In recent years, despite the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated challenges, there has been a significant increase in restaurant businesses. A study conducted by FIPE (Italian Federation of Public Establishments) found that businesses with code 56.1 increased from 188,631 to 196,031 between 2020 and 2021, as shown in the table below.

The increase of 7,400 restaurant businesses is certainly encouraging, especially considering the time frame: despite the restrictions due to the pandemic, an increasing number of families have decided to get involved by opening a new business in the food and beverage sector.

However, catering, whether run as a family business or as an international chain, encounters management problems that must be addressed promptly in order to offer the best service to end customers and, on the other hand, improve the business's back-end.

1. The identity

Today, restaurants of all types exist: trattorias, pizzerias, fusion restaurants, gourmet restaurants, vegan restaurants, and Asian restaurants. A primary challenge many businesses face is establishing their identity within their local context. Publicity alone, driven by the curiosity of opening a new restaurant, fails to maintain the identity of a business that must meet the needs of existing and new customers.

Brand awareness is becoming a key factor: consumers are aware of the brand, the brand, and the restaurant they visit, and they expect a certain type of experience from it. Industry professionals must therefore use the tools at their disposal to increasingly educate their customers on what to expect from their businesses, from service to price, from dishes to location.

It's therefore best to rely more often on third-party agents who can help the restaurateur build brand awareness and manage communication channels. In the digital age we live in, customers and professionals find themselves using digital channels , which must be used promptly to create a clear, unfiltered relationship where both parties can communicate directly, sharing experiences and concerns.

A clear example is digital-sales , an Italian company that works to digitize businesses, supporting them in using digital channels to improve both front-end and back-end processes, thus optimizing the company's identity for all generations who use search engines, social media, forms, and reviews to identify the best place to not only enjoy a meal, but also share the Chef's cooking philosophy.

2. Order planning

Combating food waste has become the most important challenge of our century. According to a study conducted by Coldiretti, approximately 67 kg of food per capita is wasted in Italy, with an annual waste of approximately 4 million tons. Food waste unfortunately has a negative impact on the economy and the environment: approximately 17% of what is grown globally is ultimately thrown away, requiring a significant expenditure of economic and non-economic resources to cultivate hectares of land that ultimately produce discarded and discarded food.

Special mention should be made of the seafood industry, where even transportation can have serious consequences for discarded foods: the interruption of the cold chain causes the seafood to not be preserved according to standards and therefore is then discarded, increasing waste.

While Ho.Re.Ca. professionals have little or no logistical ability, it's clear that proper order planning can reduce food waste. Professionals need products that arrive on time and in the right way, so they can stock the right quantities for use, avoiding waste.

Proper order planning not only eliminates waste, but also has a positive economic impact. Indeed, proper planning allows for proper product rotation, optimizing available space. In increasingly smaller spaces, proper planning requires fewer cold storage rooms and equipment for product preservation, thus improving the bottom line.

Conkilia's consulting service allows for medium- to long-term order planning, allowing for product rotation on a nearly JIT (Just in Time) basis and ensuring constant product availability. It's possible to arrange product supply with consultants, purchasing directly from the company that provides the raw materials. By locking in the purchase price, Conkilia will act as a free warehouse account for the professional, ensuring the requested product's availability at a fixed price throughout the entire period.

3. Watch the budget

The financial aspect of your business is the key factor in evaluating its performance. A restaurant should be considered a business in its own right, and as such, its income and expenses must be carefully analyzed to avoid difficulties that could threaten its survival. Keeping costs under control doesn't necessarily mean lowering the quality of service offered, but rather eliminating all costs that don't add value to the final service provided to your customers. Customers are willing to pay for quality products and enjoy an engaging experience that will encourage them to repeat.

So where to go to cut costs?

A key aspect is precisely related to sourcing. Customers want a seamless experience, from producer to consumer, which is why new online and offline communities are increasingly emerging to create a common thread between these two entities: those who provide the raw materials and those who transform them into an experience for diners.

Among the various communities created for this purpose, Conkilia was the first to focus on the seafood world . The platform created a direct connection between supplier companies and producers, enabling informed purchasing based on the wealth of information found within each product page, information provided by the manufacturing company itself: from origin to sustainability, from the fishing area to recommendations for use, chefs and restaurateurs have the opportunity to purchase the best seafood products on the market directly from the producer , with an average annual saving of 30%.

