The FSM Awards recognises the very best of the contract catering world across its diverse sectors, from workplace to education catering, across everything from management to chef skills, innovation to CSR. The glittering night was compered by Mark Durden-Smith who it seemed had trawled through everyone’s LinkedIn and company websites to find out some of the most embarrassing facts about them (all of which was taken in good humour – thankfully).
Every year MCA Insight holds its marketing in food service conference allowing food service marketing people to gather and hear from industry leading lights, as well as network and exchange learnings and ideas.
Anyone who has been brought up on a diet of American films and TV knows the importance of Thanksgiving in the US. Celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November this public holiday originated as a harvest festival and the event that Americans commonly call the “First Thanksgiving” was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621.
The EDUcatering Awards held by H20’s EDUcatering Magazine celebrates the oft unsung heroes of catering in the education sector. School catering has seen its critics over recent years, but in stark contrast to the headlines, it has some of the most passionate and driven people in the world of foodservice. Dedicated to ensuring our children eat well and develop good habits early on, school caterers both in-house and in the contract catering arena take their responsibility very seriously and truly deserve this glittering night. As the leading foodservice agency we were lucky enough to attend this marvellous event hosted by Jamie Robins MD of H20 and Jason O’Rouke, Headteacher of Washingborough Academy.
As a long-time supporter of Hospitality Action, we were delighted to support them by creating the marketing material for their Festive Fundraising Dinner: An Evening with Raymond Blanc OBE. This fabulous event will see Raymond Blanc OBE, his Executive Head Chef Gary Jones and Chef Pâtissier Benoit Blin from the two Michelin-starred Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons prepare a lavish Christmas feast at Chino Latino, at The Park Plaza Riverbank in London on Monday 26th November.
Last Thursday saw this year’s search for foodservice’s most innovative food and drink products (as well those of us involved in food and drink marketing) culminate in a glittering ceremony, as the highly prestigious UK Foodservice Quality Food Awards celebrated the very best of the industry. Held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, the event welcomed hundreds of the foodservice industry’s key players and of course as the leading food and drink agency with a raft of clients up for awards the we were there in force. Along with the beans and some of our lovely clients, including The Real Soup Company, Manilife and Savse, there was everyone from nationwide wholesalers to ground-breaking independents – all keen to see whose products had been judged good enough to receive a highly coveted Quality mark.
This Arena Autumn event rang the changes, with a new venue in the shape of the imposing Banking Hall in the heart of the City of London. The line-up included a talk on the market from Simon Stenning of MCA and the headline interview hosted by Mark Lewis of Hospitality Action with Frank Gleeson, CEO and Regional President of Northern Europe Aramark and Jon Knight, CEO of Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group. With the day billed as ‘When contract catering meets the high street’ for obvious reasons, Simon took to the stage to take us through an overview of the eating out market and then onto the dynamics affecting the branded restaurant and contract catering world. Some of the key take-outs included:
Recently a select bunch of beans were lucky enough to head over to Denmark’s capital Copenhagen and in-between working hard, managed to fit in some fabulous food. (Well as a truly European food and drink agency it’s surely expected!) You can see some of the highlights here…
When people think of Dubrovnik they often conjure up the spectacular citadel of the old town (a UNSECO World Heritage site) or the beautiful rugged coastline and crystal-clear waters of Croatia, which of course is a big part of visiting this beautiful city. However, from a foodie’s point of view the city and surrounding areas also offer up some fabulous culinary experiences, which are not to be missed. All in the line of duty, we visited the following wonderful restaurants enjoying some great meals along the way (well what else would you expect from the MD of a food and drink agency!?) …
As a leading integrated food and drink agency we make it our business to keep up to date with the latest trends and dynamics in the eating out market. Part of this ongoing commitment is our membership of the MCA Forum who shared their latest report on the eating out market last week. As you can imagine this a hugely comprehensive report which covers off economic trends, operator challenges, consumer insights and much more (and well worth joining to receive). However, these are my top five take-outs from the half day briefing to help keep you in the loop when it comes to foodservice, hospitality and eating out as a whole.
Since the days of David vs. Goliath the underdog has won out over the big guys. As the leading food and drink agency, the underdog or as we call it ‘challenger brand mind-set’ is one we love. There is nothing better than shaking-up a market with a new entrant who can re-write the rules and take no prisoners. Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for the big household names and we are lucky enough to work with a number of food and drink big boys across foodservice, convenience, retail and consumer markets, but even when we’re working with the established names we bring a challenger brand mentality to bear.
As an avid foodie I love to eat out (all in the name of industry research of course – foodservice social media is our game after all). Part and parcel of this (in this digital age) is documenting and sharing dishes on social media. It’s a running joke that I basically have a visual diary of everything I’ve ever eaten (that looks pretty) and I’ll always be the first to get my phone out, pleading with my fellow diners to hold back until I can get just the right Dutch angle (Google it).
