SUMMER GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2016
PORTO SUNDAY JULY 24th - TUESDAY JULY 26th
Portugal
INDEX 3 PREFACE 4 ATTENDEES 8
SUNDAY JULY 24TH
8
Welcome Reception
8
Official EPCAS Meeting – Part I
8
Welcome and introduction round
8
Company presentation Grupo Ibersol by António Pinto de Sousa
10
Quality EPCAS Monitor by Ruedi Bachmann
11
Evening Programme
11
12
MONDAY JULY 25TH
Tour, tasting & dinner at Caves Ferreira
12
Official EPCAS Meeting – Part II
12
Presentation Pilot Course European Event Catering Academy by Stephanie van Oorschot
14
Keynote Presentation ‘Reconnect / Foodlov Pyramid’ by Frank Lindner – Food Inspiration
17
Best Practice by Pierre Smits - Koninklijke Van den Boer Groep & EPCAS Advisory Council
21
Best Practice by Horst Gallbauer - Gallbauer Event- & Officecatering
22
Afternoon Programme
22
Tour, tasting & lunch at Super Bock Beer House
22
Official EPCAS Meeting – Part III
22
Interactive Session European Event Catering Academy by Stephanie van Oorschot
22
Pitches EECA EPCAS Matters
24
28
Evening Programme
28
Dinner at Clube Universitário do Porto
31
TUESDAY JULY 26TH
31
6 Bridges Boat Tour
31
Closing lunch at Alfândega Congress Centre
PREFACE Dear EPCAS member, Dear EPCAS friend, We are proud to present the Management Summary of the EPCAS Summer General Assembly 2016, which took place from Sunday July 24th to Tuesday July 26th in Porto, Portugal. We look back on three great days with a lot of moments to share knowledge and experiences. Besides that we got the chance to taste the Portuguese culture in terms of its must-sees, food and drinks. With 59 attendees, representing 36 companies from 12 European countries, we can celebrate an oustanding Assembly. A special thanks goes out to all of our friends who made the Summer General Assembly 2016 possible: Grupo Ibersol / Silva Carvalho Catering / Caves Ferreira / Porto Palácio Congress Hotel & Spa / Clube Universitário do Porto / AMTC / Alfândega Congress Centre / Sogrape / Unicer A very special thanks goes out to our host Artur Junqueira and chef Fernando Santos from Silva Carvalho Catering, part of Grupo Ibersol. The programme started on Sunday afternoon, July 24th, with a welcome reception at the Porto Palácio Congress Hotel & Spa, followed by the first part of the Official EPCAS Meeting. The session started with a short introduction round. After the company presentation of Grupo Ibersol (by CEO António Pinto de Sousa) and the Quality EPCAS Monitor, the programme continued at Caves Ferreira with a tour, tasting and dinner. On Monday, July 25th, the second part of the Official EPCAS Meeting started with Stephanie van Oorschot presenting the results of the Pilot Course of the European Event Catering Academy, followed by an inspiring keynote presentation by Frank Lindner of Food Inspiration and Best Practices by Pierre Smits – Koninklijke Van den Boer Groep and Horst Gallbauer – Gallbauer Event- & Officecatering.
An update was also given on EPCAS Matters such as a member update, board matters and an overview of past and upcoming visits. Special focus went out to the preview of the Chefs Assembly, presented by Matthias Retzki – Culpepper Event, which will take place from October 3rd to 5th in Berlin. The second day ended in style with a dinner at Clube Universitário do Porto. On the last day, Tuesday July 26th, a boat tour on the Douro River took place with a short quiz. The closing lunch took place at Alfândega Congress Centre, again with typical Portuguese dishes. With this Management Summary, we provide you the opportunity to look back on the Summer General Assembly 2016. It also gives the members that were unable to attend an opportunity to catch up. Our Winter General Assembly 2017 will take place in Bordeaux from February 5th to 7th. Don’t forget to block these dates in your agenda. We look forward to welcoming you there! Kind regards, On behalf of the EPCAS Board, Advisory Council and Secretariat,
Portugal’s most famous beer was enjoyed at the Super Bock Beer House, where after a tour the group enjoyed a lunch with typical Portuguese dishes, that paired very well with the beers. For the third part of the Official EPCAS Meeting, we moved to Clube Universitário do Porto where the attendees brainstormed on the future of the European Event Catering Academy.
Ruedi Bachmann EPCAS President
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ATTENDEES Caterers (including potentials)
Oscar Alsina - Food & Mambo
Alaide Azevedo di Gallo - tuck-tuck
Philipp Wichert - Stockheim
Alberto Teixeira - Grupo Ibersol
Pierre Smits - Koninklijke Van den Boer Groep
Ann Verduyn - Fruy Finest Food Catering
Sabrina Saretz - Culpepper Event
Antรณnio Pinto de Sousa - Grupo Ibersol
Stephan di Gallo - tuck-tuck
Artur Junqueira - Grupo Ibersol / Silva Carvalho Catering
Xavier Fruy - Fruy Finest Food Catering
Christina Winters - Broich Catering & Locations Daniel Azevedo - Grupo Ibersol
Committee of Related Branches (including potentials)
Georg Broich - Broich Catering & Locations
Bastiaan Bronkhorst - Farm Frites
Horst Gallbauer - Gallbauer Event- & Officecatering
Benedikt Saul - Bilfinger Profimiet
Ileana Mitu - Privileg Catering
Charles Smith - At Your Service Group
Jan van Eyck - Groep Van Eyck
Letizia Heinen - RAK Porcelain Europe
Jorrit van Melick - Van Melick the catering company
Niels Vugs - Mise en Place
Julian Saipe - Zafferano
Peter Kandels - Ecolab
Luca Legnani - Papillon 1990
Sven Bodry - RAK Porcelain Europe
Manuela Hesslinger - Christ Party & Catering
Tom Ambaum - Neptunus
Marco Christ - Christ Party & Catering Matthias Retzki - Culpepper Event
Special Guests
Collaboration Partner
António Alberto Gouveia dos Santos - AMTC
Nicole Offerein - Stenden University of Applied Sciences
Cláudia Coutinho de Sousa - Event Point
Advisory Council
Daniele Vailati - Seafood Bar Filipe Trindade - AMTC
Ullrich Eckert - Durhamer Alm / EPCAS Advisory Council
Franca Longoni - Seafood Bar
Peter Kandels - Ecolab / EPCAS Advisory Council
Frank Lindner - Shoot my food / Food Inspiration
Philipp Wichert - Stockheim / EPCAS Advisory Council
Ligia Marques - Sogrape
Pierre Smits - Koninklijke Van den Boer Groep / EPCAS Advisory Council
Miguel Rangel - Serralves
Board & Secretariat
Paula Carvalho - Exponor Paulo Morais Vaz - Escola de Hotelaria e Turismo do Douro – Lamego Turismo de Portugal, I. P.
Ruedi Bachmann - EPCAS President
Paulo Medina - Sogrape
Charles van Goch - EPCAS Board / Mise en Place
Pedro Brito e Cunha - Sogrape
Georg Broich - EPCAS Board / Broich Catering & Locations
Rui Ochôa - Event Point
Stephanie van Oorschot - EPCAS Secretariat Stephanie Cleven - EPCAS Secretariat
National Associations
Lianne van Leeuwen - EPCAS Secretariat
Georg Broich - LECA Michiel Meier Mattern - ONCE
ONCE
Officieel Netwerk Catering Events
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SUNDAY JULY 24 Welcome Reception
António started by explaining how Grupo IBersol is a very diversified company that has been in the restaurant business for over 25 years.
At the VIP Lounge, located on the 19th floor of the Porto Palácio Congress Hotel & Spa, the EPCAS Summer General Assembly officially started with an informal reception with drinks & bites, where the attendees were welcomed and had the chance to get acquainted and catch up with one another.
Who are we? • We opened the first Pizza Hut in Portugal in 1990 • We are listed in the Euronext Lisbon since 1997 • We have 18 franchised units and operate 377 restaurants: 303 in Portugal, 66 in Spain and 8 in Angola • We employ 6.200 people
Official EPCAS Meeting – Part I WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION ROUND EPCAS President Ruedi Bachmann welcomed all attendees at the Summer General Assembly 2016 and explained how pleased he is with the large amount of guests and that the programme looks promising. He specifically thanked Artur Junqueira and António Pinto de Sousa from Grupo Ibersol (EPCAS member) for making possible that we are hosted in Porto. After this Ruedi gave the floor to EPCAS Board member Charles van Goch, for the introduction round. New faces were given the chance to present their companies shortly, while familiar faces shortly shared how they were doing.
COMPANY PRESENTATION GRUPO IBERSOL by António Pinto de Sousa The introduction round was followed by a company presentation on Grupo Ibersol by CEO António Pinto de Sousa.
