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The Millennials Championing Change in the Food and Drink Industry

food and drink
Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

The Millennials Championing Change in the Food and Drink Industry

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Millennials have a great potential to change our culture. For the food and drink industry, change is nothing new. New tastes and influences constantly turn over menus and products that reflect consumer demand. However, young people today are forcing the hand of manufacturers and restaurateurs. Demand for unique, varied, and stimulating food and drink is higher than ever.

Here, Electrix, a provider of electrical junction boxes for food and drink manufacturers, explores the trends that millennials enjoy and how it can help restaurants, bars, and stores get a competitive edge.

Boundary pushing

Millennials thrive on uniqueness, and seeking out new experiences is at the core of food and drink culture for this generation. 72 percent of millennials said that they would prefer to spend money on experiences over material things. Food and drink brands recognizing this shift in behavior are beginning to question whether they are selling a product or selling an experience.

To enjoy unique experiences, millennials will seek out opportunities to try new foods and drinks, exploring flavors that have been traditionally hidden in mainstream culture. In the US, international cuisine has seen accelerated growth. In fact, international cuisine is expected to outpace traditional food categories within the next three to five years, according to the Food Institute.

This is happening because the cuisine offers new experiences. Boundaries must be pushed if opportunities are to be found. This journey begins by finding a unique selling point of food and drink and understanding how to create an experience around it.

No option is not an option

Millennials demand choice, and brands that can offer variety are succeeding with millennial demographics. It shouldn’t be surprising. Young people today are familiar with choice: picking from thousands of movies on Netflix, browsing an expansive selection of nut milk in a local café, or debating how and where to eat their food. The latter has certainly been popularized during the pandemic.

Restaurants have not only seen the opportunity in food delivery, but lockdowns have forced restaurant-quality food to come to the customer, rather than the customer heading to the restaurant.

The trend of home delivery options is expected to grow. While in 2017, restaurant to consumer delivery in the US was valued at $11.5 billion, by 2020 it achieved $15.6 in sales. Projections suggest it will further grow to $18.5 billion by 2024. As home delivery options increase, proactive food and drink businesses that seize the opportunity will similarly experience growth. The choice to eat in, take out, or use delivery services is essential for millennials.

Choice isn’t just about convenience. Food and drink brands should curate offerings that reflect lifestyle choices. Does a food brand offer vegan alternatives or meet any other dietary requirements? Can a bar offer a selection of non-alcoholic drinks? Creating choice is creating inclusivity, and when looking for new food and drink options, this offering will give businesses a competitive edge.

Stimulating all the senses

Food and drink aren’t just for the pleasure of tongues. Today, millennials expect an aesthetics experience that they can share with friends and family on social media. In fact, ‘#Food’ has been tagged over 456 billion times on Instagram. ‘#Drink’ and ‘#Cocktails’ have been tagged over 47 million and 30 million times respectively. Millennials make up the main bulk of Instagram users, with those aged between 18 to 34 making up 62 percent of global users.

One survey found that 69 percent of US millennials in this age range took a photo of their food before eating. So, should those in the food industry be working to make their food look great as well as taste great? Absolutely!

Food and drink that appeals to all the senses are gaining ground, whether in restaurants or on grocery store shelves. Consider social media sensations such as Salt Bae, sprinkling seasoning over steak. The recent trend of baklava, tossing pistachio pastry into the air. Or Martinelli apple juice, which replicates the sound of an apple when the bottle is bitten. Each is exciting, unique, and goes down a storm on social media, building millions of views on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.

Millennials are forcing the food and drink industry to be more than just connoisseurs of flavor. Value in other aspects must be recognized and actioned to encourage millennials through the door.

