Your next major redevelopment must do more than improve the look of today’s venues. It needs to anticipate how members, local communities and visitors will eat, drink and socialise over the next ten years, then translate that outlook into a commercially sound plan for venues, kitchens, service, technology and people.

Big picture thinking, grounded commercial discipline

Big picture thinking gives a Club permission to test what hospitality could become before existing floor plans and operating habits narrow the answer.  The exploration should be ambitious, but every option still needs to answer practical questions:

Does the venue mix create genuine reasons to visit across more day parts, occasions and customer groups?

Can each concept remain distinctive while sharing production, purchasing, technology and other capabilities where that improves efficiency?

Can the operation scale up for peak periods and contract during quieter trade without losing atmosphere or service quality?

Are kitchens, bars, storage, loading, waste and staff circulation designed as core infrastructure rather than fitted into leftover space?

Does technology remove friction while preserving the human service that makes hospitality memorable?

Can the concepts, fit-outs and operating model adapt as customer expectations, workforce availability, costs and regulation change?

Plan the next cycle before the current one ends

The most effective time to plan is before performance forces a rushed response. A clear view of the lifecycle allows a Club to protect what is working, renew what is losing energy and replace what no longer fits the market. A long-term F&B masterplan then connects those choices to the future customer, the commercial opportunity and the physical and operational capability needed to deliver it.

Future Food brings specialist hospitality strategy, market analysis, concept development, commercial modelling and operational planning into one process. For Clubs considering the next decade, that process creates confidence for the Board, a stronger brief for architects and designers, a clearer basis for capital allocation and a more resilient path into the future of food and hospitality.

The Future Food Masterplanning process

1. ALIGN THE AMBITION
   Begin with Club leadership, operations and key stakeholders. Establish the role food and hospitality should play in the Club’s future, the audiences the Club wants to serve, the appetite for change and the decisions the masterplan must support.

2. DIAGNOSE THE CURRENT OPERATION 
   Review each venue through the F&B lifecycle and assess the full customer and operating journey. This includes positioning, menus, service, pricing, presentation, trading patterns, labour, food costs, production, storage, receiving, waste, circulation and the condition and capacity of existing assets.

3. UNDERSTAND THE FUTURE MARKET  
   Examine member and local demographics, visitor markets, customer behaviour, competitors, gaps in the local offer and the development pipeline around the Club. The aim is to identify credible sources of future demand rather than simply project the current customer mix forward.

4. CREATE THE HOSPITALITY VISION & VENUE PORTFOLIO  
   Define the Club’s future positioning and the role of each venue. A balanced portfolio may serve different price points, day parts and occasions, from coffee and convenience through family dining, social drinking, premium experiences, events and outdoor activation. Each venue needs a clear purpose, audience, menu direction and service style, while the portfolio works as one business.

5. MODEL SUSTAINABLE PERFORMANCE  
   Translate the market opportunity into realistic patronage, spend, revenue and operating assumptions. Test venue capacity, food and beverage mix, labour, cost of goods, operating expenses and potential management models. This step helps the Club distinguish an attractive idea from an offer that can trade sustainably.

6. WRITE THE OPERATIONAL & SPATIAL BRIEF  
   Convert the strategy into requirements for front and back of house. Set the production model, kitchen and bar capacities, storage, loading, waste, vertical transport, staff movement, service points, technology and adjacencies. Design should follow the operational needs of the venue portfolio, with infrastructure sized for realistic peak demand and future flexibility.

7. TEST STAGING & IMPLEPENTATION  
   Prioritise initiatives across immediate improvements, medium-term renewal and major capital works. Define decision points, responsibilities and performance measures, then review the plan as customer behaviour, trading results and project conditions change. A masterplan should guide action while remaining responsive to new evidence.