Catching up during the reception 8
Ruedi welcoming the attendees to Porto
Mission Ibersol is a multi-brand restaurant group operating in the Iberian Peninsula and in Angola, committed to Quality, Safety and the Environment to fully satisfy Consumer needs, assuring a suitable return to the Shareholders through a qualified and motivated team. Vision To lead through a highly motivated and service oriented team the restaurant business in the Iberian Peninsula. Our Brands “Since 1990, the growth of the company has been very significant. When we, my colleague and I, started the company there was an opportunity in the market. Portugal is a very small country. We decided to not only enter the fast service arena but also concessions (airport, railway station, fairs) and the catering industry. We define ourselves to be a multi brand restaurant group, operating in Portuguese speaking countries, committed to quality, safety and protecting the environment. We are in a
people’s business and therefore the quality of the people, and the way we train and motivate our employees are very important. Without this there is no business.” António continued by informing the attendees that they have a couple of international franchise brands, but also have their own concepts, companies and restaurants. This year Grupo Ibersol consists of around 390 units. The past years they experienced a strong recession and the increase of VAT in 2011 also had a big influence on the business. The VAT increased from 13 to 23 percent, which led to quite a difficult period for the company, amidst the crisis. From the first of July 2016, the government has decreased the VAT again to 13 percent; this way Grupo Ibersol can recover a little bit from the loss, according to António. The company does 119,1 million sales turnover in counters, 24,6 in concessions and 67,2 in restaurants. 2015 Activity
RESTAURANTS
COUNTERS
CATERING & CONCESSIONS
67,2 Mn euros Sales (+3,2%)
119,1 Mn euros Sales (+22,8%)
24,6 Mn euros Sales (+8,6%)
136 Restaurants (-2)
178 Restaurants (+8)
63 Restaurants (=)
211 Mn euros Consolidated Sales (+14,2%)
33 Mn euros Ebitda (+32%)
377 Restaurants (+6, +1,6%)
Brief introduction by the new faces
Enthusiastic audience
“We try to improve our relationship with the environment and show the guests what it is that we do when it comes to environmental responsibility. We participate in the programmes of for example KFC and Burger King (which are decided upon globally). Last year, we raised ¤ 55.000 for a charity to fight hunger. We also managed to discuss with authorities that after the games at FC Porto, we are allowed to give away the leftover food to people that are in need.” Grupo Ibersol also has strict procedures on food quality and safety, managing and controlling the entire logistics chain, especially on food temperatures all along the food chain. The Group even has a special programme developed on supplying the consumer with information on informed food choices, both on nutrition and allergens. António concluded his presentation by highlighting their standards: “We have high standards for our catering companies. We are losing competitive advantage, cost wise, because our competitors do not have the same standards that we do. We need to do things properly and by doing that, we can sell at the right price and we can really invest in quality.”
As a big employer in Portugal and Spain, Grupo Ibersol has a strong focus on Social Responsibility and Sustainability, by for example reducing the oil consumption within the company and investing in selecting and separating waste properly.
Values Grupo Ibersol 9
Figures for Group
Ruedi Bachmann: “Final question: Out of your turnover of 211 million, how many percent is the catering industry?”
Product Liability Indicators
(Portugal, Spain and Angola):
+ 213.700.000
377
Multi-brand restaurants
1,47
Euros in sales
303
Figures for Portugal Customer complaints per 100,000 transactions
+1.000
Food hygiene and safety audits
In mainland Portugal and islands
customer 2,343 Mystery audits
+3.600
Internal food hygiene and safety audits
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15,827
Customer cards analysed
+2.000
Laboratory product controls
+3.000
Raw materials and products with nutritional information
In Angola
+26.800.000
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Transactions
66 In Spain
Restaurant units certified by the standard NP EN ISO 22000: 2005 100%
100%
Environmental Indicators
Social Indicators
separation of 4.390 1.422 100% Selective waste material and food oils Employees in Portugal
285
10.990
Tons of oil for biodiesel
Tons of CO avoided
2
393 Employees in Angola
Employees in Spain
Of concepts represented in certification NP EN ISO 22000: 2005
+21.600
Views of the Viva Bem blog
Figures for Portugal
54% Women
of food safety 15.264 Hours training
5.558 Employees in training
12.178
Hours of health and safety training
training 55 Average hours per employee
9.922
Kg of donated food products
305.114
Total training hours
Figures Grupo Ibersol REMARKS: Ruedi Bachmann: “Thank you, António. We all know the Portuguese economic situation of the past few years. What have you seen happen and how do you see the future?”
António Pinto de Sousa: “About 6% is event and corporate catering. Concessions, for example, is not incorporated here. It is only a small part of our business, but a very important one. All parts of the business are important.”
QUALITY EPCAS MONITOR by Ruedi Bachmann Ruedi continued by presenting the findings of the Quality EPCAS Monitor (QEM). He explained briefly what the QEM stands for and why we started doing this: to provide our members with information about the developments in the industry and amongst fellow members. Each year, we measure at two occasions. Before the Summer General Assembly, e-mails are sent out with an excel file with a few questions, and before the Winter General Assembly a phone call is scheduled to hear what’s happening in the companies. QEM Topics; • Turnover • Food cost • Staff cost • Opinion on economic situation • Garbage disposal cost • Pricing concept Total Sales (Turnover); The total sales (turnover) of your company in event catering (actual 2015 and budget 2016), looks very promising. 13% has a higher budget for sales in 2016, compared to 2015 – on average. Even though there is a big variation in the figures, 50% of the members budgeted an increase in turnover. One member is even doubling due to a new acquisition.
António Pinto de Sousa: “With the introduction of the VAT increase, we had about 20% sales increase. So we have managed to adapt ourselves to this new environment. We have done it and since two years the market is coming back, so basically we are coming back to the previous volumes as well. For the time being, it’s not so bad.” Ruedi Bachmann: “And what do you foresee as next challenges? What hot topic is on your table for the future?” António Pinto de Sousa: “We have built the company with strong skills. We can do whatever we want in our business – it’s up to us (according to financial limits). But probably, we have a strong opportunity in Africa. It could be a good move for us. We also need to balance the relationship with Spain; about 60% of our business is in Portugal but we could definitely increase our significance in the Spanish market.” 10
António Pinto de Sousa about Grupo Ibersol
Applause for António’s presentation
Food cost over total turnover We have different businesses represented, but still there is an average of 26% of food cost over total turnover, for both 2015 and 2016. That means most companies are maintaining their food costs at approximately the same level. The range was very large – from 10,5% up to 36%. It’s good to see that food cost ratios are not changing. Staff cost over total turnover The staff cost over total turnover averages 33% for both 2015 and budgeted in 2016. About 50% of the members are ranging between 35% and 40%, where the highest reported ratio is 43%. Staff – FTEs (figure 1) Regarding FTEs, diversity is shown, ranging from 2 to 292. Two years ago, I calculated how much turnover each company got per FTE. It was ¤ 125.000 back then and is now at ¤ 154.500 per FTE. It is interesting that despite this huge variation of answers and sizes of the companies, a clear regression model could be calculated between Turnover and FTE.
Cost of garbage disposal (figure 3) What’s the percentage of that costs in comparison of your total sales? On average it’s 0,3%, but we have scores as high as 0,8% (and even a zero). Pricing calculation Regarding pricing strategy and calculation, your methods vary greatly. Even though we gave some hints (activity based costing, mark-up, cost-plus), we got a very full range of answers. Most people mentioned a mix of mark up and some mentioned activity based, but I did not see a very clear line. I think pricing strategies would be an interesting topic to work on and possibly include in our academy.
Figure 1
Tour of Caves Ferreira
Figure 2
Lovely dinner in the cellars
Evening Programme TOUR, TASTING & DINNER AT CAVES FERREIRA
Economic situation (figure 2) 2015 was rated for the economic situation and not everybody was very optimistic. It’s a small downturn and members are quite cautious in explaining how they see the economic situation for 2016. There was a clear distinction between the north and the south of Europe. The south is rather pessimistic in comparison to the north. I thought we had reached the bottom but it does not seem like you are thinking the same.
After some time to refresh, we went to Caves Ferreira where we started with a tour of the cellars and a small port-tasting.
Caves Ferreira is the only great Port Wine house to have remained in Portuguese hands since its foundation in 1751. In the Ferreira Cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia, lies what is probably the largest and finest collection of nineteenth and twentieth century wines, the oldest wine dating as far back as 1815. The first day of the Summer General Assembly ended in the cellars, with an exclusive dinner hosted by Palace Catering, part of Grupo Ibersol.
