Catering equipment manufacturers are beginning to activate contingency plans so that projects aren’t negatively impacted by any EU border chaos
EDITOR’S VIEW: Forget about the calm before the storm, what about after it?
Restaurant bosses will be wishing for 2019 to be significantly more buoyant than the conditions they’ve encountered over the past 12 months
EDITOR’S VIEW: Operators unprepared for catering equipment price rises are burying their heads in the sand
It’s the time of year when manufacturers are tweaking prices, but uncertainty around the outcome of Brexit has raised the spectre of further revisions in 2019
EDITOR’S VIEW: Can flexible financing stimulate kitchen equipment spend?
It’s only natural for suppliers to examine ways of stimulating sales activity when they fear customers might be spending less
EDITOR’S VIEW: Even with the best will in the world, there’s no escaping the price factor just yet
Although it probably wouldn’t surprise you to hear the UK foodservice market described as an industry that buys mainly on price, it has always felt as though there is an expectation from within the supplier community that this will change in future. Whether this is misguided, or at best hopeful, only time will tell. There…
EDITOR’S VIEW: From dark kitchens to backstage kitchens, the need to adapt has never been clearer
The ability to adapt is a quality that all successful businesses need, especially during the sort of challenging times that the foodservice sector currently finds itself in. Some of the most accomplished operators are those that identify ways to incrementally evolve their proposition to increase their chances of growth, making them less susceptible to dramatic…
EDITOR’S VIEW: The real solution to a very plastic problem
Walk into any commercial kitchen and it’s the overwhelming glint of stainless steel that will dominate your line of sight. But it’s another material frequently used by the hospitality industry that is actually forcing foodservice operators to ask some serious questions of themselves. The issue of single-use plastics has shot to the fore this year,…
EDITOR’S VIEW: Are catering equipment suppliers right to be frustrated with the uptake of green kitchens?
Green kitchens. It’s a topic that transcends so many different areas but one that operators would be foolish to ignore when you consider the way in which trends are moving. When I speak with suppliers there is still a clear frustration that attitudes towards specifying energy efficient equipment aren’t as robust as they perhaps would…
EDITOR’S VIEW: BBC’s annual ice exposé shows operators are their own worst enemy sometimes
There are certain things that happen in the industry with such regularity you can almost set your clock by them — one of which is operators being caught out by the BBC’s Watchdog programme for suspect hygiene practices when it comes to ice. From what I can tell, the broadcaster doesn’t even have to work…
EDITOR’S VIEW: It’s ‘squeaky bum time’ for restaurant directors bailing out their businesses with loans
It was the great Sir Alex Ferguson that gave the phrase ‘squeaky bum time’ its notoriety, using it to describe the sound made by moving around in a plastic seat while squirming under pressure. He was, of course, applying it to his Manchester United team in the latter stages of the 2003 season as they…
