Marks & Spencer reports that its best selling ready meal in Paris is chicken tikka masala, with just one store selling more than 70,000 a year.
M&S is not alone in seeing a rise in popularity of British food. Pret a Manger is capitalising on quick food to go as well as a host of smaller British purveyors.
The rush has been ascribed to shorter lunch breaks and a quest for something different from the traditional. Other factors could be increased foreign travel and the large French population living in London.
Pret’s marketing director Mark Palmer said: “In Paris the quality of food is good but the speed of service is not particularly fast. There was demand for high quality food at pace. Pret offers more variety and innovation than is available in the more traditional areas of the trade. More and more people want a choice of food-on-the-go.”
To fill demand, M&S has 10 stores in Paris which sell food, and plans to double the number by 2016 while Pret A Manger has 11 stores and is also intent on expanding its business.
The Food and Drink Federation said France was Britain’s second biggest food export market after Ireland in the first half of this year, with a 9% year-on-year increase to £748m.
Defra figures show exports of cheese to France grew to 22,118 tonnes in 2013, worth almost £71m, up from £55.5m in 2010. The leap comes despite French boasts of having a regional cheese for every day of the year.