Figure 3 11
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MONDAY JULY 25
Official EPCAS Meeting – Part II Ruedi greeted the attendees for the second day of the General Assembly and explained that we reached our goal of having people get to know each other during yesterday’s programme. He then introduced Miguel Ribeira, F&B Manager of Porto Palacio Hotel. Miguel welcomed all EPCAS members to the hotel and to the city of Porto. He thanked us for choosing the hotel as venue for the Summer General Assembly and expressed his hope for our members to be inspired by the environment, as well as the speakers and best practices.
Manuela Hesslinger: “I had a lovely time. I learnt a lot, especially about myself. It was great to speak to colleagues about the challenges we face. I am looking forward to the next course.” Ann Verduyn: “The days before the course, I was still doubting whether I should go. When I went, I was close to a burnout, but I came back very motivated and inspired, because of the energy of all participants and trainers. It was great to see how enthusiastic all the others were about their bosses and companies. We are still very much in touch with each other.” Stephanie also asked the executives who sent a colleague to the EECA Pilot Course about the feedback they received:
PRESENTATION PILOT COURSE EUROPEAN EVENT CATERING ACADEMY by Stephanie van Oorschot Stephanie presented an update on the pilot course of the European Event Catering Academy (EECA) which took place in Maastricht, The Netherlands last May. With 16 participants representing 11 companies from 7 countries, it was a great success. Focal points of the pilot course were: • Empowering & retaining future industry leaders • Personal and professional leadership as main topic • Triggering to get out of their comfort zones • Learning from others & networking At the end of the pilot course, all participants were asked to share their feedback. Stephanie shared the average scores with the attendees (figure 4). Then, Stephanie asked the three participants of the EECA who were present during the Assembly to share their personal experiences;
Figure 4 Christina Winters: ”The course was very interesting for me. It was not only focused on specific subjects, but also on personal development and goals. It was nice to meet colleagues from different companies. Really inspiring.”
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Matthias Retzki: “At first, they did not know what to say because they were amazed and did not know where to start so we told them that it would be fantastic if they would share their energy with the rest of the team. They then organized a brunch for the whole team, where they shared content and experiences, while serving typical Dutch food.” Charles Smith: “My Operations Director loved it. She came back invigorated, a completely different person.” Ileana Mitu: “My mother told me about the experience of their employees. She is very positive and already implemented changes in the company.” Luca Legnani: “Ivan liked his time in Maastricht and already asked when the next edition will take place, so he can come back.” Philipp Wichert: “I got two very different colleagues back and it was great to see that change. One even said she might have to leave the company to go and cross off things from her bucket list.” Pierre Smits: “My two senior managers came back with a lot of heart energy and strength, they were definitely empowered. They still have a different kind of energy. I don’t know how long it will last. One remark they had was that they thought that the group could be more homogenous, the difference between the people was a bit large.” Stephanie thanked all for their input and informed the attendees that in the afternoon a brainstorm session on the future of the EECA would take place.
PILOT COURSE
Frank explained that in order to reconnect people again they came up with a new theory, which they based on Maslov’s theory of human needs. They created the Foodlov pyramid.
Ready for the Official EPCAS Meeting
Stephanie presenting the EECA
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION ‘RECONNECT / FOODLOV PYRAMID’ by Frank Lindner – Food Inspiration After a short introduction by Charles van Goch, Frank took the stage and captured the audience with an inspiring and interactive session with a lot of food for thought. “I am a bit worried, because every time I go out for dinner, whether I’m at a bar or somewhere else, with whomever, people are only looking at smartphone. They are not looking in each other’s eyes. It’s a clear example of being disconnected. From each other, from food, from the world we live in. How do we get people to be reconnected again?”
Just like Maslov’s theory, the Foodlov pyramid consists of multiple layers. For each layer, Frank gave examples of various concepts and products. Level 1 – Energy & Food Safety Soylent “You get a subscription and take 30 sachets with powder, which you have to mix with water. The drink provides you with all the nutrients, vitamins, salts, etc. that you need for one day. That means you don’t have to go out, you don’t have to cook… it is food as fuel, without emotion or any other type of added value.”
Fast-food industry “The same goes for the fast-food industry. There’s nothing wrong with eating that once in a while, but it’s only feeding the body. Food as fuel.” Level 2 – Health “Food is becoming some sort of internal cosmetics. You see it all around you: healthy concepts, people really paying attention to what they are eating and what the added value is for their bodies. In this step of the pyramid we also see food being used to cleanse or heal the body. Some of the concepts are even brought in an almost religious way.” Level 3 – Origin & Ethics – Conscience of Food “I was struck by the presentation of yesterday from António, when he spoke about how their business is giving back to society and the world. The company really realizes that we have 14
only one world and limited resources. When looking at the last decades, we really got out of control. Global warming, less biodiversity. One half of the globe goes to bed with hunger every night and the other half is dealing with obesity, diseases and food waste. It’s really all about food and food is becoming political – when you look at the things lying on a plate of food, you can see that it’s about our choices. Our choices for our guests, for ourselves. By making the better choice, we can help solving all these problems we are talking about.” Level 4 – Identity and Lifestyle “Food is a lifestyle nowadays. People get their status not only from living in a big house or driving a big car anymore, it’s about going to Copenhagen and visiting Noma. That’s something people get their status from. Especially the millennials (1980-2000) are the real first food generation. They will stand in line for half an hour just to get this one espresso at this special coffee bar, with special beans, from a special barista. Food is key in their life and they are really spending a lot of money on this. They want to spend it the right way. Food is a lifestyle and they will look at food as being a catwalk. A catwalk of good taste, they really want to walk on.”
Gare du Nord “A great entrepreneur in the city of Rotterdam collects old train carriages. In Rotterdam there are areas with high crime rates, drug abuse and obesity. He placed one of his carriages directly into this bad neighborhood and started a vegan restaurant in it. But he did more than just that. Besides the restaurant he started to give cooking classes to the children in the neighborhood. He has so much success with this social plan and really got the whole neighborhood reconnected again. There is a food garden, all the people living in the area work together to maintain the vegetable garden properly. This is a very good example of being reconnected with your environment.”
Frank expanded on the reconnect theme by showing the attendees concepts he and his team experienced during their travels, which are good examples on how to reconnect with the environment.
Le Chateau Simple “How about being reconnected with yourself? Virginie and Martijn had a great restaurant, Le Chateau Simple. It was very successful and they were at a point where they had to decide – about hiring more staff, opening more nights, and more like that. They decided to do the complete opposite, because they would be losing each other. They decided to downsize, to take a step back, and they only do dinner 2 days a week now. They are closed in the weekend. It changed their lives because they have a social life. A clear example of being reconnected with yourself as food professional.”
The deep dinner experience “We have a digital online magazine, and we had our readers in The Netherlands fill out a huge survey of about 50 or 60 questions. We asked them everything. About food, their childhood, the favorite wine of their parents, where they went on holiday. Based on the answers we selected one person and our creative chef cooked a completely personalized dinner for him/her. When looking at this deep dinner experience, think about what a meal is. It’s not about filling the stomach, it’s also about feeding the soul!”
Google Conscious Café “An example of how to be reconnected with the environment. Google is really caring for their staff. Everybody works really hard there. When you have worked a very busy stressful morning and go to lunch, you are destressed internally. Google decided to do something about the environment, about food presentation, about how to slow the people down to get them to eat healthier.”
Level 5 – Reconnect “This is where you come in and where you play a key role, since you are all food professionals. You have the ability to feed an essential human need, and that is empathy. By serving, explaining, making the right decisions about ingredients. For the coming decade this must be your key focus point. How are you feeling about this reconnect? Is it something you want to do, you are inspired by or you think you can do something with in your company? I can’t stress enough how important it is to incorporate this into your business.”
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Frank continued his presentation by sharing some industry trends. Clockless Eating “We are used to three meals a day; breakfast, lunch, dinner. But when looking at younger generations or maybe at other continents, we see that people are eating all day long. We are moving from 3 meals to multiple snacks and smaller dishes. That means we are getting a lot of cool new concepts, like all day breakfast restaurants, which are a trend in northern Europe. There are so many all-day concepts that you can think of. Several trends lay behind this clockless eating – the fact that business and leisure are really intertwined (bleisure) and that we are globalizing. When we are on holiday, we don’t mind to read our e-mail. But at the same time, if we want something, we want it here and we want it now. We are moving from a supply market to a demand market.” Hyperlocal “Nobelhart & Schmutzig is a concept in Berlin. They only serve food and wine from Germany. Specifically, only from the surroundings of Berlin. That means they are limiting themselves, but they made themselves be very creative.” Best of Local “We are in Porto so I have to mention Rui Paula. He has several restaurants and he created a menu, based on the memories of the Portuguese cuisine. He works with goat, octopus, cod, it’s all about how to incorporate your heritage into food. You can be proud of the place you are from!” Eggs “We are going to eat more eggs! We are about to emerge into a very big change in our diets. We see more and more egg dishes pop up on the menu. Not specifically chicken eggs, but more importantly quail, goose or duck eggs.” Soup “Last year was all about juice, the upcoming two years will be all about soup. A great profit maker for the industry!” Mushrooms “We are going through a protein flip. We can’t keep eating all the food as we do nowadays, with the population growing. That means we have to switch and get our protein sources elsewhere. Mushrooms are a great example, they have many health benefits.”
