Food and hospitality revolution coming to New Zealand

Food and hospitality revolution coming to New Zealand

Over the past five years, Australia and New Zealand have experienced a massive change in the range and diversity of modern popular cuisines.

This is according to Francis Loughran, managing director of Australia’s Future Food who spoke to more than 380 delegates at Property Council’s annual Retail Conference in Auckland this morning.

Mr Loughran says when retail developers master plan for food and hospitality precincts, they are increasingly adopting the Divide and Differentiate approach, which is more traditionally prevalent in hotel and airline industries.

“This approach allows them to align their core products with the various customer needs and spending potentials. Not everyone is an economy class customer, and the same is true when it comes to dining.”

He says the changing trends in food services has seen the rise of high street brands such as Grill’d, GYG Mexican, Nando’s, Roll’d, Burger Burger, Ding Tai Fung, and Bird On A Wire, all of which are now embedded into every day popular food choices.

“The traditional shopping centre food and beverage services is comprised of a food court and a selection of similar cafes and donut kiosks. But we know that their approach to master planning is changing, such as for airports, retail centres, mixed use developments, office towers, and waterfront precincts.

“These major retail food categories now offer customers a range of dining and eating choices and reflect a customer-centric approach rather than a product-centric focus.”

According to Mr Loughran, all future CBDs and major shopping centres will have to strategically align their food with various customer groups; which translates into having to move beyond the product driven approach and adopt a customer centric approach.

“This new direction will result in new malls that will deliver a hierarchy of food including roof-top cafes and lounges, smart-casual restaurants, lux cafes, espresso bars, cafe courts, food courts and a range of popular food pods to ensure the mix remains relevant and evolving.”

He says today’s retail food choices and hospitality offers have never been better and the customer ultimately decides what succeeds and what fails.

“As demand for food and hospitality services in fast growing cities increases, there is a real and immediate need to divide and differentiate the range of in modern shopping malls, retail centres, airports, mixed use developments, water front developments and so on.

“Today’s customer is well informed and savvy when it comes to eating and competition has elevated the quality and diversity of food choices in our malls and retail centres.”

ENDS

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