For an event entitled Alcohol Trends and Innovations the day’s conference included a surprising amount of content around the drive for low and no alcohol. Doubtless driven by those pesky Millennials and Gen Z lot who don’t seem to value the good old fashioned binge drinking culture my generation and those before worked so hard to establish (only joking). Equally the omnipresent march of the health and wellness trend, will have had a fair amount to do with it, as consumers look to reduce calories, drink less and generally consume more wholesome food and drink. That’s not to say volume drinking is dead, Jägermeister themselves don’t condone or promote the ‘Jägerbomb’, but there is no denying this consumer-led ritual is alive and well in UK bars and clubs. However, despite the UK having a drinking population of 30 million (the large majority of whom, 96%, drink within the recommended limits, with only around 4% straying into the realms of ‘a problem’ – I’ll refrain from naming any beans) there is an overall trend for consumers to drink less, but better, with an increased focus on the quality, provenance and brand story. Drink still plays an important part in our social culture, both out of home in bars and restaurants (on trade) and when purchased in retail to drink at home (off trade).
This Monday saw the 25th anniversary of the Craft Guild of Chefs Awards held at The Grosvenor House Hotel London. Coined the ‘Oscars’ of the chef world, the awards celebrate excellence across the industry. This year’s awards ceremony was particularly special as it marked a quarter century of these prestigious accolades. The night began in style with the champagne and canapés as guests circulated the Grosvenor House mezzanine level overlooking the impressive Great Room, catching-up with old friends and new. As a leading food and drink agency we were there in force with invites from both Dewberry Redpoint and client McCormick.
As ever, Jellybean Creative the leading foodservice marketing agency were there to support the awards and report back for the Jellybean blog.
The team at the Grosvenor House had the unenviable task of catering for some of the leading chefs in the country on a grand scale (quite an ask) but they did us proud with a delicious four course dinner followed by port and cheese and of course coffee and petit fours. Then it was on to the focus of the night the awards themselves…a drum roll please for the winners…
As the leading foodservice agency we’ve long been supporters of Hospitality Action and the great work they do for those in our industry who have fallen on hard times. So when they invited us along to their Big Fat Quiz (as a thank you for some of the pro-bono design work we had done for them) we couldn’t wait.
As a leading food and drink agency, specialising in foodservice, retail and convenience, we make it our business to stay on top of the latest trends. Pulling key tangible insights from market information and trends data is crucial to the work we do with our clients and therefore attending events such as the MCA debrief comes high on our agenda.
The Arena Savoy Lecture is the jewel in the crown of the foodservice networking calendar, so as the leading foodservice agency, we were of course there in force. We were joined by our lovely clients from McCormick Flavour Solutions, official sponsors of the event, with their French’s Mustard and Frank’s Red Hot Sauces. The evening kicked-off with networking and bubbles (but of course) and the first talk of the evening, as Kate Nicholls, CEO of newly formed UKHospitality took to the stage to share what the merger of BHA and ALMR means for the industry. In a nutshell, the new trade body aims to ensure that the hospitality industry has a united and singular voice, which when you consider that the sector employs £2.9million people, accounts for 10% of UK employment, 6% of business and 5% of GDP, not to mention £130bn contribution to the economy (more than fashion and all the creative industries combined) and £40bn contribution to tax receipts, equal to the entire defence budget or the Brexit divorce bill, is a rather large voice indeed!
The National Burger Awards is the a world away from the usual formal black-tie award events of the foodservice calendar. Held at The Islington Metal Works it was a smoky, boozy, bustling, celebration of burgers in all their wonder – our kind of food and drink awards. And with burgers topping the charts at lunch according to the MCA’s latest report and increasingly their already strong share of dinner, this is a trend that looks set to stay with burger concepts popping up on high streets all over the country, many of whom were represented at the awards.
The annual MCA Top of Mind Report debrief offers both an overview of the eating out market over the past year, as well as some predictions for the year ahead. Now in its 11th year, the briefing took us through macros trends, 2017 consumer behaviours, predictions for 2018, a state of the nation across casual dining, growth drivers, the results of their decision maker survey and of course concepts to watch for 2018.
The MCA annual Food To Go conference is a must attend for anyone in this dynamic sector and this year boasted some heavyweight speakers including the godfather of food to go, Julian Metcalfe of Prȇt and Itsu fame and Gerry Ford founder and group CEO of Caffè Nero. Currently the UK food to go market is set to reach a value of £20.7bn in 2018, outperforming the wider eating out market and retail with growth set to be around 2.8% compared to the 1.5% predicted growth for the eating out market, making it a land of opportunity for operators. But why is this? Well quite simply there are more of us, working longer and commuting more, we are ‘time-poor’ and grabbing food ‘on the hoof’ as table meals are replaced by food in the car, on the train, at our desks, etc. Whilst the proliferation of outlets and choice means that picking up food on the go is easy and we have a wide range of cuisines and formats to choose from.