Frank Lindner on the theme Reconnect
Take home value from Frank
a switch in our brain to start appreciating this. There are many ways to eat them without even noticing it, for example by using them as powder.” Lab Meat “Professor Mark Post from Maastricht, The Netherlands, created the first totally lab grown hamburger two years ago. There was no cow, there were only stem cells of meat and he managed to create a complete hamburger out of these. It was fried up in London during a big media session and was tasted by some renowned journalists. It lacked some fat and costed ¤ 250.000, but he is now working on the process of making lab grown meat competitive in price, resources and technology. It will take about 5 to 10 years until the lab grown meat will be of the same price as normal beef or meat.” Vega & Vegan “Or just leave the meat out, to get more focus on vegetables and vegan food. Like The Bowl, a concept in Berlin. They only serve vegan and raw food bowls. You get loads of fresh vegetables and superfoods, in a bowl, without the meat. In Berlin, vegan and vegetarian is really accepted and not placed in a corner.”
Seaweed “A great source of good nutrients and proteins.”
Health “As mentioned in the Foodlov pyramid, Health is very important. Maybe 8 minutes from here, at the Mercado de Bom Successo, I ate ceviche and poke. Poke is the newest trend now, after sushi and ceviche. It’s a bowl filled with all the goods. Quinoa, marinated tuna, ginger, wasabi, sesame seeds, lime. It’s healthy, delicious and energizing. When looking at all the steps in the pyramids, these kinds of dishes are scoring high.”
Insects “There are already two billion people on the planet that don’t mind eating bugs. If they are prepared correctly they are really tasty, but in the Western society we have to make
Yoghurt “We are moving from sweet yoghurt to savory yoghurt. Especially in the US, we see a lot of savory yoghurt dishes emerging. You can work with herbs or herb oils, for example.”
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Drinks “The cocktail revival has been going on for quite some time, but we now see that mixologists are working on artisanal cocktails. The classic cocktails are really evolving. Also, healthy drinks like cactus water, coconut water or even maple leaf water are really booming.” Frank then moved on from food trends to business trends. Quality over Quantity “When people order fries, they want them to have a story. Homemade mayonnaise, bio fries, they are willing to pay an extra fee for these types of foods.” Locations “High traffic locations are on the rise. Like a champagne bar between track 3 and track 4 of Saint Pancras station in London. A great example of being able to eat and drink everywhere, all the time.” Prosumers “Thanks to technology, the internet, digitalization, there is something interesting going on. You have a new form of competitor, the prosumer. The consumer turning into producer. Everybody is starting their own restaurant or company with friends, in a few clicks. I can open my doors and have people over for a 6 course dinner in my home.” Technology “A producer in vending machines, an Italian company, has developed facial recognition. It links to your medical file and your purchasing history. If you were there already to eat a candy bar, the vending machine might say that you won’t get the third bar anymore. It’s a bit scary! What if it is going to be linked to your health insurance or to your doctor’s office?” Chef of the Future “The chef of the future could be a robot, right? When we have to make large volumes, do we even still need people? We probably do for the front of house, but what about the back of house? What if the robot arm can make 2.000 types of soup and costs ¤ 10.000? The innovation is going quicker every day.” Ripple Maker “Everybody now serves coffee and cappuccinos with a good foam layer. But what if you could present it in a different way, adding value and it would only cost a few seconds without taking a barista course and training your staff for hours and hours? With the Ripple Maker you’ll turn ordinary coffee into an extraordinary experience. Using patented printing technology, the machine creates inspiring Ripples from any image or text atop the foam layer of coffee beverages.”
City Marketing, Country Marketing, Food Tourism “This has taken off hugely. Last year, the number one key decision maker when going on a holiday or a trip, in the US for the leisure market, was not the price or distance, but it was food. Food is the first determiner of choosing a destination nowadays.” Menus of Change; Captain Chef “We need to help people eat better and change their diet. At this moment, the consumer lacks literacy when talking about food. There is a huge amount of food illiteracy in our society. Chefs and caterers take a huge role in this development. We are captain chef and this is one of the key factors if we want to change the world!” Humor, Fun “We need more of this in our industry! A jar on the bar with the word ‘tips’ does not work anymore… how about a karma box? There is a bar in Berlin, it’s called White Trash. “Did you know that 2 to 3 glasses of wine a day will reduce your risk of giving a fuck?”, is written on their sign on the street.” Before Frank thanked the audience for their attention, he informed them about the company he works for, Food Inspiration, which lives off inspiring others. They organize live events, like the Food Inspiration Days or festival Food Unplugged, as well as trend tours around the world. From the cities visited, a city guide is always created. Last but not least they have a free digital magazine; www.foodinspiration.com/information/ subscribe-for-free. “If you would like to help your employees to get better, smarter, and stay up to date, have them sign up.”
BEST PRACTICE BY PIERRE SMITS KONINKLIJKE VAN DEN BOER GROEP & EPCAS ADVISORY COUNCIL ‘Stretching your Business’ Pierre commenced his presentation with the following statement: “Is this a Best Practice or just someone’s reality?” FoodforCare has been launched 10 months ago by Koninklijke Van den Boer Groep: Natural, fresh, clean and transparent food for the care market, for both the hospitals and the at home situation of patients and their families. The concept already generated a turnover of 7.4 million with a calculated net loss of 300.000 euro this year. “In my opinion, that’s not a best practice. It’s a calculated loss and I think that’s alright for the first year, but in the next years we of course want to be in the black.”
17
In his Best Practice, Pierre informed us about how the concept started, how the formulas work and how FoodforCare influences their party catering business.
We have a lot of congresses about this, but science is a new field for our company and obviously we can’t do our own research on this topic”, Pierre clarified.
The concept started with patient zero; a 30 year old restaurant chef called Julian, who went to the hospital in Nijmegen (Radboudumc) for his third chemo. He lost 30kg of body weight, had low resistance and a hard life. He wrote a letter to the board of the hospitality saying they were killing him with their hospital food. He didn’t get the attention he wanted so he started cooking for himself and another patient in his chamber, at his own ward. Then someone in facility management got worried, and Julian finally got the attention he wanted. Radboudumc then consulted a food designer, who referred them to Koninklijke Van den Boer Groep.
Pierre continued by highlighting the most important part of the concept: Care & Cure. Care being about the wellbeing of the patient, which is measured in the net promotor score, and Cure about lowering medicine intake with approximately 50% in the first year.
About 2.000 cups of coffee later, a concept with the following mission statement was born: “Every patient is entitled to tasty food and beverages that contribute to wellbeing and demonstrably promote recovery, on a daily basis. FoodforCare enables this by providing highquality fresh food and drinks daily, prepared with care and served with personal attention.” Pierre elaborated on FoodforCare by explaining why this concept is unique: • The patient is a partner • Scientifically substantiated • Contribution to Care & Cure • ‘Tempting’ the patient (to eat) • Differentiation based on patient group • Sustainable business model • Registration and ICT • Nutrition at fixed costs “We are now in the treatment phase of patients. We currently work in one hospital, but we would like to build that up to 10 hospitals. In October, we are going to the pre-operation phase and aftercare at home. Long-term, our vision is to do things differently and work on food for multiple health segments.”
The assortment consists of a 14-day cycle. During this cycle every patient has a choice out of 2 to 4 different dishes, at 6 eating moments a day, every day. Bite size, small, to their taste and manageable. “We work with a lot of coding when it comes to diets. In hospitals, these are very important, because people don’t really react well to standardized food. We have the allergens, like every party cater, but in a hospital situation these are tricky. When we have a peanut allergy now, it could put us out of business instantly. Then we have personal preferences: vegetarian, vegan, no pork, halal, it’s all possible. Besides that, we have a full assortment of beverages.”
Daily Service moments: Round 1 Breakfast Round 2 Shakes / Smoothies Round 3 Lunch Round 4 Snacks Round 5 Dinner / Pans Round 6 Dessert / Candy jar
07.30 – 10.00 – 12.00 – 14.30 – 17.15 – 18.00 –
09.30 12.00 14.00 16.30 19.15 20.00
“Of course, diets, carbohydrates are a thing. Therefore we developed a way to count carbohydrates. We could say a simple tomato soup is about 5 grams of carbohydrates, and we show how that compares to an amount of potatoes.
