Unlocking new growth opportunities in food-to-go.

What does the landscape for food-to-go look like in 2023? Where are the opportunities, what are the trends to be aware of and which challenges should be top of your action list? Will the current challenges endure, or should we expect new challenges to emerge in the coming months? How should you position yourself for growth, and what will it take to take best advantage of the opportunities?

The session will again be hosted by food-to-go expert Gavin Rothwell. His co-host this time will be RATIONAL’s International Retail Director Max Schwaller. They will be joined by Danny Scobie, Head of Food-to-go at Scotmid, who will update us on the continuing success and evolution of food-to-go within the Scotmid business, and how it has been successfully integrated into its convenience stores and supermarkets.

Alltown Fresh is not like any other roadside operator. With messaging around fresh, natural and organic, it has a very different look and feel to most forecourts or gas stations around the world. But it’s in both the environment and the menu that this concept, now trading from 10 roadside locations across New England, developed within the Global Partners framework, stands out.

Amidst the continuing shift to electric powered vehicles, and the increasing redefinition of what roadside locations need to deliver for drivers, this is a best-in-class example of how to drive destination status. So we’re delighted that Joshua Smith, Global Partners’ VP for Alltown Fresh, will be our special guest on our next webinar.

Bridge in Zurich was for many globally the key store opening of 2021, showcasing a new different way of thinking about food missions incorporated into a format that cut across traditional definitions of food retail and foodservice solutions. And that’s what this whole series of webinars is all about. So we’re delighted to welcome David Böhler, MD of Bridge, as our guest on our next webinar.

We’re delighted to welcome Mike Fogarty, CEO and Founder at Choice, as our guest for our next webinar. Choice is a different type of convenience store, excelling in freshly prepared food-to-go, and with an underlying focus on fresh. Locally sourced, differentiated, ranges and community relevance are also key. Combined with a mission-centric focus, a contemporary design and some of the smartest tech around, this means there is much to learn from the Choice concept. Based in Denver, Colorado, Choice recently opened its third site, targeting a forecourt location along Just Walk Out style check-out free technology in-store. This is a very modern take on convenience, backed up with the products and the in-store environment to deliver that.

In this session, we’ll discuss the Choice journey so far, and call out some of the key learnings and opportunities for others around how to take advantage of the new convenience opportunity.

In this session, we’ll be joined by Pure Founder & CEO Spencer Craig. Pure is a key reference point in the London food-to-go landscape, with 20 stores across the capital, serving natural, healthy food, made fresh to order each day. We’ll talk to Spencer about the evolution of his business, what’s driven success to date and how the business has evolved over the past 18 months. We’ll also discuss the next steps for Pure and the future opportunity for food-to-go in London.

If you’ve an interest in what the grocery formats of the future could and should look like, and how urban consumers will meet their food and drink needs, then our next session is not to be missed. We’ll be joined by Paul Madarieta, Director of Urban Retail at The GIANT Company, whose innovative format development strategy has enabled it to effectively target different missions and locations, building fantastic looking stores in the process.

On our next session we’ll be joined by a pioneer in the field of food-to-go, combining technology and healthy food-to-go in self-serve concepts that are fitting neatly into a growing number of supermarkets, convenience stores and other locations across Europe.

David von Laskowski, President and CEO of Picadeli and its parent business Greenfood, will join Gavin and Benjamin to discuss the changing nature of the food-to-go opportunity and the role that Picadeli solutions are playing in helping their retail customers to meet new missions and customer needs. Plus he’ll talk about what’s next for Picadeli, with future plans including a US market entry in H2 2021.

Gavin and Ben will also share their latest insights on wider market developments, helping you to understand the evolving food-to-go opportunity.

We’ll take a closer look at the stadia sector with renowned food consultant John Benson-Smith and Andrew Taylor, Head of Catering at City Football Group. We’ll consider aspects such as operational requirements, ways of working, opportunities for suppliers and food-to-go specialists, while considering the broader evolution of the sector and the post covid opportunity. We’ll then consider how thinking from stadia can benefit broader food-to-go, and what learnings from broader food-to-go development could bring to stadia, before discussing how each could evolve and the potential broader benefits from closer collaboration.

