The food and drink market is certainly an innovative industry – driven by both one off entrepreneurs and the hugely competitive major chains.  Everyone is looking for products that will differentiate themselves, lure customers in and loudly proclaim that they are a hip, fun place to be. Here we take a look at how the competition is doing it and offer some ideas on how you can add some innovation to your food and drink offering.

By Chris Brown, Turpin Smale Catering Consultancy www.turpinsmale.co.uk

We keep up with what’s going on by running our popular London Café Tours and travelling on assignments all over the country.  We post the new ideas we spot (always with a photo and updated daily) on our Great Cafes blog http://greatcafes.blogspot.com/ , which also goes out on Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr and Twitter.  There’s no excuse for not keeping up!

Let’s break it down by menu category.

Sandwiches, Baguettes and Baps

Sandwiches are being displayed ‘au naturel’ at Carluccios and Pret Coffee Kitchen.  No chilling, great taste and just watch the four hour rule and your risk analysis.  If packed and chilled, smart packaging is the order of the day and you rarely see a date or plastic box any more.  Date coding says that you could sell a stale sandwich by keeping yesterday’s stock.

The Panini Grill

Use this versatile grill for other items – pancake and luxury fruit bread (previously known as toast!) – as now done at Starbucks.   Electrolux’s new High Speed Grill – a Panini in sixty seconds – has many fans quite apart from Pret who pioneered their adoption.

Salads

Large platters of tasty dressed salads are replacing the dreary salad bar of old with Ottolenghi setting the standard in this field.   Check out the fun and innovative Lettuce Boats and Wraps from Waitrose – who said John Lewis was dull.

Crisps & Popcorn

Popcorn has come out of the cinema and now rivals crisps and both items will sell in greater quantities if placed immediately adjacent to the sandwiches.  Pret have introduced crisp wells in front of their sandwich displays to make sure we make that incremental purchase.

Hot Food

Sausage rolls and quiche are back in fashion if of high quality and served ‘cooling down’ as opposed to the chilled, flabby pastry we have come to hate.

Cakes and Traybakes

Mini ‘treat’ cake portions, at a premium price, have been brought in at Starbucks and Peter Jones and it’s a really clever idea – helping our waistlines and their profits

Scones & Home-baked Items

Remember how you loved items straight out of the oven.   State scones are home-baked that day and guarantee that you will never, ever sell a stale scone and watch the sales fly.  Prepare the scones in front of customers, bake them in small batches throughout the day and keep them out front on trays to cool down and you will have a stampede.

Tea

We have had the coffee revolution and now Twinings is getting a run for its money.  Tregothnan tea, tea cosies and more types of speciality tea are waking up this rather dozy section of the menu.  The food shows have more new tea companies than ever.

Cold Drinks – Juices, Smoothies, Waters

Pod’s fresh fruit chillers that you take to the counter to be blended, Leon’s strawberryade variation on lemonade, Eat’s Beetroot, Apple & Ginger and Apostrophe’s juices all make this one of the most happening areas in the cafe.

Fresh Fruit

You still may not sell much of it but a good display ticks all the boxes, looks fresh and counters the health police lobby. Edamame beans and fresh herb pots on tables have also become commonplace.

WiFi

The corporates are finally taking notice and almost all now have plans for free WiFi.  If you are serious about your café being a third space (after home and work), you just have to offer this service FREE.

Calorie Counting

Do you know anybody who wants to be fat?  Know anyone who is a member of Weight Watchers?  It is about time cafes offered a low calorie item just as we have learnt to offer gluten-free goodies.  No, we are not saying you have to calorie label everything on the menu but at least recognise that some customers want to lose weight.

Cup Cakes

Still big.  Next the clothing store are selling two chocolate cup cakes for £4 – made in China and with a nine month shelf life!

Our final thought on food innovation and trends concerns Brighton – go there as the café culture is easily the best outside London.  They now have their own recently published Independent Café Guide – highly recommended.

Our great cafes blog http://greatcafes.blogspot.com/ is written for the professional café operator and we take heed that customers ‘buy with their eyes’ by always featuring a photo to illustrate our daily round up of innovation and trends in this fast moving business.

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