single launch moment. For Tesco The Coffee Shop, sustaining momentum meant tackling three challenges:

  • Keeping sales alive post-launch – evolving messaging that speaks to speed, convenience and quality without growing stale.
  • Adapting to no-seating formats – creating a scalable solution that works seamlessly across large and small footprints.
  • Engaging Tesco’s loyal shoppers – making The Coffee Shop feel like an integrated part of the Tesco shopping trip, not a separate add-on.

Everything has to come together, whether it’s space design, messaging, digital or print, it has to be scalable, consistent and most importantly, engaging.

The ‘takeaway’

Food-to-go’s success can be found in becoming a trusted part of daily life, becoming that small, yet powerful ritual that customers return to again and again.

The brands that succeed will be those that balance convenience with quality, urgency with excitement and scalability with soul.

At Hatched, that’s the journey we’re proud to walk with our client, helping them turn everyday moments into meaningful ones.

If you’re ready to build a brand that performs on shelf, online and in partnership, let’s have a conversation.