STRATEGIC FOOD AND BEVERAGE

MANAGEMENT
 Objectives of this Session
• Identify the food service cycle as a tool for the systematic of F&B
operations
• Explore and apply service operations management principles to food
service operations
• Categorise the sectors of the foodservice industry
• Explore the nature of the food service product
• Identify the dimensions of the hospitality product
 Group Activity
• Consider what food service operations there are in the local area
• List up to 10 and identify which sector of the food service industry they belong to (15
minutes)
1. Fine dining
2. Casual dining
3. Pub, bar, club and lounge (PBCL)
4. Quick service restaurants (QSR)
5. Cafes
6. Frozen desserts

• What type of food do they offer and why?

 Food and Beverage Management
•Food and beverage (or food service) operations are concerned with the
provision of food and beverages within business

•Management of:
–the service sequence (delivery)
–the customer process (experience)
–the survival of the business

•Requires skills in marketing, customer relations, and operations, staff and

financial management

•(Cousins, Foskett and Pennington, 2011)

Management of The Foodservice Cycle

5
 The Food Service Cycle
• Provides a comprehensive framework for the planning of a new operation as well as
the appraisal of existing ones

• Framework to analyse and compare different food service operations

• Helps to understand how an individual operation works:

– Difficulties in one element of the cycle will cause difficulties in the elements that
follow
– Difficulties experienced in one element of the cycle will have their causes in
preceding element

(Cousins, Foskett and Pennington, 2011)

 Systems Approach
• Two dimensions:

– Systematic approach to the design, planning and control of a

food and beverage operation

– The management of the operating systems within a food and

beverage operation

(Cousins, Foskett and Pennington, 2011)

Traditional Vs Systems Approaches
 Management of operations
The management of:
– Materials
– Information
– People (customers)
 Four Systems for Food Service

1. Food production
2. Beverage provision
3. Delivery or the service sequence
4. Customer experience management or the customer process
Model of a Food and Beverage Operation

(Cousins et al, 2016)

Interrelationship of the four
operating systems of a
food service operation

Control of resources
Efficient and effective
processes
Achieving required objectives

Source: Cousins et al. (2016)

12
 Managing service operations

Source: Developed from Johnston et al. 2012

 Dimensions of the Hospitality Product
1. Intangibility
2. Perishability
3. Inseparability
4. Variability; high variable procedural execution, conviviality
5. Simultaneous production and consumption
6. Ease of duplication
7. Demand variation
8. Difficulty of comparison
 Types of Market
• General market
– Non-captive: customers have a full choice

• Restricted market
– Captive: customers have no choice
– Semi-captive: customers have a choice before choosing
but then have little choice of food and drink other than that
on offer
Group Discussion
Give examples of both the general and
restricted market in your area.
Who are the customers within these markets
(demographics)? Do they cross over?
Is there a large price difference between the
two?
 Variables in Food Service Sectors
• Historical background
• Reasons for customer demand
• Size of sector
• Policies: financial, marketing, catering
• Interpretation of demand/catering concept
• Technological development
• Influences / State of sector development
• Primary/secondary activity
• Types of outlets
• Profit orientation/cost provision
• Public/private ownership
 Different Food Service Operations
• Designed for the:
– Needs people have at the time
– Rather than for the type of people they are
• The same customer can be:
– A business customer during the week
– A member of a family at the weekend
– Wanting a quick lunch or snack while travelling
– Organising a special event
 The Nature of the Food Service Product
“The foodservice industry’s products may be defined as the set of satisfactions
or dissatisfactions which customer receives from a foodservice experience”
Cousins et
Satisfactions al. (2011:12)
Dissatisfaction
• Physiological e.g. satisfy hunger
• Economic e.g. having a certain • Controllable e.g. unhelpful
budget staff, poor conditions
• Social e.g. going out with friends
• Psychological needs e.g. try • Uncontrollable e.g. customer
new things, respond to behaviour, weather
advertising
• Convenience e.g. lack of time
Activity – think of examples of each that affects the
restaurant industry
• P Political
• E Economic
• S Socio-cultural
• T Technological
• L Legal
• E Ecological
 Key influences
• Social trends/lifestyle
• Amount of disposable income
• Inflation/stagnation
• Available credit
• Cultural factors
• Regulation – taxation, VAT, tourism
• Media – television, advertising, magazines, celebrity chefs
• Competitors
 Sources of Information
• Trade magazines (and their associated websites)
• Various news media
• Textbooks, journals, and on-line data bases
• Government websites
• Professional trade reports
• Professional bodies
 Legal framework includes
• Health, safety and security
• Licensing framework
• Selling goods by weights and measures
• Contracts
• Selling goods by description
• Avoiding discrimination
• Providing services
• Customer property and customer debt
• Data protection
 Health, safety and security
• Duty to care for all staff and lawful visitors
and must not:
– Sell (or keep for sale) food and beverages that are unfit
for people to eat
– Cause food or beverages to be dangerous to health
– Sell food or beverages that are not what the customer
is entitled to expect, in terms of content or quality
– Describe or present food in a way that is false or
misleading
 Next Week
Can consumers be predicted or are they
unmanageable?
Read the article and prepare a summary

Decide on the operation that you will use for your report
and collect information about the sectors they belong to
Reference list
Cousins, J.A., Foskett, D. and Pennington, A. (2011) Food and beverage management: for
the hospitality, tourism and event industries. 3rd edn. Oxford: Goodfellow.
Cracknell, H.L., Kaufmann, R.J. and Nobis, G. (2000) Practical professional catering
management. 2nd edn. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Dabas, S. and Lunawat, H. (2017). Indian Food Services Industry: Engine for Economic
Growth & Employment A Roadmap for Unlocking Growth Opportunities. [online] Ficci.in.
Available at: http://ficci.in/spdocument/20969/foodzania-2017-report.pdf [Accessed 18 Dec.
2018].