Food Matters
Stay ahead in the food and hospitality industry with Future Food Blog. Get the latest news, trends, insights, and expert analysis on food innovations, restaurant strategies, sustainability, and more. Discover what’s shaping the future of dining, food technology, and hospitality with expert commentary and in-depth articles.
Subscribe to Food Matters
Hospitality Mindset – It’s All About The Customer
The Business of Food starts with thinking about hospitality – I call it a Consumer-First Approach. One that consistently excites as well as offers choice, efficiency, value, quality and consistency. Food and hospitality spend across the globe is on the rise, with all sectors vying for the food-dollar. Where the customer decides to spend is highly dependent on how well the food operator has considered the customers aspirations and their needs and aligned these with a clearly defined ‘Hospitality Mindset’. Time and time again, this presents as a memorable experience-proposition. A strategic blend of art and science is required by all operators to ensure a return on experience for every customer. The trilogy of design, food and service cannot be separated, as they represent the cornerstone first principles, and when combined with psychology, emotions and passion, produce a successful recipe every time.
Trends for 2022: Re-engaging with Food in a Design Led World
2021 is going to be, in the parlance of your local footy team, a rebuilding year. So much damage has been done to retail in general and hospitality in particular this year that 2021 is going to be a year to heal, slowly getting back on public transport and getting settled into the Next Normal.
2022, then, is shaping up as a really interesting year. The food operators that survived the pandemic, and especially those that opened during it, are battle-hardened and realistic: An excellent foundation on which to rebuild Food and Hospitality. With the gradual renaissance of the CBD and face-to-face interactions, there is ample scope to start contemplating how to harness and encourage demand.
F&B Operator Procurement Strategies – Delivering on the Vision
In the current business environment, securing the best F&B operators within your project, development or institution, can be challenging. This may be compounded, by shifting operator demands, (complicated lease conditions, staged incentives, abatement clauses, etc) and a new expectation of rental revenue models, what is the rental return that can realistically be achieved?
Reconnecting with Customers
Building Loyalty and Maximising Sales by leveraging unique Points of Difference (PODs)
Maintaining a loyal and diverse customer base has never been more important in a time when most consumers are scrutinising how and where they spend their disposable income. In the last six months priorities and spending habits have shifted for consumers, while some customer segments have continued to purchase, in one form or another, there will also be a need to re-establish or reconnect with others in order to begin the journey back to previous levels of revenue and eventual profitability.
EOI Campaigns “A crucial piece of the puzzle”
The food, hospitality and broader retail landscape is currently facing unprecedented challenges that will undoubtedly reshape it for years to come.
‘Out of adversity comes opportunity’ and it is Future Food’s belief that opportunity now exists to challenge the status quo, do things differently and employ a more holistic approach when attracting and engaging food and hospitality operators for your project.
Outdoor Dining is a way of life and a way forward for Food & Beverage
People love eating and drinking outside. Such is the deep, almost primal, desire for outside hospitality that every time a sandwich/milk bar puts out a couple of tables and chairs on the footpath right next to the parked cars, they are always being used.
Food & Beverage Strategy - Future Focused Part 2
Food Beverage Strategy - Future Focused Part 2
Building great places and creating exceptional experiences for your 'Non-Online' purchases
In part one, I wrote about how flexibility must be the foundation from which to develop future-focused food and beverage strategies (F&B Strategy). Insights from our projects around the world confirm time and time again, flexibility is the key to future planning. Whilst the pandemic has driven substantial growth in on-line purchases; future spending on food and hospitality will ALWAYS be about the built environment and its uniqueness as a lifestyle destination. New Zealand’s post-pandemic immediate return to eating out and drinking in bars re-confirms customers still demand a unique physical restaurant or bar especially at malls that show intrinsic value as beautiful and hygienic socialising places.
Food & Beverage Strategy - Future Focused
Food Beverage Strategy - Future Focused
In this two-part blog, I will share with you why change is good when it comes to food and hospitality planning and how new opportunities must harnessed in order to think differently and to future-focus food and beverage strategies (F&B Strategy). One that complements the vision for the project; including the built environment, placemaking, lifestyle attributes, anchors and entertainment features, to name a few.
Food & Design: A Partnership For Success
Future Food, as specialist food advisors to architects and designers, have long promoted the idea that good food and good design are intertwined in a harmonious relationship that provides an essential platform for success in any food & hospitality business. Now more than ever as hospitality pivots due to unpredictable and pervasive external factors, design and food will need to evolve to create experiences that adapt to meet the ‘new’ needs of customers and ensure satisfaction is maintained in order to retain as many customers as possible in the coming months and years.
The Australian Craft Beverage Movement – Reshaping the F&B Landscape
The craft beverage movement has been building significant momentum over the past 10 years and has subsequently reshaped the liquor industry as we know it. With craft brewing, small scale local distilleries and small batch wine production capturing greater market share year on year, we are seeing a shift in the market towards quality over quantity and experiential over mainstream.
How food and hospitality can flourish in the next normal
Retail Relationships Rewarding Foodies
As we witness the gradual relaxing of restrictions placed on food operators state by state and an uncertain return to trading, one thing is certain – the Food & Hospitality will inevitably recover. In fact, the latest credit card data from both the ANZ and CBA shows that spending on F&B is coming up from its lows.
People are social creatures by nature, with hospitality ingrained in our way of life - albeit it to differing degrees from person to person granted! Moreover, there is still a considerable amount of latent demand: Pre-COVID levels of demand for F&B were not a fad as consumers’ interaction with Hospitality is a practice that has been building over the last two decades.