South Africa’s ready-to-eat market is becoming a fight for the next meal.
Fast-food chains are competing with each other, but also with supermarket delis, forecourts, township food operators and other convenient meal solutions for the same eating occasion. The category is increasingly defined by a shopper need being met rather than the type of outlet selling the food.
Trade Intelligence’s latest Ready-to-Eat Food Report 2026/2027 reflects this broader view of the market, defining ready-to-eat food around the shopper’s need rather than a particular type of outlet. The category includes food requiring no preparation by the shopper and available for immediate consumption, such as fast food, supermarket and forecourt deli food, sandwiches and salads.
QSR remains a significant pocket of growth
QSR – takeaway and fast-food outlets – generated R45.5bn in sales in 2025, up +11.4% year-on-year. This made it both the largest and fastest-growing sub-channel within South Africa’s Out-of-Home market, ahead of restaurants and catering, food service and hospitality.
The growth is significant in an environment where many South African households remain under financial pressure. It also helps explain why competition for the eating occasion is attracting attention from established operators and newer challengers alike.
The established hierarchy, however, is not immovable. Pedro’s, for example, has more than doubled its number of past-four-week visitors over the past three years. Trade Intelligence identifies Pedro’s alongside Chicken Licken and Hungry Lion as part of a group of value-oriented players gaining ground.
“Pedro’s is a useful reminder that there is still room to grow in what is already a highly competitive market,” says Caroline Short, Research and Advisory Services Lead at Trade Intelligence. “Value is clearly an important part of that growth, but value is broader than price alone. Shoppers are making trade-offs between price, quantity, quality, convenience and experience.”
Trade Intelligence’s shopper research shows that burgers, hot chips, pizza and chicken remain the core fast-food preferences, but shoppers also move across a wider repertoire. Preference for Asian food and sushi is more strongly driven by middle- and upper-income shoppers.
This influences how different eating occasions are presented: for some shoppers, value may centre on affordability and portion size; for others, variety, novelty or premium cues play a stronger role.
A shopper deciding what to eat may therefore be choosing between businesses that would traditionally have sat in different categories, but which are now competing for the same spend.
The battleground is extending beyond the outlet
How shoppers get their food is also changing.
In-person collection remains more common than delivery, but the gap is narrowing. According to Trade Intelligence, among those who usually have ready-to-eat food delivered, 53% say they are doing so more often, with stronger adoption among younger shoppers, students and households with adult children.
This creates an important consideration for food brands. When a meal is collected in person, the outlet has greater control over the final stages of the customer experience. Delivery places part of that experience in the hands of a third party.
“As delivery grows, the customer may have less direct interaction with the outlet itself,” says Short. “That makes packaging, food quality on arrival and the delivery experience increasingly important, because those elements still shape how the customer judges the brand.”
At the same time, influence remains human. Word of mouth was the most widely used source of information about ready-to-eat food. Much of that word of mouth may itself be digital, shared through WhatsApp or social media, but the recommendation still originates with another person.
That gives the customer experience a longer tail. A meal that travels badly, arrives late or disappoints on value can influence the next shopper’s decision.
Some global trends warrant attention – without overstating their impact
One development attracting considerable attention internationally is the use of GLP-1 drugs, which suppress appetite and have already been shown to affect spending in some food categories among users.
GLP-1s are slowly infiltrating the South African market, but at nowhere near the penetration levels of the USA. For South Africa’s ready-to-eat industry, Trade Intelligence currently assesses the threat as low. Based on the available evidence, their current reach is too limited to materially affect overall ready-to-eat food sales, but the local impact will depend on the future availability, affordability and appeal of GLP-1 treatments.
“There are trends that businesses need to watch closely without assuming they will have an immediate mass-market impact in South Africa,” says Short. “GLP-1s are a good example. They could influence portions, menu choices and food spend among users, but their current penetration means the effect remains concentrated rather than market-wide.”
The distinction is useful in a category where consumer tastes, technology and methods of fulfilment are developing simultaneously. Not every development carries the same commercial weight, and the implications vary considerably by shopper segment.
QSR remains a strong pocket of growth – challenger brands are gaining ground, delivery is changing where the customer experience happens, and different eating occasions are being contested by a wider range of providers.
For retailers, QSR operators and food manufacturers, the opportunity therefore lies in understanding which eating occasions they are equipped to serve, what their target shopper considers good value, and how the experience holds together between ordering and consumption. In a market where several very different businesses can satisfy the same immediate need, relevance to that occasion increasingly determines who gets chosen.