From celebrity chefs to industry leaders, our Innovations trade show brings in an exciting lineup of speakers. Although we learn a lot from them, time and time again, our national account attendees tell us that the greatest insights don’t come from seminars—they come from each other.
For that reason, we tried something new at last summer’s show. At Operator Insights, our special program just for national account attendees, I led a workshop with Flavor & The Menu Editor-in-Chief Cathy Nash Holley. There, operators candidly shared the strategies and tools they were using to get through an ever-changing environment.
Before registration for our next trade show opens March 8, I wanted to touch base with a few of the national accounts that participated in our workshop. How have they addressed the challenges we discussed last summer? And are they still experiencing the same issues?
Combatting Labor Shortage is Hard Work
Last year, our industry was still in the thick of the Great Resignation. Thankfully, this year has gotten off to a better start. January ended with great news for the leisure and hospitality segment, which saw an increase of 128,000 jobs. Food and drink places made up 99,000 jobs.
While this is certainly a big step in the right direction, leisure and hospitality remains 500,000 jobs below pre-pandemic levels. That gap is still top of mind in foodservice, but each business is impacted differently.
For Choctaw Casinos & Resorts, labor is particularly challenging because it’s located an hour and a half from any major city. “We have to recycle and impact other areas of our business in order to stay staffed,” explains Food & Beverage Supply Chain Director Fernando Lopez.
Like the casino, many operators are making difficult choices to spread out their resources and personnel. But they are also learning lessons that make their staff stronger, happier, and more efficient. Eric Marcoux, vice president of quality management at Smashburger, brought up the importance of offering additional benefits to improve employee retention. Choctaw Casinos & Resorts is also exploring robotics and simplified offerings to reduce back-of-house labor.
The labor market is expected to continue on the right path, but as many places remain understaffed, operators will need to keep getting creative to boost both hiring and retention. At Innovations 2023, our new Vice President of Human Resources Mandi Clark will provide some insights on how Dot Foods has tackled recruitment, hopefully sparking some ideas for attendees.
Supply Chain Recovers—Slowly
National accounts didn’t sugarcoat their supply chain struggles last summer, but the conversation wasn’t all doom and gloom either. We focused our discussion on possible solutions instead of the problems, and most of the solutions centered around two areas: flexibility and communication.
This was music to my ears. Dot is able to be a better partner to national accounts who communicate their menu and LTO needs early and often. And with item availability as unpredictable as it’s been, having the flexibility to swap out different products is a must and an area where our team can offer assistance.
These tactics appear to be paying off. Operators are more optimistic about the future of foodservice. In particular, our national accounts have found success with incorporating backup items and vendors into their menu and LTO plans.
For Braden Rolland, associate culinary manager at RaceTrac, navigating LTO management has been easier since they’ve started working substitute items into their pre-launch plans. Backups are also a key part of planning for Smashburger, which warehouses key ingredients and equipment to have on hand in case of shortages.
There’s still a long way to go to stabilize the supply chain. Operators might be optimistic about the year ahead, but they tell us recovery has been slow. Leveraging partners across the supply chain for LTO management and sourcing will continue to be critical for success.
Keep the Conversation Going
The overall industry outlook keeps getting brighter, but we aren’t quite at the point where we can breathe a collective sigh of relief. The same challenges we went over last summer continue to put a major strain on operators. But as we continue to innovate and learn from each other, we put in place solutions that set us up to be stronger than ever.
Last year’s Innovations showed me that the greatest resource we have is each other, and I look forward to joining forces again this summer. Operator Insights will give you an opportunity to hear the latest findings from Datassential’s Jack Li, chat operator to operator about industry trends, and catch a sneak peek of some of our booths before the show floor opens. You’ll also see, taste, and smell products from over 300 exhibitors.
Have any insights to add? Share your comments on LinkedIn or in person at Innovations 2023.