Foodservice
Foodservice is a large sector within the food industry that may not come directly into consumers’ minds because while they may see the final product, it is not always so obvious how it got to that point. This sector within the industry supplies areas such as hotels, restaurants, universities, nursing homes, hospitals, prisons, and schools. The likes of Brakes Foodservice, JJ Foodservice, Caterforce etc.
There are four different types of Foodservice systems that operate in this area; conventional, commissary, ready prepared and assembly/serve.
- Conventional Foodservice is where the food is prepared in the kitchen at that place and is then served there. The food is either hot or cold and served as soon as possible. This type of wholesale allows for greater flexibility and the use of local or seasonal ingredients.
- Commissary Foodservice is where the food is prepared centrally and then distributed to the different locations. The advantage of this is economy of scale for procurement of products. There is a cost in the distribution side of things.
- Ready-prepared Foodservice is a great way to have consistency with items being made and frozen and then distributed to sites. There is a big cost to buying all the specialised equipment though. Airline food would fit into this category as the product is completely prepared off site and then when on the airplane they are served to customers.
- Assembly-service Foodservice is where fully prepared foods are purchased and simply finished at the relevant site. Whether that is thawing and reheating or adding seasoning. There can be a limited number of products delivered to site.
