“Everything is returning back to normal”
I think many of us have heard this phrase over the last month as Singapore is on her path to normal state or endemic.
F&B Clients are asking about the current sentiment and what it means to be ‘normal’ once again. When it comes to ‘being normal’, we have to go back all the way to 2019 era.
During the pandemic 2020-2022, the sentiments/measures were pretty straightforward.
You can’t really travel.
You spend most of the time working from home.
Local pubs and entertainment were closed.
F&B Dine in were either CLOSED, 2 pax, 5pax or 8pax.
With these measures in place, food businesses were able to strategize and come out different strategies to counter each of these situations.
Heartland F&Bs and Delivery platform saw a lot of growth because people were working from home and simply order for ease instead of enjoyment.
Now. being back to normal simply means
Many people travel these days
Many people start going back to office to work
Local pubs and entertainment are open once again
F&B Dine in are all fully opened.
Many people are Traveling these days
When people start to travel, it means both side.
Singaporeans travelling over the weekends to JB or Batam and tourists coming in.
You might see a decrease in local sales but some increase from tourists.
Currently we are seeing South East/ Asians (Vietnamese, Philipines, India) and European/US coming to Singapore a lot. These tourists rely on Google Maps and Tripadvisors a lot.
So your google map profile should be updated promptly. You should also start to increase your google reviews.
Hongkongers, Taiwans and PRC should return to Singapore by 2023.
Going back to office to work
People going back to office to work will mean there is going to be a huge increase in demand in public transport thus meaning F&B near MRT stations/Bus interchange will see an increase in demand because people eat before they go home.
Local pubs and entertainment are now opened.
During the pandemic era, many F&B joints which serves beer together with food saw an increase because people who wanted to drink beer had to go down to these joints.
However, as pubs are now opened, the alcohol serving time is longer than F&B so weekend people will rather go to pubs/beer garden instead.
F&B Dine in are all fully opened.
Given a choice, many people would want their food to be served hot and freshly made in front of them. However due to pandemic, many of us had to be contented with food delivery. Now that F&B Dine in are fully opened, it means the high ticket food delivery business are expected to drop by 20-40%.
More would still prefer to dine out, unless they want to chill and gather at home.
How should we move on from here?
With everything going back to normal, it means its even harder to predict where the human traffic will flow to. Businesses who see a success during the Pandemic should evolve and rethink their strategies to ride on current trend.
Over the last 2-3 months, many of us had experienced the wrath of inflation on our very own wallet.
3 months down the road, we will add another 1% of GST.
While many people may think that 1% of my bill isn’t going to increase a lot, this is not the case. Usually F&B cost rises because of the raw materials that they get. Imagine the price of fish, onions, garlic, oil, electricity, gas, ginger, condiments all increased by even $0.10-$0.50.
The plate of fish would certainly increased by $3-$6 (~ 10%)
The current per head spending at different level of F&Bs
· Hawker/Kopitiam food - $3-$8
· Food Court - $6-$12
· Standalone single F&B – $15-$25
· Chain F&Bs in malls (Hot Tomatos/Pho Street/Sanook Kitchen) – $15-$30
· Mid Tier F&B (Dian Xiao Er/Ding Tai Feng) - $35 - $50
· Hotel Buffets - $100-$150
· High end F&B - $120 - $200
Because of the rising cost, there will be some downgraders, families who used to patronize Mid Tier F&B will patronize less and spend more of their time at a low priced F&B and etc.
Spending on premium and higher end F&B like Crabs or seafood would be meant for family gathering or celebration purposes. Example – 80th birthdays, Full month etc.
Counter Inflation - Whoever managed their cost well over the next 6 months will see an advantage over others.
Shrinking without noticing
The skills of their chefs would be tested over the next few months.
How to replace food ingredients with a lower cost and still taste close to original.
How to cut slightly thinner meat and not looked very small.
How to present their dishes so that it won’t look too little
Promotions that exceed expectations.
We would recommend clients to come out new dishes that work on the cost margin of the dish/set meal to look attractive.
A new dish means you can dictate the retail price but bundle it into a set meal to make the whole deal attractive. Example : A $15 can be priced at $25 and then bundle it with other dishes ($40) to make it $50 (U.P$65)
Go for Free Soup or drinks for free Add ons to make the set meal look attractive.
Bottomline is to look back to pre-pandemic era and looked at what campaigns or promotions were successful during then.
Anntonii Lim
Finding the right marketing partner for your F&B business is easier said than done.
Get in touch with us at anntonii@awesomegroup.sg to see how we can collaborate to bring your business to greater heights!
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