Changing the main Italian “out of home” sector starting with technology: the future of catering has been at the center of “Food Retail & Tech: Insights for the Future”, a real international summit of the sector organized by Appetite for Disruptionthe think tank created by Cris No which creates growth opportunities in the world of food retail by bringing together established brands, young innovative companies and investors.
Food Retail and Tech: Insights for the Future. The realities that took part
Among the realities present yesterday a Castiglioni Palaceheadquarters of Confcommercio Milano Lodi Monza e Brianza, the Israeli-US investment fund Arielthe French food retail giant QSR Platform and important brands on the Italian scene such as Fishing e The Piadineria.
From the stage of the event Arieli launched a real one call for innovative solutions in the food tech and agritech fields. Italy, for the American-Israeli fund, has already confirmed itself as an important basin. In collaboration with the ICE Agency (the Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalization of Italian companies), the Israeli-US fund has launched some acceleration programs for Italian startups in recent years. More than twenty startups were involved, for which business opportunities were created that generated an economic value of over 10 million euros.
«The sector is experiencing a phase of relaunch and expansion», explained Cris Nulli, founder of Shape Next, which owns Appetite for Disruption. «Putting together the most important experiences in the Italian and international context is the best way to understand and anticipate the orientation of the market. In this way we generate shared value in an absolutely central sector for the economy and culture of our country».
Food Retail and Tech: Insights for the Future. Wide possibilities of innovation for the sector
To give a picture of the state of health of the sector in Italy was the foodservice director of Circana Matteo Figura. Overall, the restaurant sector in 2023 will see growth in terms of spending (+14.3% on 2022, for a turnover of 66 billion euros) slightly above pre-pandemic levels, not yet reached in terms of visits. In short, consumers are more selective, spending more on a reduced number of valuable experiences.
In the world of retail, food is the sector in which consumers find and seek innovation the most, according to the findings of Circana. Generally, 2 out of 3 consumers consider food service a sector capable of innovation. Nearly half expect and are willing to pay more for new recipes and flavors (48%), technologically innovative ingredients or products (47%), and in general to support a more sustainable supply chain (43%). Among the solutions most perceived as innovative by consumers there are both digital technologies such as the robotic table service (36% of consumers), the metaverso (34%) ei electronic payments (33%), that the “novel foods” based on insects (36%) o at cultured meat in the laboratory (33%).
«Italian catering is still very traditionalist», explained Matteo Figura. «This leaves a lot of room for experimentation: the market is absolutely ready, there is a desire and we expect something new in terms of the culinary offer and technology that can improve the overall experience of eating out. A precious opportunity for the sector to push on innovation».
The news of Pescaria
To show one of the most interesting examples of how technology can support the growth of the sector was Domingo Judge, co-founder of Pescariawho talked about a license developed by Brainpull, “eat it”, which collects reviews through an intelligent bot. «The bot monitors various end-points: receipt, booking, delivery», Judice explained. «The novelty concerns Instagram: the bot collects the tags received from the page, also asking users for an opinion on their experience in exchange for a coupon. An automated process that allows you to recover dissatisfied customers by collecting feedback in real time in all stores”. Judice also announced the recent introduction of PlaceSensea tool developed by an Israeli scale-up capable of comparing and measuring the traffic of points of sale.
Also among the speakers of the event Andrea Valota, CEO of La Piadineria, Ezio BalariniChief Commercial Officer di QSR Platform, Layla Peacockcoordinator of the board for technological innovation and digital transformation of the the municipality of Milan. Among the investors also present Alberto Barbari Of Eatable Adventures e Paula Bonomoangel investor and vice president of the association Italian Angels for Growth.
Food Retail & Tech was organized by Appetite for Disruption in collaboration with MyCia, ADCube, Brainpull, Coverflex e Deliverect, beyond Confcommercio Milano Lodi Monza and Brianza and the Italian federation of public establishments (Fipe).