At the base of FoodforCare is a foundation that supports the nutritional formula with scientific research initiated by Radboudumc, in which the relationship between food and health and measurable recovery are the focal point: • • • •
Monitoring the quality of product and service Further development of FFC-concept (innovation of hospital food) Promoting scientific research on the relationship between food and health Assessing possibilities of expansion towards primary care
Progress will annually be presented to the medical field during the FoodforCare congres. “It’s about having that large scientific hospital promoting the research on food and health. 18
Pierre on FoodforCare
Questions from the audience
5
1 serving cream soup - 5g CHO This dish contains about 5 grams of carbohydrates
30
4 potatoes - 30g CHO This dish contains about 30 grams of carbohydrate
FoodforCare’s elevator pitch Concept: A warm expert tempts patients to eat the right food Formula: Transparent food description + Daily intake measurement = Faster recovery
It’s all about the patient as a partner and interacting with each other about what to eat, continuously. They don’t have to fill out any forms when they wake up in the morning. It’s about the moment, choosing on the spot. It’s a lot of logistics!”
Emotion x Ratio = Balanced business model
All meals are customized and differentiated, not only per person, but also per patient group. As Pierre explained, the hostess plays an important role here, in tempting the patient.
Pierre then tested the knowledge of the attendees: “You had a teaser in your booklet. Does anybody know what we are eating here?
The role of a hostess consists of: • Registering • Informing • Advising • Coaching • Motivating
5 Weight 15g Proteins 1,5g Fats 3g
The purpose of FoodforCare is “To turn ‘eating and drinking’ into a small festive event at any time of the day desired by the patient. By anticipating on the personal issues and requirements of the patient with enjoyment and knowledge, by serving fresh, responsible food that is custom-made and served with personal attention. That is how we jointly promote health and wellbeing.” FoodforCare relies on a sustainable • Sustainable process • No artificial additives • Social return goals • Food waste controlled
business model, according to Pierre: • Organic / biologic / certified quality ingredients • Local produce • Latest developments on food included • No disposables
DM
RGV
Na-
Energy 60kcal Carbs 7g Natrium 10mg
Rvv°
E<18
En+
K-
Vvl°
Z
It’s around 5 carbohydrates and that’s the same as 1 biscuit. It’s low on salt, has five allergens and is suited for vegetarians.” After several attempts from the audience, Pierre revealed that it was a macaron.
Patients about FoodforCare:
Looking through Pierre’s brochures 19
“We have a very large food catalog for FoodforCare and everything we serve is in there. The macaron for example is in both the FoodforCare and the Koninklijke Van den Boer Groep brochure, but looks different in each brochure. The food label for FoodforCare is different from a description a caterer would give”, Pierre elaborated. Pierre and his team are currently negotiating if a party caterer can sell from a catalogue like a food producer does, or if this has effects and limits.
The party caterer’s sales (product)
The food producer’s sales (product)
2015 actual:
50% client specific / customized
2015 actual:
100% catalogue / standard
50% catalogue / standard
2016 target:
20% client specific / customized
80% catalogue / standard
14-day cyclic menuprogramme but….is patient group specific consists of about 220 end products
2016 actual:
100% catalogue / standard
14-day cyclic menuprogramme but….is patient group specific AND individual patient suited* consists of about 750 end products
Shift needed from customer/ demand-oriented towards product/ supply-oriented sales. Realization leads to larger volumes of identical produce, and would give app. +2% net profit (very conservative est.)
* Dietician/dietdesk orders patientspecific fooditems
Future: towards personalized nutrition as a market concept and company formula 2017/2018 target: 100% catalogue with still 14 day cyclic menu’s but… every patient/client/guest/consumer has the opportunity of freely choosing his own food items/taste/ingredients/diet in his own interpretation of “healthy” in all life moments he is in: sports, leisure, social events, illness/recovery.
“Our dilemma here is obvious: Party catering thinking leads to a limited catalogue of (high) standard products: a narrowed formula. Food production thinking leads to an extensive catalogue of (high) standard products: a broadened formula. Or is this just semantics? Staring at our own belly-button?” 20
To conclude his presentation, Pierre shared with the audience what they have learned so far: • It’s all about people! We are getting new people in. Young, intelligent, eager people with new competences. They are less foodie, more data oriented • I have mixed them with the unusual suspects. The usual suspects are now in Rio, but the layer below is now really growing into this • Not change the management but change management! “If we want to move on and realize the goals of crawling in a very conservative market that is very much cost focused, we need to analyze, research, we need thinkers instead of the doers we have in the party catering company. So if it’s a Best Practice, I’m willing to discuss this again in a future assembly. I only hope that I don’t get my fingers caught in a mousetrap.” REMARKS; Julian Saipe: “Can you tell a bit about any resistance you had or problems you had?” Pierre Smits: “We have two kinds of people in the house. We have people who have experienced this kind of illness in their personal situation. When they work in our company for 10, 15, 20 years, they want to step out of the luxury business and become more emotionally attached. Our luxury people step in this business because they have experienced it and it gives them a good feeling. So, there is a flow towards this business. With management, it’s a totally different thing. This sector is a difficult thing and the identity we have as management is still divided. We don’t know yet whether we will split up the company, or stay together, or what we should do. It’s a large topic.” Julian Saipe: “Even the logistics, aren’t there operations people that say it’s not going to work for them?” Pierre Smits: “We always start with a pilot and in the first one there was a lot of resistance from the nurses. You’re interfering with my rhythms, was what they said. Now, they are our biggest ambassadors because they see what it does to patients. And if you shift your thinking and your routines, you get a totally other patient in the bed. The atmosphere changes. So we have them in, but it takes a lot of talking and interacting.” Benedikt Saul: “You mentioned that you fixed the price for several years. I would like to know how you handle this.” Pierre Smits: “Hospital people are about 30% more expensive than ours, because of different legislations and backgrounds in wages. A lot of hospitals are wrestling a little bit with the topic about investing in new kitchens. So if you think in total costs of the process (producing somewhere else, get your kitchens out), then you can move to a model where in the mix of changing people in 5 – 10 years from a hospital salary
scheme to one of hours, that 30% difference will appear in about year 3 or year 4. We recalculated that in a 10 year contract and that’s how we can flat line the costs. If we would only deliver the food, we would be about 50% more expensive than the food they are now buying and/or producing themselves. We can’t compete with that, so we need to have a board in the hospital that wants to change the way they run the business.” Benedikt Saul: “Is there a chance to upsell? If I’m a patient and I want something, I would be ready to pay. But I’m not sure if it’s available?” Pierre Smits: “The visitors can eat along if they want, and then they pay for everything they eat. We are experimenting with that. But now, in the first 10 months, we have a revenue of about ¤ 350.000 to ¤ 400.000 from the visitors of the patients who get the familiar feeling of eating together.”
BEST PRACTICE BY HORST GALLBAUER GALLBAUER EVENT- & OFFICECATERING ‘Re-thinking every Digital and Culinary detail in Canteen Service’ The new direction of Horst Gallbauer and his team started in 2015, when he was approached by BMW in Salzburg to rethink their canteen and canteen service. Initially this was nothing Horst ever wanted to be in, as he stated. Since the project sounded very interesting and they could do whatever they wanted, they decided to go for it. In his Best Practice, Horst talked the attendees through the development and implementation of the system, 95GRAD, via a movie. Due to the new system, there is no food waste at all at the counter. Instead of big extensive buffets, with 95GRAD everything is produced in portions. “We are extremely space effective, within only 2 meters we can offer up to 8 different dishes plus desserts and side salads. We deal with a very small space and can serve about 200 guests in just one hour on these 2 meters of space,” Horst explained. They even had special plates made in China to fit 3 on a gastronorm, to be even more space and transport effective. The food is prepared and portioned half cooked, which is a very specific thing of the system. It is prepared at 80-95 degrees with steam so that for one, one and a half hour the food remains its color and texture. Additionally, there is also no food smell in the canteen.
Horst sharing his Best Practice
Frank reacting to Horst’s presentation
to the order or make some last-minute changes. As soon as one logs in to the system, the order gets prepared; there is about 5 – 7 seconds between the guest arriving and the food being prepared. Parallel to the system, there is a kiosk, where no food is presented – it’s all shown on high end photographs. All items are prepared on the spot, meaning they can sell up to 250 items a day at a one meter kiosk, where 20 different snacks are on offer. Benedikt Saul: “How do the people know which food is theirs?” Horst Gallbauer: “There are three slots where food can be picked up and the name of the person that ordered is shown beneath the slot on a tablet.” For the technical aspect of 95GRAD, Horst told the audience that the system does not run on a local server, but is in the cloud, highly secure and stable. It uses the newest technology in a way that the computers communicate with one another directly; there is no server in between, the check-in screen communicates directly with the staff member at the counter. And the best part, Horst concluded: “Normally, nobody is allowed to use BMW group as a reference. Nobody in Salzburg is allowed to, except for me!” REMARKS: Frank Lindner: “Do you have the chance to pick up food for a co-worker?” Horst Gallbauer: “If you know their ID, yes.”
