Qualitaly_118

AUG. SEP. 2020 I AT PAGE 1 A hot autumn awaits us! Our Qualitaly August-September issue has always been a ‘a little fizzy’, one that combined the lightness of summer with the desire to start again in September with a new season full of as many exciting new features. This year’s scenario is much more complex. Perhaps even more so than in previous months because we find ourselves in a kind of limbo waiting to understand what will happen. The summer season, although it started later than in previous years, has shown that in times of crisis our sector is able to roll up its sleeves and rebuild a business that has always been one of the driving forces of the country. Well, in the light of what we have seen - and still see as summer tails off - the tourism sector does not want, and should not have to raise the white flag, as Laura Castelli, Deputy Minister of the Economy, suggested a few weeks ago. What the category really needs, as Sangalli of Confcommercio, Bonomi of Confindustria and Mario Draghi recently mentioned in their speeches at the highly anticipated Rimini meeting, is “a Marshall plan to relaunch the Italian economy in the post Covid period”. The Government can now no longer put it off. Mario Draghi himself urged the abandonment of the bonus policy in favour of the investment policy, re- proposing the need for a republican responsibility that first and foremost concerns politics, able to escape the logic of short-term dividends, acting with foresight. In short, reforms and investments, but also fiscal stimuli. And Sangalli has relaunched by asking for “more funds for tourism and commerce”. Well, we are at a crossroads and certainly starting from September we expect stronger and more concrete signals. In our own small way, in the last few months we have posed ourselves the problem of favouring the recovery by developing articles in our newspaper that would be a stimulus, that would suggest ideas, sometimes even entering into the most practical aspects of our profession. This time, taking a few more weeks to close the newspaper to give you a more realistic perspective of our situation, we have focused on what seems to be the most imminent future for our industry: the new inputs to develop the lunch break business (p. 14 and p. 14). 18), how to set up a buffet in Covid times (p. 48), from pizza (p. 22) which has been, and still is, the superstar of consumption from the beginning of the pandemic to the present, to a survey (exclusive to Qualitaly) on the consumer to understand how he sees the catering sector and what he expects to find in shops (p. 42). And then, the direct experience of a restaurateur in Parma, Borgo20, where everyone, from the owner to the staff, AT PAGE 3 A year we’ll never forget 2020 is proving to be one of those years that, at the level of teaching, will probably be worth “A CENTURY”! Like all teaching, if we want to improve, we must treasure it as much as possible. Analysing what has happened - and what we are experiencing – by answering some questions gives us the humble hope of making as few mistakes as possible. What have we learned in recent months? The most important lesson is that for companies it is not turnover that counts but marginality and economic solidity and differentiation. All those companies with low margins and poor economic solidity have been fragile in the face of such a tsunami and many have closed, while others have also increased their business (just think of the restaurants that have, in a short time, equipped themselves for delivery or distributors that have opened up to the home market). What will the Horeca market of the future look like? MAGAZINE Traduzione a cura di Christopher Farley