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Sources

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/05/millennials-are-prioritizing-experiences-over-stuff.html

https://foodinstitute.com/event/the-rise-of-international-cuisine-and-flavors-in-the-us/

https://www.statista.com/forecasts/891082/online-food-delivery-revenue-by-segment-in-united-states

https://www.statista.com/statistics/325587/instagram-global-age-group/

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/study-says-69-of-millennials-take-photos-of-their-food-before-eating_n_58b73078e4b0284854b39105

https://www.tiktok.com/tag/martinelli?lang=en

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Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, Warehousing

What’s Keeping Food and Beverage Companies Up at Night in 2021?

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Here are the top issues that most food and beverage companies are trying to solve right now and some tips on how to work through these pressing problems. 

 

Climbing mountains is nothing new for food and beverage companies that, like most organizations, face a steady stream of new challenges in the course of business. Whether they’re complying with new regulations, adapting to changing consumer demands, or strengthening their supply chains against disruption, food and beverage companies have to stay on their toes or risk falling behind the curve.

 

Right now, some of the key issues that these organizations are facing include:

 

-Changes in consumer demand, both in terms of the volume and variety of manufactured goods consumed.

 

-A higher volume of direct-to-consumer (DTC) transactions. With more consumers shopping from home, setting up and fulfilling these distribution networks have become full-time jobs for food and foodservice organizations.

 

-Disruption of transportation networks needed to be able to deliver these DTC orders (e.g., truck driver shortages, ocean container shortages, transportation capacity constraints, etc.).

 

-Workforce presence, composition, and location. Despite the current economic situation, available labor is still difficult to find in certain areas.

 

-The uncertainties of virus transmission have led many countries to adopt food protectionist policies, DHL points out in a recent report, which has disrupted end-to-end supply chain continuity.

 

-This, in turn, has increased the global price of food and beverage products and has made the global food supply more inaccessible.

 

-Reductions in passenger air travel have impacted air freight considerably, the method by which most perishable products are transported. (According to DHL, air freight capacity declined over 80% on routes between Europe and Latin America in 2020.)

 

-Workforce health and safety—an issue that was exacerbated by the global pandemic. For example, companies have had to rethink their plant floor design in order to accommodate social distancing guidelines. Doug Mefford, our product manager has recently explained why using a WMS can result in an enhanced work environment for the warehouse employees all while reducing risks and potential errors in an interview with Food Logistics.

 

-Raw material and component inventory shortages affecting production. As supply chain shortages persist, everything from steel to resin to electrical components remain difficult to source in the current market.

 

-Inventory shortages that impact manufacturing and distribution companies’ sales.

 

The list of challenges doesn’t end there, but these points paint a picture of an industry that’s still shaking off the impacts of the global pandemic while also looking for ways to work smarter, better, and faster in 2021 (and beyond).

 

Long-Term Resiliency Wanted

 

As the coronavirus outbreak spread, unprecedented challenges have surfaced for food and beverage companies all over the world. Extraordinary measures have been taken to keep the food supply chain safe, efficient, and moving. Industry leaders with agile solutions in place have been able to mitigate some of the fallout from the pandemic, while others are still learning how to cope with the new realities of the crisis.

 

Regardless of where they land on the technology adoption curve, companies need to be able to quickly identify, configure/develop and adopt new capabilities that ensure long-term organizational resiliency.

 

“COVID-19 has impacted the entire food and beverage (F&B) supply chain, from farm field to consumer,” DHL writes in Food Logistics. “It has upended the sector’s operational capacity in its entirety, including production, processing, packaging, and distribution.” COVID also caused a shift toward a greater need for efficiency in production amid the long-term realities of staff capacity shortages and an unpredictable regulatory environment, the freight provider points out.

 

Three Steps to Take Now

 

The good news is that the global food supply chain nearly always shows resilience in the face of unanticipated challenges. Here are three steps that all food sector companies can take now to make their supply chains more resilient and responsible:

 

Focus on go-to-market versatility. Existing go-to-market channels like bars and restaurants could take months to fully recover from COVID-19. “Companies, therefore, need to invest in omnichannel capabilities, especially focusing on online/digital solutions,” Deloitte explains. “This should also include product [interchangeability] across channels.”