Through the platform, professionals will have access to a catalog and a consultant who will help them find the best product based on their specific needs and, together, evaluate the food cost of the final dish. Consultants can be contacted through a variety of methods: email, phone, or WhatsApp , and together they can resolve all issues related to seafood supply, generating savings without compromising the quality of the service offered.

4. The choice of products

Products are the focal point between the restaurateur and the diner. Having a quality product is as important as the chef's preparation, and it's crucial for the chef/owner or the purchasing department to source the most suitable product for the intended preparation.

The choice between frozen or fresh products is just the tip of the iceberg, but it's an issue that absolutely must be considered. Products frozen on board or frozen ashore within hours of being caught allow the fish to remain at its peak freshness, compared to fresh fish that has been in transit for several days before arriving at its destination. Frozen products offer an experience comparable to freshly caught fish , unlike fresh products consumed far from the fishing ground.

It's therefore essential for today's new professionals, who are much smarter than previous generations, to have a wide range of frozen and fresh products to choose from on a single platform. This choice, therefore, involves not only the product's cost, but also identifying—based on the type of product being sought, its organoleptic characteristics, and its origin—the best fresh or frozen product to meet their needs.

Conkilia aims to meet this need through its marketplace: it is possible to search within the catalogue for the most diverse types of fish products, from crustaceans to seafood , from bottarga to octopus, from ultra-frozen tuna already frozen to fresh whole or loined bluefin tuna .

Let's take a look at the fish products most sought after by Chefs and Restaurateurs

Amberjack is a staple among the seafood consumed by chefs and professionals in every restaurant sector. Among the finest varieties ofamberjack is undoubtedly the yellowtail amberjack, farmed in Spencer Gulf, Australia. Clean Seas' farm is characterized by cold currents, creating an ideal microclimate for the growth of Hiramasa amberjack.

Read more about the Hiramasa Amberjack in our article!

Similarly, salmon is a widely used product in all types of catering businesses, even though it is sometimes considered a service product. Choosing quality salmon can be an added bonus for chefs and professionals, helping them stand out and attract customers who want to enjoy a different product. Among the various types of salmon, choosing sustainably raised salmon , free from antibiotics and GMOs , gives the salmon a distinct flavor due to the low fat content, yet rich in protein and minerals. This is the case with Faroe Islands salmon , raised almost wild in an archipelago that relies primarily on fishing. Unlike larger companies, these are family-run and prefer natural farming methods that safeguard their natural habitat.

Read more about Faroese salmon farming

For gourmet restaurants, which instead want to focus on a niche product, the choice may fall on a different species of salmon, namely Ora King salmon .

Ora King Salmon , defined by the New York Times as the Wagyu of the Sea, represents 1% of the salmon fished worldwide due to its buttery and particularly marbled meat.

From New Zealand to Chile, from Australia to Argentina, the Oncorhynchus tshawytscha is the most sought-after product for chefs and restaurateurs who want to stand out and present their guests with a product of exceptional quality. Excellent for sushi and sashimi, shabu-shabu soups, or yakitori-style preparations, this salmonid belonging to the Red King species is the protagonist of the Ora King Award, a competition in which various chefs battle it out with dishes, flying to New Zealand for the final stage of the tournament, where they have the opportunity to meet colleagues and exchange ideas and culinary philosophies.

Learn more about Ora King Salmon

How to improve the efficiency of your restaurant?

Conkilia is the ideal platform for all professionals who want to address various issues on a single platform. Through the marketplace, chefs and restaurateurs can search for the products best suited to satisfy their customers; with an average annual savings of approximately 30%, professionals will have greater profits to reinvest and further improve their service, without additional costs compared to previous budgets.

Furthermore, thanks to the consulting service, Ho.Re.Ca professionals will have ongoing support both in terms of supplies—with product and delivery status traceability—and in terms of food cost analysis—including the right amount of seafood on each dish and the corresponding price.

Chefs and restaurateurs can contact us at supporto@conkilia.it or by phone at 351 866 9296 / 080 442 6081 and a consultant will support you throughout the purchasing process.