The Future of Tech in the Food Industry

It was great to hear from Yoyo, Revolution Bars, Tregothnan Teas, Vita Mojo, Pepper HQ, Nez, and Harris + Hoole at the Tech Breakfast Event. Here’s a short blog about what we took away!

Any tea lovers reading this?

Did you know, you can grow tea in England?

I know, we were shocked too! Bella from Tregothnan Estate spoke at the event and told us all about it. Here’s what we learned:

Tregothnan is a Cornish Estate based next to the River Fal. The estate grows Camellia sinensis.

They used ancient practices in the business, but in the current climate, they need to be innovative and sustainable. So, they have turned to technology to help them. Tregothnan, now a global e-commerce business, has websites specifically for different countries they sell to.

They offer virtual masterclasses and 360 immersive experiences using VR headsets (impressive, right?!). Technology also runs throughout their agriculture.

The company uses:

• Drones and robotics for plucking, cutting, and bagging the tea.
• Digital mapping software to pinpoint areas of development.
• What3words to produce single row teas, helping Tregothnan distinguish its tea varieties.

What’s the future for Tech in Tea, you ask? It’s clear there is so much more to come; drinking tea will change dramatically in the coming years.

• Nettle Tea will be BIG!
• Cold brewing, who would have thought?

Here I am, sitting in the office, raising my hot cuppa to 3,000 years and hopefully 3,000 more.

Enough with the tea, let’s talk about Customer Experience!

Let’s face it, customer expectations have changed and that means the customer experience has to keep up.

The Question:

How can tech help us to understand the consumer?

Well, Marcus Oulds, the Chief Revenue Officer for YoYo, suggested that tech can help us be an enabler of change.

Marcus thinks it’s to do with data. Yes, data!

“83% of us are willing to share data to enable a more personalized experience.”

We also heard from Jo, the Senior Marketing Manager at Nez. She pointed out that:

• Consumers want Variety.
• Operators want Insight.
• People want Personalization.

As a result of this research, Nez introduced gamification into their loyalty schemes.

Okay, so it’s all about our data?

It’s not all down to us.

Nick Liddle from Vita Mojo, a restaurant software company, says F&B businesses need to go digital.

To transform the customer experience, operations, and data for the restaurant industry are crucial. Tech like this can be part of the solution to the challenges in the Food & Beverage Industry. We can’t forget about Digital. For example, digital ordering and digital menus in restaurants can speed up sales growth over peak periods.

Look at how McDonald’s have mastered this with their digital ordering screens in-store.

Can there still be emotion involved?

Kate Eastwood, Head of Sales & Marketing for Revolution Bars, mentions that having an emotional connection with the customer is crucial. Tech advances are great, but it’s essential to ensure that tech enhances the emotional connection between provider and consumer.

Revolution Bars recently moved from the Rev Card (I remember having one of these at university!) to an App to understand the consumer better. This piece of tech provided Revolution with more insights into their customers.

As a consumer myself, I want experience and convenience. It’s great to see that brands are tapping into this.

Think about The Flight Club, for example; this bar combines experience with tech and it works! People love it.

Top Takeaways from the talk?

The hospitality sector has been slow to embrace tech; so much energy goes into operations.

Data remains a fundamental part of improvement for businesses in the F&B industry because it provides actionable insights and integrated feedback.

As a consumer myself, monitoring, shaping, and personalization of the customer journey is key to ensuring you build and maintain a loyal, excited, happy customer who will be an easy brand advocate!