Horst continued by telling about the ordering system for the employees. One can order the meals from their desktop with their personal account. The dishes can be ordered four weeks in advance, and can be canceled up to midnight the day before. 95GRAD also gives advice on certain ingredients and nutrients.
Marco Christ: “When do they pay?” Horst Gallbauer: “The month after, all their orders are added up and invoiced (besides the kiosk items or extras they pay on the spot).”
At the canteen, there are check-in screens, where the employee can add additional items 21
Peter Kandels: “How about if a person orders for 12 o’clock but can’t be there until 13 o’clock? Is it still fresh?”
Stephan di Gallo: “Do you know how long the people spend in front of the computers to take a look and make their decision?”
Horst Gallbauer: “Yes, we work with two shifts of food preparing.”
Horst Gallbauer: “Between 3 and 60 seconds.”
Benedikt Saul: “Is there a pre-ordering time or deadline?” Horst Gallbauer: “There are several possibilities. Until 2 in the afternoon the day before, they can order everything that’s in the weekly plan. The next day from 8 to 11 you can do a last minute order. We are now working on a new feature where we offer them the opportunity to take away. It is then packed in compostable boxes.” Benedikt Saul: “And how do you handle guests? People who are not employees?” Horst Gallbauer: “There are separate systems for guests and also for trainees, for example.” Niels Vugs: “Do you have a plan B if you have internet problems?” Horst Gallbauer: “Yes, the paper is plan B. We have a handout at the counter. But luckily, nothing like that has happened in the last 3 months.” Ullrich Eckert: “What about the kiosk, do you have to pre-order those items as well?” Horst Gallbauer: “You can just go there and buy it, there is no need to order.” Ullrich Eckert: “What do you do with the leftovers there?” Horst Gallbauer: “It’s all continuously stored in fridges so we hardly have any leftovers or waste.”
Afternoon Programme TOUR, TASTING & LUNCH AT SUPER BOCK BEER HOUSE Not far outside of Porto, the Super Bock Beer House is located, where we were welcomed.
The most popular beer of Portugal is Super Bock. The Super Bock Beer House is full of tradition and authenticity; a “living house” in full operation where one can learn about the history and details of the brewing process. Besides a tour of the facilities, we got to taste some of Super Bock’s finest brews. This was followed by a lunch, arranged by Silva Carvalho Catering (part of Grupo Ibersol), where typical Portuguese dishes were served, that paired very well with the beers.
Official EPCAS Meeting – Part III INTERACTIVE SESSION EUROPEAN EVENT CATERING ACADEMY by Stephanie van Oorschot Upon arrival at Clube Universatário do Porto (preferred and new venue of Silva Carvalho Catering) and after a short recap by Stephanie van Oorschot on her presentation on the EECA from earlier that day, the attendees were split into smaller groups to brainstorm on the ‘Why’ and ‘How’ of the EECA. During this brainstorm, the following questions had to be worked out in a 2-minute pitch: • In 5 years time, what will be our biggest challenge? • How do we decide whether the EECA is successful? PITCHES EECA Group 1 Hosted by Ruedi Bachmann Presented by Paulo Morais Vaz - Escola de Hotelaria e Turismo do Douro – Lamego Turismo de Portugal, I. P.
Tour at Super Bock Beer House 22
Tasting of some brews
“Our group started with the strengths of the first edition; • Networking for young people • Better self-knowledge • The maps process that helps them understand behaviors and how to adapt
How are you going to measure the success of the academy in the future? We said that we need to keep in mind the solutions that were offered by the people that attended. The motivation is very important and the management should support them and ask them if the motivation is still there after two months. Sustainability is key, as well as being enabled to implement the learned skills and tools in the company. What’s very important is that the people that attend should have motivational skills. It’s not only back or front office but they should be constantly working on improving those skills. The biggest challenges we foresee? We brought it back to two things;
Brainstorm on the EECA The delta process, meaning what we needs to improve; • The overload of information • Fewer topics with a more in-depth approach With this in mind, we tried to design something for a future proposition. One thing was clear for everybody; soft skills are the most important thing! Staff cross training, which means we could change our workers and people. Sharing and visiting our enterprises, venues, processes, whatever we do. Also, special attention should go to logistics which is in the heart of our business. If one wants to grow, one needs to improve their logistics capacity. Then how to make our business look more sexy, to attract the best people to work with us. Everybody complains about having less people who meet our demands. The focus of the EECA should be on the three R’s; Retaining, Rewarding, Recognition. How do we do that, to improve the business? Situational leadership is also important, as we need to morph every day to know how to approach the business and read the future. New organization structures are in the same line of thinking and lastly CRM, improving negotiation skills will benefit the relation with our audience. Learning how to understand them, react to them and be a step ahead to give them what they want; strategy and morphing.”
Group 2 Hosted by Peter Kandels Presented by Michiel Meier Mattern - ONCE
Human capital! People, people, people. It’s not as traditional as Hotello anymore; we are looking for more skills than just hospitality. Important is how to find talents, and to retain them. The other part is the market change, what we heard today about reconnecting and trends, is that the catering business is changing rapidly and our people need to be ready for that, in order to match our customer’s expectations.” Group 3 Hosted by Philipp Wichert Presented by Ann Verduyn - Fruy Finest Food Catering
“We were thinking about the modules that needed to be in the content and all agreed that the motivation and leadership part should stay, as in the first module. For the second and third module, we should look at Best Practices for idea sharing and problem solving. Also, we could include economical topics and marketing & sales. Then we had the idea to create an alumni chapter at the end of the course to keep them connected. Also, through the whole course, the red thread should be leadership. Because you cannot lead anyone if you cannot lead yourself. So bring yourself confidence, because the people that attend have to lead other people as well. The challenges we foresee in five years are teaching the right way, because we have changing generations so maybe we have to evaluate the way we teach. Also we need to find Unique Selling Points to explain why people should attend the EECA. We want a better contribution and more staff engagement. We need to make the progress clear, so we have an evaluation before the person starts the course and also at the end, what was the evolution, did we see a change and what was the added value for the company that sent someone?”
“We took the two questions and asked everybody individually to give two points that came to mind, to see what was going on. Out of these two questions, all answers come back to people. 23
Group 4 Hosted by Pierre Smits Presented by Ullrich Eckert - Durhamer Alm & EPCAS Advisory Council & Pierre Smits - Koninklijke Van den Boer Groep & EPCAS Advisory Council
“With regard to the challenge for 2021, first of all we believe it is qualified and motivated open-minded personnel that love new things. They must be firm in digital things, integrated systems. They need to show leadership and be team players, with focus on social skills. Important is to create a standard for service quality, since there are big differences in the various parts of Europe. The next challenge is legal issues. This relates to regulations and control, we discussed food safety for example. There is no international standard in controlling things. Catering is a free profession; you don’t need a permit to start as a caterer. So we should teach people or teach ourselves, but between being a small company and complying with everything, how do we deal with this? Security management, dealing with new threats, is also a challenge. Terrorism, how to be in control at large public events, it’s of growing importance. We work with a lot of flexible staff and how do we control them? Terrorists could come into our crew at an event easily. Success factors of EECA • Give it an official status, examination • Content; Personal leadership, as well as operational know-how; project management. We discussed sales skills and commerce, knowing what to sell, and legal awareness of course. A focus should also be on retention, keeping the best of the best in our companies. Recruiting graduates for catering.”
knowledge about the world thanks to all the travelling people do and social media. When people finish school they need to know what the catering industry can offer them! Not everybody can be a manager, there are also people that want to work with their hands. The academy needs to motivate people, bring knowledge and teach passion. We think it’s necessary to do this four times to keep everybody motivated and everything running. Because then they will stay longer in our companies. Our advice for the academy; The academy will help motivate and retain employees. We need to bring knowledge (schools and professionals) in and work on continuous improvement, giving people the chance to share their motivation. Installing an alumni-network would be great to refresh their memories and to continue networking. There should also be some sort of coach or tutor who acts like a buddy, for example someone who already joined the academy in the past.” Stephanie thanked all for their efforts and input, and informed them that the Board & Secretariat will use this in the outlines for the future EECA modules and courses.
EPCAS MATTERS Board matters – by Ruedi Bachmann Change in secretariat Lianne van Leeuwen finished her internship for Stenden University and was offered a fulltime position at Servicecenter 4Hospitality (S4H). This means that as of September 2016, Lianne will no longer be part of the EPCAS Secretariat, but will get the chance to grow and develop with her own projects. Lianne’s successor will present herself via mail in September. “Lianne, thank you for all of your hard work. You were a pleasure to have in the Secretariat!”
