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OCT. NOV. 2020 IV game sausages. These are flanked by fruit and vegetables, frozen products and the range of fresh products, in which both fish and meat, the company’s real focal point, find their place. A range of non-food products is also available. Strong points A complete service is central, guaranteed by a delivery in the Tuscany Region within 24 hours from the order. The company’s willingness to deal with overnight requests allows customers to have the necessary items without having to equip themselves with their own warehouse, resulting in significant savings. Strategies and innovations for the recovery During the lockdown the company opened up to direct sales to the consumer through a home delivery service on the territory carried out through a fleet of 13 vans. A positive experience that now continues thanks to the activation of an e-commerce site where a selection of specific products is proposed to the retail customer. Again, in the wake of the Covid-19 emergency, a range of non-food products designed to support the food delivery service has also been introduced in the range aimed at the catering industry. AT PAGE 12 CLOSE UP Imagination will save us What will happen to catering globally? Format, fittings, timing, furnishings, equipment. They will be conditioned, revolutionized and reinterpreted in relation to the new standards and in view of the new needs. Because the world is really changing by Riccardo Sada We are in a period that seems like a real post-war period. Rather than investigating the present, we need to start imagining and reinventing tomorrow. What will happen in the world of catering at an international level depends only on us. A recent webinar proposed by Host Milano (Fiera dell’Ospitalità Professionale) presented a hypothetical scenario: new formats, consequences of smart working, specializations, organizations, alliances, visions, winning models, new proposals and the possibility of having to face emergency situations again. It emerged that those who do not change or do not adapt are doomed. Everything has to be tackled seriously and decisively today. No more conformism and no more sitting on our laurels thinking about the good times of the past. The world has changed and the catering industry cannot afford to stand by and watch as it staggers. The watchword: resilience. For many restaurateurs, true innovation could be a step backwards, a kitchen with a minimal but modern structure and content. NO MISTAKES There are many historical mistakes to learn from and take inspiration from. Nokia rejecting Android, Yahoo rejecting Google, Kodak mocking digital and Blockbuster ignoring Netflix. The lesson to learn is that in entrepreneurship you have to take risks, accept change and avoid becoming obsolete. Instead, one must go beyond one’s own parameters and make new alliances, continue to innovate, sign agreements, even with large groups. Like Wagamama, a global chain with twenty years of experience that focuses not only on the usual sushi offer, but also on dishes for inexperienced palates, and which is expanding strongly despite the crisis and numerous closures. Two more interesting and quick stories? In the USA, Colonel Harland Sanders founded KFC at the age of 65 and it was a record-breaking enterprise. Later, more than half a century later, in China, a very young Jack Ma, on the other hand, was unable to find a job at KFC and yet did not despair: he founded Alibaba and retired for life at the age of 55. What does this mean? That one should not pronounce phrases like “Yes but” or “I am no longer young”. Because age is just a number, an excuse, and only those who keep trying will succeed. Failure is part of the process of growth, as Americans have been teaching us for years: don’t be afraid to fail. You have to move forward, humble and aware. NEW FORMATS TO FOLLOW AND (EVEN BETTER) TO CREATE The world changes, styles also: the smart working that cuts the sector in half, shaky daytime and evening, which can become a full experience, as we saw in the last issue. The same goes for smart lockers, intelligent lockers connected to the Internet through which it is possible to manage e-commerce shipments (and not only), without the need for the physical presence of the recipient. There are trends to bet on too. Winter is just around the corner and many abroad are relying on outdoor seating. One idea is plastic bubbles, which “serve to gain space outside the venue,” explains Jim Williams, CEO of MustHaveMenus. The French restaurant Café du Soleil in New York is already testing their use. Result? An area is delimited and circumscribed, and social distance is maintained while respecting privacy. A further way is the management of the new buffet servers. The team behind the brand created by chef Wolfgang Puck, who specialises in the world of entertainment - such as the Oscar ceremony - consultant, among other things, for television programmes such as Frasier, Hell’s Kitchen and Masterchef, makes it vertical, with buckets hanging inside which there is a selection that the chef suggests in guessed and studied combinations, thus contemplating the current guidelines. Ridgewells Catering, based in Washington, admits that the traditional and familiar ways of serving, organising and administering the buffet will be converted. The stations will be targeted, reduced to islands and manned by chefs. Arrow Up, a company specialising in consultancy for the safe reopening and re-launch of restaurants, believes that the solution for maintaining buffets can only be achieved by enhancing the value of MAGAZINE