Food & hospitality is open for business

Staff working with the new restaurant restrictions at opening night Post COVID19 lockdown at Tonka in Melbourne. The first 20 guest were wined and dined on for the first time in months last night.

Food & hospitality is open for business

We as an industry are back and open for dine-in business. The profound power of the anticipation and excitement these simple words hold is balanced by the weight of a new normal for food and hospitality operators. This Monday has seen every state government now relax restrictions sufficiently to reopen our dine-in service – albeit in differing degrees from state to state. If reports of Monday night covers around Melbourne are anything to go by, diners are quite literally salivating at the chance to return to their favourite venue; as competitive as this has become as the reality of seating limitations make this once relatively simple pleasure, not quite so simple. 

I’m not saying we haven’t all done our bit to support ‘Bake Along at Home’ zoom cooking classes, ‘Heat & Eat’ takeaway courses and ‘Home Delivered Wine Lists’, offered by favourite cafes and restaurants that have acted and adapted their mix to simply survive. The wonderful new ‘Quarankilos’ we’ve put on are evidence of this for all to plainly see…especially now we’re not just seen through a desktop video conference lens. It’s been a connection with food operators that isn’t likely to just disappear, now that the doors are open.

But…the simple joy of a complete hospitality experience including non-home cooked steak with a glass of ice-cold draught beer at the local pub earlier this week (table service only aside!), may well settle the time-honoured argument between whether it’s ‘the food’ or ‘the experience’ that dictates a truly memorable meal. Honestly, it could have been a warmed-through tyre re-tread on the plate and we wouldn’t have noticed, so invested were we in the novelty of well executed hospitality once again.

Yet there remains an uncomfortable, and let’s face it, necessary amount of wariness within food business. Foreboding industry body warnings that up to 1 in 4 food and hospitality businesses won’t survive into 2021 make for sensational headlines, however they should also serve to provide a healthy level of vigilance and to create industry stimulus. We must ensure now that we are prepared for the inevitable reality of operation without a safety net, once the differing levels of Federal and State supports effectively begin to disappear this September.

Fixed costs will, dependent upon negotiated outcomes, return as a weight around the neck of businesses striving to survive with diminished customer spend. Whether we are food and hospitality operators or landlords, we have a vested interest in doing all we can to help each other succeed. A partnership in every sense of the word. 

Whatever the uncertain ‘new normal’ ends up looking like, one thing is certain - the time for an ‘us and them’ approach is over. These partnerships will need to collaborate and take the recommended DISCIPLINE approach below to maximise the likelihood of operational survival, to prepare for the uncertain challenges that the economic reality of recession will present, and ultimately protect their asset value. 

D

Double-down on delivery and pick up in store capability. While we can expect attrition from the current peak of click and collect, the growth of this channel to customer should remain part of a customer focussed service offer. 

I

Innovate your brand message to ensure your venue or precinct stands out from the crowd, that are all saying the same thing. 

S

Strategy analysis is essential to ensure your business is aligned to a changed set of customer wants and demands.

C

Capability of operators and precincts needs to be maximised. Work together to utilise common use spaces for additional seating or open up new zones (eg rooftop), to improve dining capacity.

I

Identify critical risk and customer service friction points. Wherever possible make the customer transaction easy and risk reduced. Go Safe and ensure you Show Safe.

P

Protect your business asset value by conducting financial health checks for the operator or the precinct.

L

Less is more. Invest in improved operational efficiencies like streamlining your menu or food service plan, placing the focus on protecting profit.

I

Invest in updated and agile marketing and communication campaigns, promoting customer confidence in the food & hospitality safety and capability of your venue or precinct. Make sure you welcome your customer back!

N

New design of your venue or precinct needs to be considered. Maximise operational efficiencies and safety for staff and customers through design and layout rethinking that isn’t necessarily expensive.

E

Ensure your business plan is thoroughly reviewed, pressure-tested, and has a degree of agility and contingency built in (where possible), to cater for an uncertain future.

Let’s not forget that Hospitality is all about PEOPLE.

We as food & hospitality operators and landlords need to plan now for how people are going to reconnect and enjoy hospitality once again, within a food business framework that has service at its core and is fighting fit for the potentially even more challenging times ahead.

Cover Image: The Igloo at the Station Hotel in Footscray. An Innovated dining options that promote social distancing in hospitality. (Image via Good food)