 

Step up end-to-end supply chain management. Work with a wider pool of suppliers, including regional ones, and keep larger strategic stocks. A broad product range is more expensive to maintain, but spreads risks, Deloitte acknowledges. “An alternative is to simplify recipes and/or remove problem products from the portfolio, resulting in a leaner, more manageable product range, less risk, and lower costs.”

 

Leverage technology ecosystems. Good supply chain visibility starts with a robust technology hub that includes a warehouse management system (WMS), transportation management system (TMS), yard management system (YMS), and order management system (OMS). It also includes Industry 4.0 technologies that provide advanced capabilities. “Digital supply networks are going to make businesses less vulnerable in the longer term,” Deloitte says. “Robots, for instance, reduce dependence on migrant labor, while track-and-trace solutions help businesses zoom in on supply chain bottlenecks.”

 

With the global pandemic still in full effect, companies across the food supply chain must plan for the continuing effects of the outbreak on different areas of supply, demand, and the overall economy. Using the strategies outlined above, companies can work to improve their supply chain resilience and visibility in a way that addresses the rigors of the current operating environment while also helping organizations prepare for the future. Generix Group North America has recently hosted a webinar Post Pandemic Impacts on the Food & Beverage Business featuring a guest speaker from Chapman’s Ice Cream, John Fleming. You can listen to the recording here and plan how to address supply chain resilience within your own organization.

 

Generix Group North America provides a series of solutions within our Supply Chain Hub product suite to create efficiencies across an entire supply chain. From Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and Transportation Management Systems (TMS) to Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and more, software platforms can deliver a wide range of benefits that ultimately flow to the warehouse operator’s bottom line. We invite you to contact us to learn more.

 

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This article originally appeared on GenerixGroup.com. Republished with permission.

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Archives, Commentary, Global Trade Daily

Why A Vaccine For COVID-19 Won’t Restore Small Businesses Overnight

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The vaccine for the COVID-19 virus recently began shipment. The Wall Street Journal states it will take until sometime in March of 2021 to vaccinate the first 100 million individuals with the highest priority of getting the vaccine. That would leave well over  200 million Americans still in need of the vaccine as we head into spring.

The stock market is doing very well as it hovers around 30,000 – an unbelievable achievement never seen before, even though millions of people have lost their jobs and people continue to lose their jobs on a daily basis. The stock market is based on the theory of expectation, and what it is telling us is that with a vaccine, the economy will begin to turn around and will be much better going forward.

But let’s look at this through the eyes of small businesses.

Outside of government, companies with less than $7 million in sales and fewer than 500 employees are widely considered small businesses by the U.S. Small Business Administration. And the expectation for small businesses to return to what we considered normal pre-pandemic is not going to happen anytime soon.

Here’s why. Multiple states have banned indoor dining at what remaining restaurants are still open. As of Dec. 1, nearly 17% of U.S. restaurants were “closed permanently or long-term,” according to a study by the National Restaurant Association. That percentage amounts to over 110,000 service-industry businesses across the country.

The last known numbers reported at the end of September for businesses in total that had closed were approximately 170,000. And since that time, the total has possibly exceeded 200,000. It is hard to determine how many people have been affected. In November 2020, the national unemployment level of the United States stood at about 10.74 million unemployed persons, which equates to a little over 10%. However, this number only tracks the number of people who are unemployed. It doesn’t record the people who are not drawing unemployment benefits and are out of work. So, in reality, the number is larger than the 10.74 million.

With businesses closing and laying people off, no jobs for people to replace what they lost, and no income for the owners of the businesses, vaccine or no vaccine there is not going to be anyone working to turn the economy around. It will take most of 2021 to make the vaccine available to the millions of people who will want it, but many of the unemployed still will have no work to go to after they get the vaccine and the economy continues to sit.

