Catering leaders are looking for solutions

In Novosibirsk, the sectoral forum “Catering Siberia-2022” was held for the first time, the participants of which formulated a number of urgent initiatives. The forum was supported by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the NSO, the Department of Investments, the Consumer Market, Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the Novosibirsk City Hall, the My Business Center, and the Regional branch of Rossiya.

The forum was attended by more than 100 people representing the sphere of catering, the Event Industry and related activities-restaurant business, the supply of raw materials and equipment, banquet business, marketing, consulting, HR. Among the participants are representatives of state authorities of various levels from Novosibirsk, Moscow, Omsk, Barnaul, Biysk and Kemerovo. The meeting was organized by the regional representative office of the Association of Catering and Banquet Services of Russia and the CIS countries (AKBS) and Catering Anna Sidevich, one of the largest in the Siberian region.

The industry forum has become a platform for a constructive dialogue between entrepreneurs, experts and authorities. Participants noted that the scope of catering is one of the most vulnerable in critical conditions. Catering is a weak link in catering: logistics chains are torn, prices are rising among suppliers and adjacents, consumer priorities are changing. And much stronger than prices is growing general uncertainty, which makes it difficult to plan business and its development. Only by consolidating their efforts, representatives of the industry will be able to effectively go through all the challenges of the current period.

Experts, discussions during round tables allowed professionals to outline ways to get out of the crisis. “It was precisely because of its vulnerability that Catering became a very joint industry, where competition cannot be dominant,” Anna Sidevich shared. - Keiterier in the covid period helped each other, shared their experience. Under more stringent conditions, our community has taken a new step towards consolidation. ”

As the organizers noted, in this situation, catering will not be able to solve the problems without close contact with partners-without representatives of the Event, without suppliers, colleagues in restaurant business, cooks. That is why in the forum program the main place was given to the work of round tables.

Of great interest to the audience was the performance by Kirill Pogodin, the President of the Association of Catering and Banquet Services of Russia and the CIS countries on key trends in the industry and the main possibilities of the sanctions period.

The main discussions and the most acute discussions were awarded during a round table dedicated to the problems of catering interaction with Event agencies and sites. Participants in the round table marked the problem areas in the interaction, recorded the difference in the logic of work and tried to exchange solutions that seem the most effective in the current situation.

A round table on the appropriateness of Event's production during the turbulent economy was no less problematic.

The participants of the round table were active, dedicated to the work of catering with suppliers. At the obvious solution - to optimize purchase prices, it is logical to switch to collective purchases - there were many working points that required discussion.

A separate round table was dedicated to restructuring the menu based on new suppliers and pricing for catering services in the conditions of a constantly growing cost of production.

Regional and municipal executive bodies are ready to participate in building a new business functioning system. As the Deputy Minister - Head of the Administration for the Regulation of the Consumer Market and the Services of the Services of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the NSO Mikhail Ostanin, “Our Ministry regularly holds meetings with business representatives, is paid to the HORECA field - we always quickly inform about federal and regional support measures. At the moment, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the NSO is launching the Internet platform “We will do it ourselves”, on which you can either post your application for the purchase of food, equipment, and get acquainted with the proposals of other entrepreneurs. Novosibirsk restaurateurs are currently in the active search for local counterparties - farmers and suppliers of products to establish new logistics chains and form a menu from regional products. ”

The forum participants proposed to organize the Catering Committee and the organization of events on the basis of the regional branch of the Russian support and that could coordinate the efforts of Catering and Event experts. It was decided to make a professional forum annually.