Group 5 Hosted by Georg Broich Presented by Bastiaan Bronkhorst - Farm Frites
“The biggest challenge we foresee is in HR; Motivating people to stay and finding the right people. The new generation is motivated in different ways. What we said is that they should think “my job is my passion”. It’s all about motivation, discipline and knowing why someone wants to work in this industry; installing a sense of pride in them. We must not fill our children with information, but we must light the fire within our children. Don’t oblige them to learn things, but let them learn themselves. It’s hard to motivate the new generation because there is so much information out there and they have more 24
Pitches on the outcome of the brainstorm
Meetings Ruedi explained the meetings that took place since the Winter General Assembly. The Advisory Council came together once and is considered to be a very good sounding board, and is used as a steering committee to move forward with EPCAS. “We thank the AC-members for their input, efforts and time, they are spending for EPCAS.” Besides that, Ruedi came to Maastricht every other month for operational meetings with the Secretariat.
Looking back on the Winter General Assembly 2016 – by Georg Broich Georg shared the highlights and evaluation points of the Winter General Assembly in the United Arab Emirates, last March.
Potential members – Prospects: • Island Caterers – Malta • Lepanto – Spain • Mecco – United Kingdom • With Taste Catering – Ireland
The highlights: • 61 attendees – 36 companies – 11 countries • Inspiring Best Practices & Keynote Speaker • Great networking possibilities • Insights in upcoming trends • Outstanding culinary elements
The scores: • Overall programme • DoubleTree Hilton & Spa Marjan Island • Fairmont Dubai • Content overall • Presentations (average) • F&B (average)
Excitement about the presented EECA pitches
• • • •
D’s Deldycke Traiteurs – Belgium Groep van Eyck – Belgium Rancho del Inglès – Spain By Word of Mouth – United Kingdom
Member off: • Kai Thor Catering - Denmark
9,1 8,8 8,7 8,8 8,5 8,8
Georg stressed that there are always points of improvement, which will be worked on for future Assemblies, but that this was the highest rated Assembly up to now.
Member update – by Charles van Goch Charles gave a short update on the status of the EPCAS members.
New members: • Wassermann Company Catering Events - Switzerland • Zafferano – United Kingdom
Charles informed the attendees that we received a very nice email from Tina & Martin Færgemann explaining that the reason for them leaving EPCAS was because of a company reorganization. They wrote that they have sold the company and would always look back fondly on their time in the EPCAS-family.
Finance – by Stephanie van Oorschot Stephanie showed the attendees a short overview of the figures for 2016.
Past visits 2015 & 2016 – by Georg Broich Georg informed the attendees on the trips that have been planned by the EPCAS Board and Secretariat, visiting (potential) members, and attending hospitality tradeshows and events. September 28 October 10 – 14 October 12 October 13 October 20 – 22
Location Awards, Berlin (DE) Anuga, Cologne (DE) EPCAS Trade Mission & VIP Night - Cologne (DE) Caterer des Jahres, Cologne (DE) London visit (UK) 25
October 30 – Nov 1 November 15 – 19 November 16 – 18 January 11 – 14 January 20 – 21 January 27 – 29 March 4 – 7 March 11 – 15 March 11 – 16 March 13 – 15 March 13 – 16 March 21 – 22 April 7 – 10 April 20 – 22 April 24 – May 8 May 8 – 10 May 10 – 12 May 17 – 18 June 13 – 14 June 20 – 24 July 5 July 17 – 19
Malaga/Jerez visit (ES) Horeca Expo, Gent (BE) Barcelona visit & IBTM World (ES) Horecava, Amsterdam (NL) Best of Events, Dortmund (DE) Dublin visit (IE) EPCAS Winter General Assemby 2016 – UAE Gastrovision - Hamburg (DE) Internorga - Hamburg (DE) ProWein - Düsseldorf (DE) Catersource - Las Vegas (USA) VENUEZ16 - Antwerp (BE) EHMA - Cyprus (GR) Finland & Estonia visit Scandinavia visit European Event Catering Academy Pilot Course - Maastricht (NL) Seeds & Chips - Milan (IT) London visit (UK) Vienna visit (AU) Malaga/Marbella visit (ES) Traiteurs de France meeting - Paris (FR) Pre-trip Winter General Assembly 2017 - Bordeaux (FR)
Update Food Waste Initiative – by Peter Kandels After showing a short movie by the European Commission on how 90 million tons of food is being thrown away in the EU every year, Peter went over the waste reduction value chain and levels of the EPCAS Food Waste Initiative.
BRONZE LEVEL - FOOD WASTE SENSITIVITY • Brief staff yearly concerning food waste • Sign EPCAS Code of Conduct
SILVER LEVEL - FOOD WASTE AWARENESS • Measure food waste • Show figures in Quarterly EPCAS Monitor
GOLD LEVEL - FOOD WASTE PREVENTION Upcoming visits – 2016 & 2017 by Georg Broich Georg continued by showing an overview of the already scheduled visits for the upcoming months.
September 25 – 26 October 3 – 5 October 16 – 20 October 18 – 19 November 1- 2 November 6 – 8 November 20 -24 November 23 – 25 November 29 – 30 January 9 – 12 January 18 – 19 January 18 – 22 January 21 – 25 February 5 – 7 26
Warsaw visit (PL) EPCAS Chefs Assembly - Berlin (DE) Sial Paris (FR) London visit (UK) Marbella/Malaga visit (ES) European Event Catering Academy - Maastricht (NL) Horeca Expo Gent (BE) Zurich visit (CH) Vienna visit (AU) Horecava - Amsterdam (NL) Best of Events - Dortmund (DE) Fitur Madrid (ES) Sirha Lyon (FR) EPCAS Winter General Assembly 2017 - Bordeaux (FR)
• Written plan on implementing measures • Integrated procedures
The Food Waste Initiative should stay top of mind and will always be a topic during the Assemblies. Peter elaborated that each new member should immediately be eligible for the Bronze level, and that many of our members are now at the Silver level. So far, only one member has obtained the Gold level, since it is such a big step and commitment. Peter ended his speech by saying that during the dinner that evening, some members would receive their certificates.
The waste reduction value chain The essence of effective waste management can be found in the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The three R’s become evident in several stages of the kitchen process. Wise up on Waste focuses on reducing the waste margin across all areas of your business.
4. PREPARATION FOR TRANSPORT
Fridge
6. CATERING KITCHEN
7. PLATE WASTE
Freezer
1. PURCHASING
Ambient storage
SPOILAGE WASTE
PREP WASTE MISE EN PLACE KITCHEN
PREP WASTE CATERING KITCHEN
5. TRANSPORT 2. STORAGE
High
High
The spoilage bin covers waste from over purchasing and the stock room, fridges & freezers.
Dishwasher
High
High
PREP WASTE CATERING KITCHEN
PREP WASTE MISE EN PLACE KITCHEN
SPOILAGE WASTE
Low
8. DISPOSAL
3. MISE EN PLACE KITCHEN
Low
The preparation bin 1 covers waste in mise en place and preparation for transport
Low
The preparation bin 2 covers waste from the kitchen on the event location.
CUSTOMER PLATE WASTE
Low
The plate waste bin covers portioning and plate waste.
Optimizing these steps means: 1. Purchasing: have real-time control over your stock and the sold items 2. Storage: maintain an overview of stock, using an improved date sticker system 3. Mise en Place: produce items once you are sure they will be utilized, to make sure you are not over producing
4. Preparation storage: keep your products safe, sealed and cooled and maintain an overview of what goes in and comes out. 5. Transport: put your products safe, sealed and cooled in the transportation provided. 6. Catering kitchen: only prepare the amount needed and keep unused products cool and ready for reuse.
7. Plate Waste: the right portions will prevent your kitchen from producing excessive plate waste
As you can see from the diagram the waste generated
8. Disposal: learn from your plate waste and dispose of your organic waste sustainably
into 4 different types of waste; spoilage, preparation in
from the different areas of the kitchen can be segmented the mise en place kitchen, preparation at the event location kitchen and plate waste. By segmenting your waste you will be able to see where your waste occurs.
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Teaser Winter General Assembly 2017 – by Stephanie van Oorschot The week prior to the Summer General Assembly, Stephanie went to Bordeaux to look into the options and possibilities to have the Winter General Assembly 2017 there. Her experiences there were very positive. Château Mouton Rothschild extended us an invitation and would be very eager to host us. Stephanie also spotted a few options for hotels who can accommodate us. Furthermore, Stephanie mentioned that we need a local caterer to support us in making this possible; also here there are a few options.
