A special report from:
Assessing COVID’s impact Speciality & Fine Food Fair teamed up with Fine Food Digest to explore some of the major changes brought about in the speciality food sector by the coronavirus pandemic. More than 790 buyers and 340 producers & suppliers were surveyed on a variety of topics, including doing business online, sustainability and foodservice operations. Here are the findings…
Foodservice might never be the same again If you have a café/foodservice offer as part of your shop, how much has that part of the business changed?* No change
Will you be restoring this foodservice offer to its previous pre-pandemic version? Or will you change your approach? 60
A little
51%
50
49%
40 30 20 10 A moderate amount / somewhat
0 A great deal
*431 respondents deemed this question ‘Not applicable’. Data from 362 respondents.
48%
of businesses with a foodservice or café offer reported a “great deal” of change to that part of their operation
No, I will change my approach
Yes, I will be restoring it to pre-pandemic
*388 respondents deemed this question ‘Not applicable’. Data from 405 respondents.
Behind the data Last year, FFD spoke to plenty of businesses that had repurposed the floor space used for dining and café seating into more space for retail or delivery packing – or they switched to food-to-go. It’s interesting to see a near-perfect split between those who want to return to their pre-pandemic café offer and those who are happy to move on, having discovered they can do things differently – or not at all.