The economists tell us there will be a surge in business once a vaccine has been made available and administered to the public, but the numbers tell us differently. And here is the biggest kicker of all that the economists have not figured into the equation: People’s habits have changed over the past year.

People are not buying as many clothes as they used to because they have nowhere to go. There is little dining, virtually no entertainment, and no gatherings, so there is no need to buy new clothes. Fuel sales are down because people are not commuting to work like they used to. Any business or venue that needs a gathering of people to remain in business is either closed or ignored due to government restrictions.

It is obvious that small businesses are not going to return to pre-pandemic levels with so many businesses closed in such a short time period. We are looking at 2022 at the earliest before the idea of normalcy begins to occur. And when the economy does begin to turn around, some of our favorite businesses we used to visit will be gone. Businesses cannot survive as long as the states keep changing the rules, which creates volatility in the marketplace. Entrepreneurs and investors seek opportunities but shun regulation and volatility, which can disrupt the flow of business. We eventually will see a surge in small businesses opening, but until then small businesses are on a declining slope.

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Terry Monroe (www.terrymonroe.com) is founder and president of American Business Brokers & Advisors (ABBA) and author of Hidden Wealth: The Secret to Getting Top Dollar for Your Business with ForbesBooks. Monroe has owned and operated more than 40 different businesses and sold in excess of 800 businesses. As president of ABBA, which he founded in 1999, he serves as an advisor to business buyers and sellers throughout the nation. As an expert source he has been written about and featured in The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur magazine, CNN Money, USA Today, CEOWORLD, and Forbes.

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, International Trade

How the Coronavirus Pandemic has Diversified UK Business

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As the Coronavirus pandemic has altered our ways of living and working – potentially for good – it has sent shockwaves through areas of UK business previously thought untouchable.

The thriving food and hospitality sector has steadily grown over recent years but faces an uncertain future as social distancing becomes a new norm of everyday life.

Of course, some industries have enjoyed something of a boon during the lockdown as their products, services, and expertise have come to the fore, or been adapted to suit the needs of the population.

How have businesses altered their offering?

Many eateries have kept afloat by switching their sit-down service to take-out or delivery, while robotic delivery of food and drink in Milton Keynes could offer a glimpse into the future of the industry, long after Covid-19’s grip on our daily lives has subsided.

The airline industry has been similarly decimated as planes have been grounded but swapping passengers for cargo has allowed some to maintain business.

Land-based delivery services have thrived, especially those connected to online shopping, like our trips to the high street or retail centers have been curtailed by the lockdown.

This has not come without the need for a change to regular services, however, with health and safety now more paramount, businesses have needed to be agile in swiftly adapting sanitary and sterile methods of delivery especially when dealing with at-risk customers.

Can businesses help in the fight against Coronavirus?

Some of the biggest swings in business have seen entities completely change their line of work in a bid to help fight the virus.

Producing personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks, gowns, and gloves, has become a priority for many textile companies.

In the bid to build more hospital equipment, Formula 1 teams used their engineering might take on the task. World champion outfit Mercedes produced a ventilator which was used in a trial by the NHS and made the plans freely available for other manufacturers to build their own versions.

As the need for clear public communication has risen, printing business instant print was marked as NHS supply chain critical, producing an adapted product range including posters, signage, floor stickers and more to be used in a host of healthcare settings.

Will UK businesses recover after Coronavirus?

This is a tricky question to answer, as to how our daily lives will look once the pandemic subsides remains a grey area.

As scientific exploration into the virus continues, the threat of a ‘second wave’ of illnesses sweeping the world is set to make the resumption of our previous ways of life something that is implemented slowly, if indeed some things we used to take for granted ever do return to our daily routines.

Work settings may change, infrastructure will likely have to be adapted to suit a more socially distant population. How crowds gathering in shops, restaurants, bars, concerts, sporting events and more will be managed is almost impossible to predict as simply containing the virus still remains the highest priority.

