Over the course of the last few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected multiple industries and businesses, and the players in the Food & Beverage sector have been especially hit by this pandemic. Across the globe, restaurants and cafes are witnessing a drastic drop in customer traffic compared to the same period in 2019. Shake Shack’s sales dropped by 70%, The Cheesecake Factory had to layoff 41,000 workers, and many more restaurants had to turn to revolving credit as a means for financial support. In the GCC alone, restaurants witnessed a decrease in customers by 60% during the weeks leading up to the lockdown orders. By the end of March 2020, restaurant visits and reservations in the MENA region were almost zero.
Challenges such as decreasing consumer spending and demand, along with more and more people preferring home delivery over on-premise purchases, have forced F&B players to change their operational dynamics to not only keep up with the competition, but also to remain open. For on-premise purchases at restaurants in Saudi Arabia, the customer experience has been completely revamped due to government regulations: customers’ temperatures are to be checked, the number of customers on a table is to be limited to 5 unless they are all members of the same family, and a space of at least 1.5 meters is to be kept between customers. This might not only decrease footfall but also increase the restaurant’s expenditures. So how can F&B businesses overcome all these challenges and stay afloat?
Cloud Kitchens, Delivery, and Drive-Thru
Over the course of the last few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected multiple industries and businesses, and the players in the Food & Beverage sector have been especially hit by this pandemic. Across the globe, restaurants and cafes are witnessing a drastic drop in customer traffic compared to the same period in 2019. Shake Shack’s sales dropped by 70%, The Cheesecake Factory had to layoff 41,000 workers, and many more restaurants had to turn to revolving credit as a means for financial support. In the GCC alone, restaurants witnessed a decrease in customers by 60% during the weeks leading up to the lockdown orders. By the end of March 2020, restaurant visits and reservations in the MENA region were almost zero.
Over the course of the last few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected multiple industries and businesses, and the players in the Food & Beverage sector have been especially hit by this pandemic. Across the globe, restaurants and cafes are witnessing a drastic drop in customer traffic compared to the same period in 2019. Shake Shack’s sales dropped by 70%, The Cheesecake Factory had to layoff 41,000 workers, and many more restaurants had to turn to revolving credit as a means for financial support. In the GCC alone, restaurants witnessed a decrease in customers by 60% during the weeks leading up to the lockdown orders. By the end of March 2020, restaurant visits and reservations in the MENA region were almost zero.
