As we approach 2026, the Australian food and hospitality landscape is undergoing significant transformation. AI-driven insights are reshaping how businesses plan and operate, yet the most successful outcomes continue to emerge from those who balance technology with authentic cultural understanding and experience-led design.

Design, architecture and marketing set the stage, but hospitality brings a destination to life. The most successful precincts are those where guests feel genuinely connected, welcomed and understood. When hospitality shines, it transforms design into living theatre, turning visits into memories and customers into advocates.

We live in a digital era where we are all critics. Social media and the Internet, in general, drive our ability to offload our opinions on every element in our lives. Food is a major part of this because our exposure to food globally has dramatically changed. We can view the latest trends from around the world while sitting on our couches. All businesses, but especially F&B operators, need to adapt to this new normal and recognise that their presence cannot just be confined to within their four walls.

Use social media but use it tastefully. The key to remember is that the online personality of your business has to match both the in-store experience and the profile of your customers. Use digital communications to draw customers in and then deliver the best. Represent who you are and what you have to deliver. Above all, be genuine and be real.

Determining a hospitality strategy that maximises food and hospitality revenue is the goal that many of our clients wish to resolve when they partner with Future Food. However, in order to do that we must first understand the size of the project’s food and hospitality revenue potential and then the important part – aligning that available spending with the need states and aspirations of their target market(s) in order to maximise the potential for the project.

When Future Food partners with our Clients on redevelopment projects, one of the first stages that we frequently perform is the evaluation of a proposed scheme and how F&B should be incorporated into it. Most frequently this is driven by the architectural scheme and the locating of F&B into the scheme, frequently with non-food priorities and considerations as the backdrop for the decision-making process.

However, F&B has its own set of “built in” priorities and as such adopting a scheme-driven approach frequently demonstrates a recurring set of issues.

“Real insights lie beyond surface impressions”
Francis Loughran, Managing Director. Future Food 

Food and hospitality has evolved into much more than just eating, it has become part of our customers’ lives and the communities in which we serve it

This is an exciting time to be part of the Food and Hospitality industry.  Increased focus on eating and drinking from the media, customers and landlords means that innovation, competition and choice have never been higher.

In thinking about where we have been over the last 12 months and where we feel that the next year will take us, Future Food has distilled our observations into a few broad categories.

“Food and hospitality has evolved into much more than just eating, it has become part of our customers’ lives and the communities in which we serve it” Francis Loughran, MD, Future Food

THE FUTURE OF FOOD IN SHOPPING CENTRES IS BRIGHT AS IT IS BUILT UPON FOOD AND DESIGN IN NEW URBAN SPACES AND PLACES

Small, Medium and Large shopping centres and precincts - Each must seize their food and hospitality opportunity and plan for success. No mall, retail centre or mixed-use development, can afford not to offer great food and service. The simplest café or food truck can offer great food, coffee and snacks thereby generating rental income for the landlord and a profit for the operator. It is all about positioning, professionalism, people and profitability regardless of size and location.

Authentic and Honest Food, Service, Entertainment and Community – these are the cornerstones for future retail centres and mixed use developments of all sizes.

Today’s requirements for living, shopping and eating have changed. The broad construct of lifestyle has been integrated into retail and this needs to be reflected in the food, hospitality and entertainment. I think by now we have all moved on from the brick versus clicks dilemma and realised that retail centres are alive and well and have a bright future provided they can change and evolve with their customers. 

More and more people are opting for modern hospitality spaces with a strong natural theme and overlay when they are choosing where to spend their quality time.

In the changing retail landscape Neighbourhood shopping centres are facing competition from online shopping, high street food deliveries like Uber & Deliveroo, high street dining precinct and the inevitable introduction of smart casual/ family restaurants within the building footprint of stand-alone cinemas and other entertainment precincts.

Smart Casual and Family Dining precincts are no longer the BASTAN of the larger malls and retail precincts. The smaller malls are starting to recognise the many benefits of increasing the food GLA and the development of dining precincts. They want to include roof tops and dining lanes.

Francis Loughran’s projects and study tours take him far and wide in search of the best food and the best brands when it comes to food. Over the past few weeks Francis has been reviewing some of New Zealand’s newest and hippest new food designations; The Press Hall in Wellington’s CBD (80 Willis Street) and Queen’s Rise in Queen Street, central Auckland. Today, the focus here is on Wellington.