“Despite recent setbacks, a lot of beauty is blooming in the hospitality sector,” says Koen van den Heuvel, international sales manager and marketing & communications officer for Henkelman, a Dutch company that exports all over the world, with North America and Africa its growth markets.

“Casualisation, formulating and scaling up continue unabated in the restaurant sector. Casual eating and drinking at a favourable price in a clearly positioned eatery is popular, especially among young people. The app generation, which is increasingly making last-minute appointments, is of vital importance to the restaurant sector.”

“The corona pandemic was a tough time for most caterers. And now that the crisis is over, they face even more challenges: staff shortages, price increases and the economic recession. Yet there are also opportunities. Caterers invest in a circular offer, digitization and automation.” Van den Heuvel identifies the main trends as personal attention, automated online bookings and payments, one’s own apps plus various self-service solutions) and sustainability.”

One of Henkelman’s best-selling products is an innovative vacuum packing series that is sturdy but attractively designed. “Several Michelin star restaurants in the Netherlands and Belgium are using this new series already. It is perfect for the hospitality industry because it has an easy interface, a sensor control with standard options and soft air (protection of both the product and bag), which makes vacuum packing easier and always gives constant results.”

After the boom in delivery services and Dark Kitchens, there has been a decline in establishments that offer take-away, but for diners and restaurant in the lower segment, delivery and take-away are still a big part of the revenue. “We do expect a drop in hospitality spending but since delivery and take-away has taken its place we think it will be manageable.”, says Jeffry Wiesnekker, head of marketing for the Dutch company Hendi, which exports throughout Europe and has offices in five countries.

The trends defining the foodservice industry, as well as delivery, are the durability and repairability of machinery, because rising costs make a long service life more important. Another is energy efficiency, especially for appliances that run the whole day (such as refrigeration). A shift from natural gas cooking to electric (induction) cooking is also expected to be seen.

As for the best-selling products (in terms of quantity) gas canisters for chefs’ torches sell the largest amounts, followed by the chef’s torch created by industrial designer Robert Bronwasser and the deep fryer range “which define themselves by the high quality and their long service life for a very reasonable price.”

Average consumer spending power is under pressure because of the rapidly increasing cost of living and energy prices. However, people still want to eat out of home, “and we expect a further shift towards fast food and fast casual dining,” says Wim Maurau, managing director of the Belgium-based company Culimat, which sells leading brands of foodservice equipment mainly to the German, French and UK markets.

What will 2023 be like? “Staff shortages and the energy crisis are the two main topics. Skilled people are very hard to find and operators tend to change equipment in order to make the kitchen’s operations more accessible for non-skilled staff. Restaurants are reducing opening hours, or are closed an additional day to overcome the staff issues, which has a direct impact on turnover. The increased energy costs put pressure on profitability and any investments that can help to reduce the energy bill are an absolute priority.”

Its best-selling products include a high-speed oven that cooks up to ten times faster than conventional cooking methods. “It provides the perfect solution for all main issues the industry is facing today as it is energy-saving and extremely easy to use. Anyone, even staff without experience, can operate this oven.”