Office Catering Spending Jumps 56% as Companies Push for Office Returns

Company catering spending has jumped 56% this year so far compared with the same period in 2025, according to new Spendesk research, against a backdrop of employers seeking to bring colleagues back together in the office.

The spend management platform analysed card payments from UK customer businesses between January and September 2025 and the equivalent period in 2026. Catering spending rose from £183,000 to £285,000, even as these companies’ overall card spending fell 4.8%.

The findings come as office attendance remains a challenge for employers. KPMG’s October 2026 CEO Outlook found that 21% of leaders of large UK businesses identified resistance to returning to the office as one of their biggest workforce challenges.¹

There is such a thing as a free lunch:

Restaurants still dominate the food budget, with spending down just 1% at £2.29m. Across restaurants, catering, and food-delivery platforms like Uber Eats and Deliveroo, total spending rose just 3.2%.

Catering, however, rose from £183,000 to £285,000, increasing its share of that combined bill from 6.5% to almost 10%.

Payments to City Pantry, now Just Eat for Business, rose 52%.

From breakfast meetings to lunch-and-learns, bringing food to the team is attracting more money. For colleagues who usually meet through a screen, a shared meal can help make the journey worthwhile.

The company thank-you is changing too:

The company thank-you is becoming choose-your-own. Voucher spending rose 27.5%, while physical gifts fell 18.4%. Vouchers now account for almost 65% of the identifiable gifting budget, up from 54%.

Fewer businesses bought vouchers, but larger purchases pushed spending higher: the average spend rose from £155 to £211.

Flowers and hampers faced cuts, with Interflora spending down 23%. Chocolate proved harder to give up, gaining 7.8%. Tony’s Chocolonely spending rose 17.4% to £32,000, accounting for almost three-quarters of the chocolate bill, while Hotel Chocolat fell 23.4%.

Travel platforms take a larger share of the bill:

Business travel spending barely moved, falling 1.2% to £10.83m, but budget airlines had a tougher year. British Airways spending rose 7.7%, while easyJet fell 30.8% and Ryanair dropped 19.1%. Airbnb also declined 23.8%.

Larger flight purchases are also taking more of the bill. Payments above £1,000 accounted for 51.1% of flight purchase spending, up from 48.2% a year earlier.

Booking platforms attracted 16.9% more spending, led by a 46.8% rise at TravelPerk. A steady travel budget is proving anything but ‘business as usual’ for the brands competing for it.

Axel Demazy, CEO of Spendesk, said: “The headline budget can look reassuringly familiar while the way a business spends changes completely. Catering is growing, vouchers are taking a bigger share of gifting, and travel spending is moving between suppliers. Those are decisions about how people work and what the business values.

“Finance needs to see those changes as they happen. By the time you’re explaining them at year-end, the money is already spent. Understanding where it’s going gives you the opportunity to challenge a cost, back a good idea or adjust the next budget with confidence.”

Read the full report here.