Post Pandemic Renaissance for Horeca and Foodservice consumption in Spain

Out of home food and beverages consumption in Spain represents 10 % of national GDP and provides for more than 12% of employment. The hit inflicted by the pandemic is starting to be left behind according to a recent Kantar survey where we see that consumption in such an important channel in Spain has grown 23 % in 2021 and has almost reached the level of 2019.

The average ticket spend per visit has recovered the 9 euro mark but there is still some recovery pending in terms of frequency and number of visits to Spain’s 250,000 outlets.

Now that the pandemic is almost behind us we believe is worth taking a strategic look at the whole value chain so as to assess the impacts and adaptations needed in the main stakeholders groups: 1) the suppliers of food and beverages products, 2) the Route-to-Market and supply chain services, 3) the service providers for on-site machinery (cooking features, fountains, coffee machines…) and premise maintenance, 4) the employees and 5) the owners.

1)The suppliers of food and beverages products are rapidly adapting to both the consolidation of ownership of outlets and the new supply dynamics with restaurants joining forces in upstream shared kitchens delivering basic elaborated materials and primary meal components which then are used in different organisations.

2) Wholesalers and distributors together with cash & carries are swiftly adapting to these new levers and to increasingly direct relationship between the grower/producer and the outlet. A flexible oute-to-market assessment becomes as important as ever.

3) The service providers for premises and supplies are experiencing a totally new way of working where concentration is the name of the game.

4) If we focus on the employees and collaborators, the pressure on working hours and new dynamics of life/work balance could well be presenting new issues and opportunities not only in flexible appointments procedures, but also managing staff turnover and making training as efficient as possible.

5) From the perspective of the outlet owner, the main focus is now on trying to adapt to a more competitive landscape where competitors are rapidly concentrating (while at the same time the number of outlets remains very stable and new competitors appear in the retailers’ new sections of ready-to-eat/eat-it-here), and to be able to offer new premiumised propositions. The name of the game is to attract back more consumers into the outlet.

A significant part of the impact has been softened by the new initiative (not only for fast food offerings) to increase home delivery services from food service outlets – obtaining a kealthy penetration of 45% of total out-of-home consumption after opening up to new services from the traditional on-premise direct intake. The new delivery services as Just Eat, Glovo etc. are playing a new significant part here helping changing the services and labour support landscape.

This blurring of the channels and new players appearing in the value chain will necessitate new tools and measurements to be able to look at the full market value chain and the times and places of consumption in radically new ways.