Although in person events are still a huge part of the foodservice, hospitality and food and drink world (we are a people business after all!), it is fair to say that post-Covid we have seen a consolidation of trade shows across the board, which is no bad thing when everyone’s time is at a premium. This September saw five trade shows become one, with The London Food & Drink Festival bringing together lunch!, the National Restaurant, Pub & Bar Show, the Natural & Organic Food Show, the Artisan Food & Drink Show and the new London Drinks Exchange under a single roof for the first time at ExCel. Over 600 exhibitors, eight stages and more than 200 speakers later, the inaugural edition has given the food and drink world plenty to digest. As a leading food and drink marketing agency that spends a lot of time listening to operators, buyers and brand teams, we went looking for signals and of course a fair few samples – well it would be rude not to! Here is what stood out.

Why did five shows become one?

Five events merged into one because the lines between foodservice, retail and hospitality buying have blurred beyond the point where separate shows made sense. One trade badge now opens eight stages and every sector under a single roof at ExCeL London.

It’s a trend we have long been ahead of at jellybean as we diversified to include retail, convenience, shopper and consumer channels nearly ten years ago, expanding our original foodservice specialism to reflect an increasingly integrated market.

The National Restaurant, Pub & Bar Show, the Natural & Organic Food Show and the Artisan Food & Drink Show have run alongside each other for years. Folding them together, with a new drinks event – the London Drinks Exchange – sitting inside the same halls as lunch! and the National Restaurant, Pub & Bar Show, both of which have long been a must visit for foodservice buyers, tells you where organisers think buyers are heading. Fewer separate trips, one combined journey across foodservice, on-trade and retail and convenience. This offers exhibitors more footfall and sectors to target and visitors a breadth of speakers, stages, and brands to discover.

Which foodservice leaders had the microphone?

Pret A Manger’s Pano Christou, Burger King’s Alasdair Murdoch, Wahaca’s Gemma Glasson and JD Wetherspoon’s John Hutson anchored a speaker programme focused on those running P&Ls, not consultants describing the market from the outside.

The wider line-up leaned the same way. Sainsbury’s James Campbell, itsu’s Annabel Mackie, KFC’s Alice Hutfield and WatchHouse’s Caroline Ottoy took the lunch! stage to talk food to go, retail crossover and coffee shop growth. Over on the National Restaurant, Pub & Bar Show stage, Mowgli Street Food founder Nisha Katona MBE, D3 Collective’s Des Gunewardena and UKHospitality chair Kate Nicholls OBE covered the operator’s view of pubs, casual dining and the wider trading picture.

What does the programme say about the mood in foodservice right now?

The new features signal an industry still investing in product innovation and drinks growth even while operators talk openly about cost pressure. A dedicated Chef Live stage, a standalone drinks zone and two Launchpad Zones for emerging brands all point the same way.

Delve, Deliciously Ella, Twinings, Graze, Tims Dairy, MOJU and Tru Foods were amongst the brands showing up across the natural, artisan and lunch! halls, all chasing the same convenience-plus-wellness territory that has defined foodservice launches for a while now.

As ever the opposing trends of indulgence and wellbeing sat alongside each other, or in some cases, across an aisle. There was no shortage of challenger brands offering up functional benefits from fibre to electrolytes, collagen to lion’s mane, protein to healthy healthier caffeine. But equally, we saw bakery and indulgent snacking holding their own. As usual, there’s a place and occasion for everything and it was great to see so many entries into the Innovation Challenge.

It was also a day for catching up with industry friends and contacts as everyone gathering in docklands to keep their fingers on the pulse of food and drink across foodservice, retail, convenience and consumer. If you missed out on this year, be sure to put the date in your diary for 2027!

Susan Wickes
Latest posts by Susan Wickes (see all)