Regional Market Outlook on Catering Services 

Industry Overview

Drivers

  • Increased Outsourcing: Increasing outsourcing translates to better business opportunities for suppliers leading to 2–3% industry growth rate
  • Service Expansion: Clients, especially the B&I segment, are increasingly contracting with suppliers for integrated facility management service

Constraints

  • Reduced Spending: Reduction in contract catering revenue, due to the loss of subsidies paid by the client
  • Increasing Competition: The foodservices industry is facing increasing competition from the retail industry with the advent of quick ‘on-the-go’ meals and the reducing popularity of traditional company cafeteria

Supply Landscape

  • The Switzerland contract catering market is dominated by local players, like SV Group, Eldora, and ZFV, unlike most of Europe, where the major players are Sodexo, Compass, Aramark, and Elior
  • Out of the global suppliers, only Compass Group has a significant presence in the Swiss market, forming the “Big Four”, along the other three major local players, which constitute close to 80% of the contract catering market in Switzerland

Recent Innovations in the Catering Industry

Automated Catering

  • Proposing a full catering service is not always possible; it depends on the size of the sites, the infrastructures available, and staffing requirements vs. the meals served, etc.
  • It may also not be possible because the number of meals sold at certain times of the night or during the weekends is very low and does not cover the fixed ones
  • The vending machine allows you to stock hot meals that can be ordered through a reservation terminal. Each vending machine has 14 / 28 / 42 racks, which open and close automatically once it has read the employee’s badge
  • These food vending machines send signals telling operators when they need to be restocked. Automation combined with artificial intelligence can study the consumption pattern, to stock the items accordingly, thus reducing food waste

Food Delivery Apps

  • Many workplaces lose tremendous amount of money on their cafeterias. With people caring more about what they eat than ever before, employees are no longer satisfied with traditional cafeteria food
  • With a host of food delivery companies, who bring restaurants food of employee’s choice to their work desk, employees can experience authentic, diverse meals they would never get to have with other foodservice solutions

Advantages of Using Food Delivery Solutions

  • Not be limited by the food options within walking distance of employee work desk. These “logistics companies that manage restaurants” open up many options by bringing a rotating variety of restaurants to the work place
  • With more and more people caring about where their food comes from and how it is made, these companies help employees find the options that fit their individual lifestyle and dietary needs

Innovations to look out for in the near future

Sensors

  • 6SensorLabs, a San Francisco-based startup, has launched Nima, a handheld app-connected device that detects gluten in food. Nima isn’t on the market just yet, and it won’t be financially viable for few years
  • Testing for allergies or food sensitivity isn’t the only application for sensors. There’s also the ability to sense and track the nutritional value of all the food you consume over the day

Internet of Things (IoT)

  • With the Internet of Things (IoT), everything is connected. As people rely more on devices and those devices are connected to the Internet, service providers can anticipate needs in real time
  • Imagine a customer walks into the café wearing a smartwatch or carrying a smartphone or tablet. All of those devices are connected to the web and are collecting data about that person
  • This can help the operator to amalgamate that data and use it to help the customer pick an appropriate meal. For instance, if a person is trying to lose weight, through the devices he is wearing or carrying and the data collected through them on the internet, operators could customize a meal that would meet his needs based on the foods he’s already consumed that day
  • If you combine the data collected by the Internet of Things with affective and persuasive computing, a device in the café could help customers achieve long-lasting health results through their food choices

3D Printing

  • A company called Natural Machines has created the Foodini, which uses real, fresh ingredients to print a range of dishes, from sweet to savory
  • The machine isn’t available for purchase just yet, but the company told CNN that the initial release will be for professional kitchen users, with a consumer version to follow at the projected price of $1,000
  • From printing soft food for the elderly to food in outer space, the prospects of 3-D food printing seem endless. While the technology isn’t exactly built—or priced—for the noncommercial kitchen currently, there’s no denying that the kitchen of the future just might include some 3-D printing