What does the future hold for foodservice consultancy?
Tomorrow sees the welcome return of the Commercial Kitchen Show at the Excel Centre in London. We are really looking forward to the event and being part of an insightful panel with our professional consultant members. This session takes place on Friday at 1pm and will be Chaired by Michael Jones, editorial director of FCSI’s Foodservice Consultant magazine. The panel will address how the industry is recovering from the debilitating pressures brought about by the pandemic and how opportunities exist to improve the industry and to make it future-fit.
Challenges facing foodservice
Ahead of this session we wanted to explore what the biggest single challenge is in foodservice consulting right now. Panellist, Julie Barker who is an independent consultant and FCSI professional associate member told us: “Time is a real resource challenge across the industry at the moment. Due to shortages of staff, organisations are having to buy in services which does bring some opportunities for consultants. However, on the flip side, some businesses are pausing work due to nervousness around Brexit, labour shortages and supply chain issues. Uncertainty in the marketplace is a constant challenge we face as consultants.”
Our Chair of FCSI UK&I, Julian Edwards, managing director of GY5 Limited, is finding that clients are wanting everything quickly commenting: “As they haven’t been able to do many activities for the past 18 months it’s now all hands-on deck.” Julian is having to understand suppliers’ ability to deliver, whether they have remained solvent and confirm there are no underlying financial issues before entering into long term contracts.
FCSI UK&I consultant, Stephen Merritt-Harrison from Merritt-Harrison Catering Consultancy feels the big issue at the moment is demand is still down, especially in workplace catering. These hospitality businesses have been modelled around large and full offices with hungry and thirsty workers. If people are still opting to work from home or businesses have changed the way they operate, this brings many challenges for caterers who have based long-term business decisions on much larger numbers. He said: “As a consultant this has shifted the nature of what I do and how I support my clients. In the past I may have been helping with things like queue management or maximising revenue; now I am working with clients on changing their business models completely.”
What is normal?
We keep hearing about things returning to ‘normal’ with lots of debate about when that may be, so we wanted to discover what consultants think. Stephen advised that you see normality coming in shifts so one sector may struggle for a while but that then shifts into another sector. For example, when mid-market restaurants suffered, we saw food retail do better, as did the takeaway market. He added: “It’s just not pandemic related, we still have Brexit issues to resolve as well as ongoing wider industry issues. Personally, I don’t think we’ll ever go back to how things were before, but we will see stability once again. When that date is largely depends on how this winter looks with COVID-19 and we’ll have a much better idea once we have seen how well we can live with this virus.”
Julian thinks ‘recovery’, which we hear so much about, is an interesting word as generally, the industry has all but recovered in terms of being fully operational and being able to offer a service. However, he feels that there will be an issue with consumer confidence for some time yet and it is a long road ahead to recover to pre-COVID-19 numbers.
Changing your approach
When considering new approaches to consultancy, Julie feels it is about being responsive to clients’ different and changing needs. She feels it important to be open to providing headspace for clients as opposed to standalone projects commenting: “You should also consider collaborating with other consultants more. Be ahead of the curve; look and understand what’s coming within the area you specialise in as we can’t stand still. You also need to place a greater emphasis on the sustainability and carbon neutral agenda. There are a number of emerging disruptors into the marketplace which makes it exciting.”
Looking specifically at one area of his expertise – education catering, Julian added: “The pandemic has had a significant impact on how school catering providers work with their clients, and there is scepticism on all sides on how all parties could deal with another lockdown and more business interruption. Plus, there is generally a new approach to hygiene and space management which has put a strain on efficiencies. For example, school meals are being served in a staggered fashion for safety reasons, but there is still only an hour for lunch.”
When thinking about what the future of foodservice consulting will look like Stephen feels that sustainability is going up the agenda. He told us: “There has been a reluctance to get behind it in the past, but something has really shifted over the last few years. There is a real hunger amongst consumers to see sustainability rise in importance when it comes to designs and what businesses are offering. When we are able to compare 2025/2030 to 2010 it’s going to look like chalk and cheese.”
Julie believes the future of consultancy very much depends on your specialism adding: “I am not a kitchen designer, but I know when a kitchen works and when it does not. Outside of the technical consultant requirements, there is a need for a broad, respected and up-to-date knowledge base. Consultants need to keep their ear to the ground and ensure that their expertise is current and looking at what is emerging. This isn’t just about food and drink trends but changes in the marketplace, high street, public sector and legislation. As consultants we must think outside the box; buying in resources and services is growing and in the short to mid-term, I believe it will continue to grow.”
Julian also believes the demand for foodservice consulting is increasing, especially in the public sector. However, he expressed his concern on tendering based on metrics and cost savings, whereby consultants work on the remit of evolving the catering performance to achieve greater profitability. He feels this could drive down standards and impose a threat to professional foodservice consultants, which is why organisations like FCSI UK&I are so important.
You can learn more about what professional foodservice consultants think by joining us at the Commercial Kitchen Show. Let us know your views via our social media channels using @FCSIUK on Twitter and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/15226875.
