How the Food Industry is changing. New trends and a recipe for competitiveness
The Food Industry is in constant evolution. New approaches came into play based on new trends – such as Food Delivery and Remote Working – consumer habits, working methods, and the specific needs of customers and employees have changed. For companies in the food sector, it has become essential to be able to interpret these changes with new technology that streamlines the food chain and open up new opportunities.
Let’s look at how the Food Industry is evolving and the priorities to help manage a business with agility and awareness.
Trends that dominate the future of Food and Beverage
With the fast pace of change in the food sector, there is a more urgent demand for transparency and quality with more attention to the environment and ingredients for our well-being. In addition, the processes enforced by global management, has resulted in more stringent regulations, high safety standards, and an increase in new sales channels. We have identified the main trends and challenges for companies in the food sector, now let’s look at them in detail:
Food Delivery: Italians like to buy food online
In 2019, 9 million Italians purchased food online, an increase of 43% compared to 2018. The total expenditure came to about 1.6 billion euros (Netcomm research 2019). Food Delivery is a market that is expected to reach $ 665 billion worldwide by 2030.
The phenomenon of e-commerce in the food industry requires a radical change in business models. For example, some products sold online may have different packaging than those sold in physical stores; or companies need to better collaborate with their distributors. Therefore, food and drink producers today need systems that offer provisioning speed to intercept new trends and understand the impact of these channels on the business.
Remote Working: The flexible way of Generation Z
Consumer habits are always changing, and work patterns and travel patterns also evolve. Today’s employees and Generation Z want easy-to-use solutions, mobile access to work anywhere, anytime, and the ability to be more effective at work. Major manufacturers of food and drink have learnt to maximize resource productivity by creating an environment in line with the modern employee.
It is not a question of following the current fashion or respecting the new rules of social distancing, but of organizing to meet the needs of Generation Z, creating an agile environment with the Cloud and offering effective tools for the management of daily activities on the move.
Transparency and Sustainability: Consumers are asking for it!
Modern consumers want to know everything about the origin of the product and the manufacturing and manufacturing process. A conscious consumer avoids products that he perceives as unhealthy. They expect easy-to-understand labels, showing fresh ingredients and a sustainable food chain that minimizes the environmental impact.
This has forced companies to improve the visibility of the food supply chain, therefore, centralizing the management of business information is crucial and allows Food and Beverage companies to make decisions in real time, as well as guaranteeing transparency and security in all the nodes of their value chain.
A digital supply chain allows you to access timely and accurate data, ensure compliance with global regulations, meet customer needs, interact with business partners and be proactive on every aspect of global operations. With the help, however, of preventive maintenance solutions and with the integration of IoT technology, companies in the Food sector can monitor energy and waste consumption or control attributes such as temperature, health and animal nutrition.
Compliance
Food and drink manufacturers must meet the label requirements which vary according to the country of origin and the place where products are consumed. However, companies need to take into account the continuous evolution of regulations within these countries on food safety (FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, FSMA). Without the right infrastructure, you cannot keep up with the new mandatory food regulations.
Discover the Food industry & best practices thanks to our collection of Success Stories.
Innovation, the right ingredient for competitiveness in the Food Industry
For Food and Beverage companies, transformation is important not only for immediate operational benefits, but also for long-term opportunities. The adoption of agile technologies allows companies to review in advance and respond more successfully to the volatile demand of its consumers.
With Infor Cloudsuite Food and Beverage you have all the right ingredients to efficiently manage the complex challenges of the sector: manage the supply chain without interruptions, guarantee operational agility and flexibility, ensure full visibility on core processes and operating systems 24/7.
Atlantic Technologies, an Infor partner, has specific skills in the food sector and helps companies to always stay one step ahead of the competition.
Contact us for a demo on Infor Cloudsuite Food and Beverage.
