Caterers NAICS 722320

Mar 6, 2026 - Office Lunches

• Corporate catering is becoming a core revenue engine for catering firms as employers double down on free lunch as a workplace perk, TheHustle reports. Indeed, corporate orders have now surpassed weddings, and roughly half of caterers say corporate clients are their primary business. This shift creates steadier, higher‑volume demand, especially on weekdays, reducing reliance on seasonal events. Companies are upgrading food quality and presentation to support collaboration, retention, and morale, which pushes firms to offer more diverse menus, higher-end ingredients, and scalable buffet or pre‑plated formats. As employers continue to use lunch to entice workers back to the office, caterers benefit from recurring contracts and predictable meal counts. The cultural visibility of office meals, often amplified on social media, also raises expectations for creativity and consistency. Overall, the expansion of corporate lunch programs signals sustained growth opportunities for caterers positioned to deliver reliable, high-quality, and customizable offerings.
• After years of navigating unprecedented challenges, catering professionals are entering 2026 with renewed optimism, with a large majority (85%) expressing confidence in the sector’s health, according to the 2026 Global Meetings & Events Forecast from American Express. Still, the catering industry will face challenges this year as client expectations evolve toward a sharper focus on impactful experiences versus extravagance, per the AmEx forecast. Food is becoming an experience rather than a checkbox, while service is no longer merely a feature, but rather a defining factor in creating lasting memories. For catering companies, the challenge lies in crafting personalized, engaging, and transformative experiences for budget-conscious clients amid rising labor and materials costs. Seasoned caterers will be squeezed by rising costs amid an influx of lower-cost new competitors as clients do more planning online, comparing multiple options on Instagram and Google, and DIY’ing big portions of their event.

• Caterers are facing new competition from restaurants, especially fast-casual chains that launched drop-off or pickup catering during the pandemic to boost business, The Wall Street Journal reports. “Caterers do have a challenge to compete with restaurants who have brick-and-mortars and storefronts and brand-name recognition,” Alex M. Susskind, professor of food and beverage management at Cornell University told WSJ in June, adding “That may negatively affect traditional caterers, so they need to pound the pavement and really sell how they are different and more personalized than a fast-casual restaurant that can drop off a self-serve taco bar.” As more companies host catered meals to lure employees back to the office, competition for corporate catering jobs is heating up. And as post-pandemic pent-up demand for weddings and bar mitzvahs has waned, the big growth area for caterers is corporate spending, Susskind says.
• Employment by caterers grew 8.7% in November compared to a year ago as catering firms staffed up for the holiday party season, after rising 5.8% in the previous November-versus-November annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Meanwhile, the average industry wage at catering and mobile food services rose 5.4% over the same period to a new high of $24.72 per hour, per the BLS. The catering industry is experiencing robust wage and employment growth, with employment growing by 18.7% over the past three years, much higher than private growth of 3.2%.