UK Business Catering Bills Surge 56% as Employers Push for Office Return

UK businesses are pivoting their spending toward office catering and digital vouchers as they struggle to incentivise staff to return to the workplace. New data reveals a 56% surge in catering costs despite a general contraction in corporate card spending, highlighting a strategic shift in how finance teams allocate resources to maintain culture.

What was announced

Analysis of card payments from UK business customers between January and September 2025 and the equivalent period in 2026 shows a significant reallocation of corporate budgets. While overall card spending fell by 4.8%, catering expenditures jumped from £183,000 to £285,000. This trend emerges as employers face continued resistance to office-based work; research from KPMG in October 2026 indicated that 21% of UK CEOs view the return to the office as a primary workforce challenge.

The data suggests that the "company thank-you" is becoming increasingly digitised and flexible. Spending on vouchers rose by 27.5%, now accounting for nearly 65% of identifiable gifting budgets, up from 54% the previous year. Conversely, spending on physical gifts dropped by 18.4%. Although fewer businesses are purchasing vouchers, those that do are spending more, with the average transaction value rising from £155 to £211.

In the food and beverage category, total spending across restaurants, catering, and delivery platforms like Deliveroo and Uber Eats rose by a modest 3.2%. However, catering’s share of that total grew from 6.5% to nearly 10%. Payments to Just Eat for Business, formerly known as City Pantry, saw a notable 52% increase. Travel spending remained largely flat, declining by 1.2% to £10.83m, but the choice of providers shifted significantly. British Airways saw a 7.7% increase in spend, while budget carriers easyJet and Ryanair fell by 30.8% and 19.1% respectively. Airbnb also saw a 23.8% decline, while booking platforms like TravelPerk experienced a 46.8% surge in spending.

"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."

Axel Demazy, CEO of Spendesk

The companies involved

Spendesk is a spend management platform designed to provide finance teams with real-time visibility and control over company expenditures. The firm has established itself as a significant player in the European fintech ecosystem, offering a suite of tools that automate expense reports, invoice management, and corporate card tracking. By centralising these functions, the company aims to replace fragmented manual processes with a unified digital workflow that connects spending to budget oversight.

The platform is positioned to serve mid-market businesses that have outgrown traditional banking tools but require more agility than legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems provide. With a focus on data-driven insights, the company enables CFOs to monitor shifting spending patterns—such as the transition from budget airlines to premium carriers or the rise in office-based perks—as they occur. This focus on the "all-in-one" spend experience has allowed the firm to become a primary source of data on corporate fiscal health and operational trends across the UK and Europe.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has followed Spendesk’s expansion into sports and AI-driven financial tools throughout 2026. In November, the company was named the Official AI-Powered Spend Management and Procurement Partner for Fulham FC, marking a significant move into the sports industry. This followed a September report where FF News noted that CFOs are consolidating their tech stacks, with 67% of leaders doubling down on AI adoption to drive efficiency. Earlier in the year, the platform also introduced significant technical upgrades, as reported in Spendesk Transforms Financial Management with Conversational AI. These developments highlight a broader industry trend of integrating modular payment solutions and conversational interfaces into the core finance function.

What this means

This shift in spending signals that the "return to office" debate is being fought with catering budgets rather than just policy mandates. As businesses trim overall card spending, the reallocation toward in-office perks suggests finance teams are prioritising cultural cohesion over raw cost-cutting. The sharp decline in budget airline and Airbnb usage, contrasted with the rise of British Airways and TravelPerk, indicates a move toward centralised, managed travel that prioritises reliability and administrative oversight. For the fintech sector, this underscores the growing necessity for granular, real-time spend visibility. Platforms that cannot distinguish between these subtle shifts in supplier preference risk becoming obsolete as CFOs demand more than just basic expense tracking.