Collaboration, connection and community are the key components for an optimistic and forward-thinking future in foodservice and hospitality. Alex Demetriou, CEO of Foodbuy UK&I and Founder of Regency Purchasing Group (RPG), said innovation is also important, and the need to attract talent to the sector was “non-negotiable.”
Alex, alongside Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality, the powerful voice representing the broad hospitality sector, and Karl Atkins, CEO of Foodbuy Group, headlined the recent Arena Savoy Lecture, a prestigious event which has brought senior sector leaders together for more than 30 years to share industry insights and share constructive discussions.
Alex was able to speak from personal experience with a career which began with him cooking fish and chips on the seafront in Weston-super-Mare.
This led on to Alex founding RPG in 2003, which rapidly became one of the country’s fastest growing procurement businesses, and is now part of the largest Group Purchasing Organisation in the UK with over 30,000 members, a 430-strong team of procurement experts and a total managed spend of over £2.5bn.
RPG was acquired by Foodbuy Group in 2022. As well as his roles with Foodbuy and Regency, Alex also maintains an active role as director of The Old Thatched Cottage, the first restaurant his grandparents bought 65 years ago, in Weston-Super-Mare, as well as the Grand Pier, giving him a wide, holistic and unique perspective as both a supplier and an operator.
He said: “The way we will all get through the challenges we have is collaborating, getting closer and supporting each other as an industry. The ‘we’re all in it together’ philosophy has never been more on-point. It’s a whole supply chain approach, and the strength of relationships is everything – more important than ever before. All of the challenges that we all face are somewhat easier when we come together and collaborate.”
He added: “I believe passionately that the foodservice and hospitality sector is a great place to grow talent, and the UK will be a much poorer place if we do not get younger people to work in and engage with our industry. Attracting talent is non-negotiable. There’s a reason why we all work the hours that we work. It’s challenging, but we still do it because we love it.”
He said the responsibility for attracting talent lies not just with industry bosses but with individuals who can influence and motivate others through their own actions and performance.
He explained: “I refer to it as the ‘Messi’ and the ‘Ronaldo’ effect; years ago, people supported football teams, but in more recent times this has shifted, and the younger generations are now choosing to follow and support individual players rather than teams. They are loyal to those players no matter what shirts they wear, because they see the players as role models and leaders. We need more of those type of influential leaders to help inspire the next generation of hospitality workers.”
Increases in the price of utilities, charges from suppliers, employers NI contributions and the minimum wage, have all affected the hospitality sector, which, Alex says, is crying out for a reform of business rates and other support for the sector.
But Alex also spoke about the “experience economy”, highlighting the event space as a sector that will keep on winning.
“People want that one-off experience; they want the photo. They want to say that they did that for their children, because three takeaways a month won’t be remembered, but that photo at the Taylor Swift concert will be.”
He said food halls, juice bars, dessert cafes and experiential spaces, are all driving growth and optimism, and that there is investment and positivity when it comes to spaces.
“Some people are continuing to invest,” he said, “we’ve just got to align with those winners.”
Another reason to be optimistic, he said, is that: “Convenience is king, whether it’s in technology or creating a frictionless working environment. People are often saying they don’t have disposable income, yet they find it for convenience, so the opportunity for Foodbuy is to make the world convenient and to make it easy for us to work with.”
Alex warned: “We fall into the trap of becoming comfortable in two areas as human beings; habit and copying. Habit, doing what we’ve always done, because its comfortable. Copying, just doing what somebody else is doing. But what that doesn’t actually give you is the opportunity to innovate.”
Alex concluded: “We are a customer-centric business, and I want to solve problems for our members. Ultimately, for all the challenges, I choose to work in this industry, surrounded by brilliant people, because I’ve not had more fun doing anything else.”
To find out more about Regency Purchasing Group, visit: www.regencypurchasing.co.uk and to find out more about Foodbuy UK & I, visit: www.foodbuy.co.uk
