The time is right for the food delivery business to take on new challenges. “Deliveries in the hospitality industry continue to increase at a substantial rate, as consumers demonstrate that they often prefer staying in to eating out, or just enjoy the convenience of having food delivered rather than cooking at home,” says Jean-Paul Roudier, vice-president for sales and marketing EMEA at Welbilt. “With this trend showing no sign of abating, it presents significant opportunities for operators in 2023/24 which could start to see more brands setting up their own delivery platforms to regain control once meals have left their premises in order to improve customer service.”

What solutions has Welbilt come up with? “Food delivery is reliant on the ability to cook orders fast and within a specified timeframe. Welbilt has a number of solutions to help operators with this task, not least our range of combination steamers that can be used in food delivery, similar to how they are used in banqueting. This is very much the case for popular meal options that can be prepared and cooked earlier in the day and held until the orders are placed.”

The unstoppable success of food delivery makes other demands, including safety, says Adriana Desiderio, digital communications manager for CAMBRO. “In December 2021, Deloitte found that 55% of customers would be prepared to pay between 10% and 50% more to know about the safety and cleanliness that surround food preparation and transport. Transparency is everything, and the study claims that many of the visible changes restaurants have made serve a dual purpose: not only are they promoting safety and cleanliness, they’re also showing their customers how seriously they’re taking it.”

Among the solutions now available, Cambro offers tamperproof labels that seal containers “to provide visual peace of mind when their meal is delivered.” In addition to that, the success of the channels involves taking things to a new level, where there is no room for improvisation: “When the pandemic started, many restaurants set up a folding table to stage their orders. Restaurants now need to be equipped with the right tools to make their deliveries go as smoothly as possible.”

Cambro offers hygienic delivery and pick-up points to ensure that food orders are kept safe before customers come to collect them. The shelves are treated with anti-microbial Camguard and can be cleaned with a cloth or in any standard dishwasher. The partitions between shelves and the labelling ensure that everything is efficiently organised so that riders, drivers and customers can quickly locate and pick up their orders.