Retail food service will be an important topic at EuroShop 2020, the No.1 global retail trade fair, and an eighth dimension was specifically designed for the event.
At its new food service equipment dimension, EuroShop will show how the right food service equipment and smart planning in retail—from special convenience and take-out concepts to attractive themed restaurants and even entire food worlds—can create new customer shopping experience and customer loyalty.
EuroShop will take place from Feb. 16-20 at the fairgrounds in Düsseldorf, Germany, and occupy some 1.3 million square feet of net exhibit space in 16 halls.
Retailers are increasingly focusing on food service and combining food with the shopping experience is considered the success formula of the future. In times of online shopping any food service offered allows retailers to set themselves apart from the competition.
Food service offers are booming in retail. Jumbo City in Amsterdam prepares soups, sushi and sandwiches for its shoppers at an open kitchen. Carrefour brews beer at its Mons outlet. The London mini-supermarket chain Eat 17 brings in local street-food partners. Interspar in Vienna offers take-out food and snacks prepared at its dedicated food service establishment on site.
While supermarkets in the United States, Great Britain and the Benelux countries already discovered culinary services early on, this market is now also gaining momentum in Germany. More and more food retailers and department stores as well as fashion boutiques and bookstores are now integrating food service units into their shops.
“In 2019 the sector will generate gross revenue of around 10 billion (euros) with retail food services in Germany,” says Olaf Hohmann, in charge of the research on retail catering at the Cologne-based EHI Retail Institute. This is an increase of about 4 percent increase compared to 2017.
At 5.2 billion euros, the majority of retail gastronomic sales in Germany are achieved in food retailing. The rest is accounted for by shopping centers, gas stations, furniture stores and other specialist retailers. The spectrum of concepts in food retail is wide and varied ranging from little shops in the check-out area, bakery/coffee shops, sushi and smoothie bars to gourmet stations and restaurants in the middle of the store.
One flagship project is the outlet opened by Edeka retailer Zurheide in 2018. At the lavishly remodeled Crown complex in Düsseldorf’s city center the retailer has installed eleven food courts with seating for 380 on two floors. Shoppers can find a Premium Beef Bar, a gourmet restaurant, a vegetarian restaurant and a Champagne bar. Food services are also gaining ground at shopping centers. While the percentage of floor space used for food services still stood at 6 percent some years ago, it can be as high as up to 20 percent at the new centers.
At Hamburg’s modernized Europa Passage the “FoodSky” brings together services as varied as snack bars and star-rated chefs. Operator ECE even goes one step further with “Foodtopia” opened in early September 2019 at the re-built shopping center MyZeil in Frankfurt. Visitors will find a food court on the top floor featuring a combination of international and regional concepts, coffee bars, lunch eateries, bars and fine dining restaurants. This concept differs substantially from the food court standards such as pizza, pasta and Asian snacks offered so far.
Retailers counter the online shopping trend with ideas and investment. Food service plays a key role in many concepts when facing shrinking retail space. This becomes particularly evident with fashion department stores that are particularly affected by online shopping. According to ECE , good food services contribute to increasing the length and quality of stay at shopping malls. Some 60 percent of visitors make use of the food services during their visit. Some 40 percent even select a shopping center by the food on offer there. The fact that the use of food services is then often linked with other purchases on site has long been confirmed by the Cologne-based retail researchers in a consumer survey recently conducted with Nuremberg GfK. According to this survey, almost one in two food service customers uses the opportunity to also shop for other everyday goods.
EuroShop is the world’s largest trade fair for retail investment requirements. Future-oriented and dynamic as the industry itself, the trade fair presents itself in eight fascinating retail dimensions with all the trends and topics that are moving the future. For more info. visit www.euroshop-tradefair.com.