Part of Shoprite, Checkers has been growing fast, largely thanks to its new FreshX concept stores, developed to help grow penetration among more affluent South Africans. The concept is being rolled out rapidly, and this is a format that offers lots of inspiration for anyone interested in the opportunity for foodto-go in retail. And indeed beyond, with retail theatre sitting at the heart of this concept. Its food first positioning is supported by lots of in-store preparation and theatre, as well as extensive development of food-for-now and food-for-later solutions. It also innovates around other sections of the store, creating differentiated displays and innovative counters. There’s a strong focus on targeting different day parts effectively. Join us on Tuesday 26th January to find out more about how Checkers delivers this. On the day we’ll be joined by representatives from both IMS – which has created the concept for Checkers – and Checkers itself.

This time we will discuss what the formats of the future need to deliver. Therefore we will also have a closer look into the importance of delivering fresh, experience, and mission-based solutions. And within this, we will consider the fast expanding role of food for now and food for later in supporting these goals. Based on the outcomes we will further discuss how these requirements for the future can be adapted to different formats and locations.

This time we will be joined by an great industry specialist Martin Gaber, board member and managing director for DACH region and South East Europe at JosDeVries. Martin held operational and strategic positions at REWE Group such as head of marketing / head of purchasing for BILLA CEE / Italy and COO of Billa Slovakia. From 2010 to 2014 he was general manager for Marionnaud Autriche, part of AS Watson / Hutchinson Hong Kong. He will give us his insights and thoughts on how the future formats, food spaces and offers will evolve.

Gavin and Benjamin will this time be joined by Michael O’Loughlin, COO at Simply Fresh. Michael has a wealth of experience from across convenience, forecourts and food-to-go and will share his perspectives on differentiation and the changes currently under way across the convenience and forecourt sector. He’ll also bring us up to speed with how Simply Fresh is evolving, we’ll discuss how they continue to create differentiated formats and their plans to strengthen uniqueness and destination appeal in the future.

With the summer now past, we’ve entered a new phase, with schools having reopened, and, at least in some locations, more employees heading back to the office. But elsewhere this return to the office looks to be more of a trickle than a flow. In a period of continuing change, this is a great opportunity to take stock, and look again at the food-to-go opportunity, and consider how it has evolved over recent months.

Our next webinar will do just that. In the company of Declan Ralph, Retail Development Director at BWG Foods, which you might better know as the operator of SPAR in Ireland, Gavin and Ben will talk through some of the key shifts they’ve seen as well as some of those factors, trends and opportunities that remain consistent in the food-to-go market.

Declan works with SPAR retailers, as well as those from MACE Londis and XL, across Ireland to help them grow their businesses and respond to the changing dynamics of the market, giving him great insights to share on how the opportunity is evolving.

As the wider environment evolves, more businesses are having to reassess their business plans as they look to drive growth. Part of this is around building an operation flexible enough to target several different missions well, rather than just maximizing the focus on a single mission. In this webinar, we’ll share some of the best practice we’ve seen in this space and share guidance on how to deliver this.

Gavin and Ben will be joined by Matt Cundrick, former Head of Food-to-Go at McColl’s, who will share his insights on key success factors.

Missions, locations and formats in the future food-to-go landscape.

Learn about the future of food-to-go. As more of us work from home more often, we’ll take a closer look at what home based working means for city spaces, and discuss how they could evolve and how this could impact the food-to-go opportunity. We’ll also consider the implications for neighbourhood stores, as well as what this could mean for the lunch of the workforce.

There are no simple answers, that’s for sure, but equally waiting for the answer to arrive in the form of defined new trends is not an option. This time we’ll be joined by Dev Dillon, director of retail at Sodexo and an industry specialist in convenience, coffee and food-to-go. We’ll also be joined by Adam O´Connor who has worked globally within the world´s largest foodservice organizations. They will give us their global insights about the future of food-to-go and what they think will be important be successful in the future.

Learn about the new shape of the breakfast opportunity. We’ll take a closer look at what serving breakfast in the food-to-go channel will look like in the future, outlining key considerations and strategies to win.

Learn about new food-to-go growth opportunities in a one hour session designed to help you unlock your potential. With a fantastic line-up of speakers, you’ll get the latest trends, on the ground insights from a retailer or specialist taking advantage of these trends, and you’ll understand a bit more about how solutions of RATIONAL can help you stretch your capability into new areas.