“We are already seeing the reactivation of hospitality in Spain: tourism is already back, and places are full of people again. At LACOR we have already surpassed pre-pandemic sales, and we are happy about that, but it is true that the near future is quite uncertain,” says Eva Larrañaga, Europe export manager for Lacor Menaje Profesional, a Spanish firm that exports mainly to France, Portugal and Morocco.

Depending on the channel, its best-selling products include special cooking pans and sous-vide machines: “the pans are used for everything in a professional kitchen, for the preparation of food as well as for its preservation and maintenance, we could say that is it a ‘must have’ in a professional kitchen.”

What three trends are defining Spanish foodservice at the moment? “The Online World, our own Original Designs and Exports”.

How is the ‘made in Italy’ market perceived in Spain? “Usually as well-designed products of good quality. In general, Italian-made products tends to have a special design touch, and they are often liked for their look or appearance.”

One Italian company that works extensively with Spain in the premium segment for new hospitality designs – big and small – is Angelo Po.

Export sales director Mauro Moretti identifies some specific market trends: “For the past few years we have been seeing an increasing degree of digitalisation that initially involved the combined ovens segment and then was extended to all other kitchen equipment, involving for example user-friendly panels that even non-experts can operate, and machines that can manage personalised programmes with extreme precision and facilitated control of HACCP data. The latest trends relate to the shift of dining spaces from inside the establishment to the outdoor area in response to Covid-related problems and to improving sustainability in the kitchen, which means using high-quality, organic, zero-miles vegetables and ingredients and processing and preserving them in a way that minimises waste. Kitchen equipment certainly plays a part in all of this.”

One aspect of catering that is peculiar to Spain is the availability of food services at all hours of the day and even for part of the night. “This means organising the workflow in the best possible way in order to ensure top quality both at peak times and when business is slack. In this sense the increasingly popular Cook&Chill method is undoubtedly a great help in maximising profits, without compromise.”

The greatest demand is for digital technology “to guarantee an ever more straightforward and immediate use of kitchen equipment. Safety has become absolutely essential and gives great support in ensuring proper compliance with all the regulations. And last but not least you have to provide great flavours: here too, digital technology can give the certainty that preparations can be replicated, so that customers are never disappointed.”