Ruedi presenting the EPCAS Matters
Peter on the Food Waste Initiative
EPCAS Chefs Assembly – by Matthias Retzki – Culpepper Event From October 3rd to October 5th, the first official EPCAS Chefs Assembly will take place in Berlin. The Chefs Assembly will focus on everything culinary Berlin has to offer. Besides that, it will focus on the chefs as food professional. That’s why this Assembly will revolve around the theme ‘What’s your signature (dish)?’ Highlights: • Culinary Inspiration • Masterclass by Koppert Cress • Hamberger Großmarkt
• Trendtour Berlin • Teamwork • Best Practices – Signature Dish(es)
Matthias underlined that it is very important for the future of EPCAS to involve more people than the Executives, as we already do with the EECA. In the past, we tried to include the Chefs in the Summer General Assemblies. A programme customized to the needs and wishes of Executive Chefs, Chefs, Sous-Chefs, and Kitchen Managers will draw more attendees, as they feel more comfortable with people that speak their “language”. It could be a non-monetary motivation for them as well, to keep them in the company and keep them together.
In a second visit later this year, Stephanie will narrow down the options for this Winter General Assembly.
Evening Programme DINNER AT CLUBE UNIVERSITÁRIO DO PORTO After the third and last Official EPCAS Meeting, the group walked back to the hotel for some well-deserved time to refresh and rest. Later that evening, we walked back to Clube Universitário do Porto, where we were welcomed on the terrace for some aperitifs, before going inside for yet another elaborate and exclusive dinner by Silva Carvalho Catering, part of Grupo Ibersol. To keep the interaction and networking going, some table changes took place in between the courses. Furthermore, Peter Kandels handed out the Food Waste Certificates to the following people:
“It’s very important that we inform the participants before the Chefs Assembly, in their own language, and that the EPCAS members go through the programme with them. It would be perfect if we knew one or two things they want to learn or experience. If they all know what to expect, they will feel more confident.” After Matthias’ presentation, Charles asked the audience if they have someone in mind to send to the Chefs Assembly and for the EECA-module in November. All responded very positively on the Chefs Assembly and committed to try their best to send someone to participate. With regards to the EECA-module, there was some confusion if it should be new people or the same people who attended the Pilot Course in May, or a combination. The Board promised to work out a proposal for the future editions of the EECA, discuss this with the Advisory Council, and get back to the members as soon as possible with a plan. 28
Matthias sharing the plans for the Chefs Assembly
Aperitifs at Clube Universitário do Porto
Horst Gallbauer Gallbauer Event- & Officecatering
Jorrit van Melick Van Melick the catering company
Julian Saipe Zafferano
Stephan di Gallo & Alaide Azevedo di Gallo tuck-tuck
Bronze: Gallbauer Event- & Officecatering Van Melick the catering company Zafferano
I still have very fresh memories from the last Winter General Assembly in Dubai with some exciting program highlights: Interesting and inspirational opening speakers giving good insight on the development of the local catering market, a spectacular visit of the Burj Khalifa, a superb Beach dinner at Ras Al Khaimah, just to name a few.
Gold: tuck-tuck
But I don’t want to look at the past only; I would like to give you the insight what we are doing at present and what shall be our way forward.
Near the end of the dinner, Ruedi addressed the attendees with his view on EPCAS now and in the future:
In one of our strategic meetings we decided to concentrate on the following key success factors: ONE - content for the EPCAS members; TWO - correct mix during the Assemblies and THREE - financial sustainability of the association!
“Dear Epcas member, Dear Epcas Friends, I would like to take the opportunity and share with you this evening some thoughts and views in regard to today’s EPCAS, EPCAS 2.0. Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. This is a Quote from Henry Ford. I share this view and I feel this reflects exactly what should be the modus vivendi for EPCAS. It has been 2 years since I took over the presidency from our association. At that time I stated that EPCAS has grown after it has been founded on the 23rd of January 2007 into advanced childhood. Our aim was at that time and still is today to guide this child into a full grown adult. What have we done meanwhile and what are we doing now and in the future to ensure our goal? Well, we celebrated a few Assemblies where we received good and every time better feedback from the participants.
Let me explain the 3 key points: Starting with number one - Content for the EPCAS Members: I mean the meat on the bones available if you are an EPCAS Member. We want to ensure on a highly professional level the following points: • Networking possibilities among European caterers • Best practices from our industry; mainly presented by the member base • Outlook for new technologies and future trends relevant to our members • Help and advice on new rules and regulations in regard to our industry While of course we will continue on those important pillars, we added the possibility primarily for our members to further develop and retain high potentials in their respective organizations. The European Event Catering Academy is born and had a fantastic start a month ago! In my opinion, there is a mismatch in the hospitality education industry between what science knows and what business does. And what worries me a lot, is that too many 29
We have been increasing our member base in the last years and we still need some more but moderate growth in the future. We have established visit plans for potential new members over the next few months. And still with our limited back-office resources we need your help in order to promote EPCAS and recruit new catering members. That is the moment when you cannot ask what is the organization doing for me but when you have to ask yourself, what can I do for the organization! We, the Board and the Secretariat, we count on you - your help, input and your actions for this topic. I hope I was able to explain our views and that you can see the rationale behind our actions to further enhance the success of EPCAS. In a nutshell it is very clear: we have to do what’s right, the right way, at the right time! But as you know in reality it proves not to be so easy at all! Decanting the Port Wine
Spectacular dishes by Silva Carvalho Catering
organizations are making their decisions, their policies about talent and people, based on assumptions that are outdated, rooted more in folklore than in science and most of all not made for the new up-coming generations.
But talking about success – let me share with you my view on success.What makes an organization like EPCAS really great: the measure of success for an association such as ours, is rooted in you. The members. If you are proud to belong to and be part of EPCAS then we nailed it! And that is the aim the Board members and the Secretariat are working for.
We want to change that with our Academy. We need your input and commitment to elevate this program to an important new additional pillar for the content part of EPCAS. With regard to the Chefs Programme we have tried on several occasions to make it happen. This year, with the initiative of Matthias from Culpepper, time will tell if we have found the right concept. I am very confident that we will be able to celebrate success for this additional pillar as well!
Let me conclude: We do not need magic, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves and our association already: we have the power and together we will ensure the future of EPCAS, version 3.0, the Adult version to become reality in the near future!
Second Key point – correct mix during the Assemblies With this key point we want to ensure an attractive program during our assemblies where all the before mentioned pillars are represented with a highly professional touch in a casual atmosphere - where the fun part should not be missed in order to enhance the networking possibilities.
After Ruedi’s speech, he asked Artur to come forward, so that we could show our gratitude for the organization of this Assembly. Chef Fernando Santos and his team were also thanked elaborately for all culinary highlights.
Let’s have a toast on EPCAS and on our future! Cheers - Saúde And remember: The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.
The balance of all the ingredients is important. EPCAS wants to be different, we wish to position ourselves between the old fashioned, very formal and stiff and in my opinion outdated industry organizations on one side of the scale and some gastronomical Food and Beverage Clubs where drinking and fun is the goal on the other side of the scale. There is a nice niche ready to be populated by EPCAS. So let’s make sure that we are in between these two blocks. I am convinced that we are on the right track to differentiate our organization to the aforementioned examples. Your feedback, I am referring to the filled out forms after every Assembly, are crucial and essential for our guidance. When it comes to financial sustainability of the association, it speaks for itself that this key point number three is strongly related to the first two positions. Raising the glass on a successful Assembly 30
Dinner conversations
TH
TUESDAY JULY 26
Sites of Porto
Boat tour on the Douro River
Answering quiz questions
Team effort on the boat
6 BRIDGES BOAT TOUR
CLOSING LUNCH AT ALFÂNDEGA CONGRESS CENTRE
On the third and final day of the EPCAS Summer General Assembly, we started the day with a boat tour across the Douro River, passing the 6 bridges of Porto. While enjoying the nice weather and the surroundings, the attendees were paired into duos for a short quiz. The quiz consisted of 35 questions on F&B. In the end, we had a shared first place between Stephan Di Gallo (tuck-tuck) & Nicole Offerein (Stenden University of Applied Sciences), and Frank Lindner (Food Inspiration) & Rui Ochôa (Event Point), who all received a nice present to commemorate the time in Porto.
Before the closing lunch, we had a tour of the premises of the Alfândega Congress Centre. Situated by the Douro River, Alfândega Congress Centre is the former Customs House of Porto. It was awarded Europe’s Best Meeting and Conference Centre by Business Destinations Travel Awards in 2014 & 2015. The programme ended with a typical Portuguese lunch with a view, again arranged by Artur and his team.
Before disembarking the boat, Bastiaan Bronkhorst (Farm Frites) addressed the attendees by inviting everyone to visit one of the production facilities of Farm Frites, in a city of their choice, for a tour.
Group photo
Tour of the Alfândega Congress Centre
Closing lunch
Ending with a song 31
BORDEAUX
FRANCE
Save the date WINTER GENERAL ASSEMBLY February 5th-7th 2017