As some countries begin to tentatively emerge from lockdown and try to get to grips with a ‘new normal’, the world will look to the likes of Australia and New Zealand for cues, while China has also looked to restore many of the social liberties that were taken away when the virus began to spread in its Hubei province.

If your business has been impacted by the Coronavirus, perhaps some of the examples above can help guide you through the rocky times or inspire a change of direction that may bring greater success once the pandemic passes.

Archives, Global Site Selection, Global Trade Daily, News, Site Selection

Johnny Rocket’s Open’s New Singapore Restaurant

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Alsio Viejo, CA – After successful development in Southeast Asian markets, including the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, Johnny Rockets is now partnering with new partners to open a new restaurant in Singapore.

“With 13 restaurants currently operating in Southeast Asia, Singapore is a natural next step in furthering our expansion in the region,” said Scott Chorna, SVP of International Development for Johnny Rockets.  “With the demand for better burger concepts booming, now is the ideal time for Singapore residents and visitors to experience our signature American dishes.”

A destination for both residents and travelers, Johnny Rockets’ entry into Singapore paves the way for future growth in Asia, particularly Vietnam, Thailand and China, markets “that historically have embraced Americana cuisine and culture,” the company said.

Johnny Rockets’ franchise partners currently operate more than 100 restaurants outside the US, with plans to double that number by 2017 as part of its global strategy.

Purchased by Sun Capital Partners in June 2013, Johnny Rockets operates more than 320 franchise and corporate locations in 26 countries around the world.

 

10/10/2014

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BLT Steak to Open Restaurant in Tokyo

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New York, NY – Global restaurant and hospitality group ESquared Hospitality is partnering with Tokyo-based Jinterji Co. Ltd. to bring BLT Steak to Japan.

The first BLT Steak Tokyo will open at Roppongi-Itchome Izumi Garden later this month.

BLT Steak and ESquared Hospitality opened their first restaurant in New York City in 2004 and have grown their network to more than 10 brands and 28 restaurants worldwide, including 14 BLT Steak and BLT Prime locations.

The new Tokyo restaurant will be ESquared Hospitality’s sixth outpost in Asia, joining BLT Steak restaurants in Hong Kong and Seoul, and BLT Burger locations in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

ESquared Hospitality will also open BLT Steak in Bahrain later this year, marking the company’s first entrance into the Middle East.

The new BLT Steak Tokyo is a bi-level restaurant featuring high ceilings on the main floor with a spacious bar and dining room, which can accommodate 111 guests.

At the back are four private dining rooms that can seat six to eight guests in each, or be combined to host up to 20 guests.

Guests may smoke on the mezzanine level, which boasts a unique design and seating for 40, while an outdoor terrace “is adorned with greenery and colorful artwork to create an elegant resort atmosphere,” the company said.

09/09/2014

Archives, Global Site Selection, Global Trade Daily, News, Site Selection

Fuddruckers Opens Second Italian Location Northwest Of Milan

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Houston, TX – Hamburger restauranteur Fuddruckers has debuted its second Italian location today in partnership with new franchisee Vinum et Alia.

According to parent Luby’s Inc., the 3,490-square-foot fast casual restaurant is located approximately 20 miles northwest of Milan between Castellanza, home of the University of Economics Carlo Cattaneo, and Legnano, a city that traces its history back to medieval times and now boasts one of the area’s most popular parks.

The new site is one of ten planned with Vinum et Alia with proposed targets in Italy, as well as in Poland and Switzerland.

The 138-seat venue is the first free-standing restaurant for the partnership and benefits from immediate access to a high traffic state road.

Texas-based Luby’s Inc. operates restaurants under the brands Luby’s Cafeteria, Fuddruckers and Cheeseburger in Paradise and provides food service management through its Culinary Services division.

The company is the franchisor for 112 Fuddruckers franchise locations across the US, Canada, Mexico, Italy, and the Dominican Republic.

07/15/2014