Diverse staff, regular new products and speed of service are essential for driving sales of food to go. 

That was the advice from Andrew Walker, CEO of sandwich chain Eat, when speaking at the Lunch! Exhibition in London. 

He said: “It shouldn’t take three minutes to get a cup of coffee. It should take one minute, and investing in the right technology can help with that.” 

The company is focusing on offering regular new products and more dynamic flavours to bring shoppers in.

“The key is to offer a breadth of choice. I don’t want to pigeonhole customers by promoting health because people eat differently on different days. 

“We sell more bacon sandwiches on a Friday than a Monday and they should be fatty and salty. You’ve got to have indulgence where indulgence is right.”

Walker also outlined his concerns for how Brexit could affect the jobs market, with staff cited as one of the business’s biggest challenges.

“The labour pool is getting smaller. Millennials tend to be flightier too. They might say yes to you, but if a better offer comes up they go. 

“We try to get around that by building career paths from the start and tell them this is where they could be in two years,” he said.