The future of Restaurants Industry after Covid-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing a fall down of F&B business. All over the world. Restaurateurs and industry experts come together to share survival tactics and insights in the face of a global disaster that threatens to decimate them. 

The webinar Catch The Experts: Can The Restaurant Industry Survive COVID-19? talked about this problem with a panel of experts to check the future of the industry of F&B. Because it's important to remember that fine dining today is a "great dining experience" that is not to be missed. So, if the question is: Can the restaurant industry survive COVID-19? The experts unanimously agree that, despite a new world order, restaurants will never go out of fashion. But everybody needs to take a collaborative effort.


The global F&B industry needs to band together to lobby governments and landlords for subsidies, tenancy protection, and rent assistance.

As Loh Lik Peng, Unlisted Collection founder comments “There is a lot of pain in the whole economy and it’s important to give a flavour of the kind of suffering that the industry is in so that the policy-makers know what kind of tools will help the industry. 

Adaptability and agility are key to a restaurant’s survival. “The question right now is what can we be doing today?” Mark Canlis, Canlis owner, reflects, “That’s we’re looking at with our teams - in which ways can we be ready to move and be active and even pounce on an economy that is ready to come to dinner again?”   In a time-starved industry, Canlis notes that this downtime is actually an amazing excuse and opportunity to try new things and be more creative, he says “I don’t know a restaurant that can’t use a week or two of respite and pause, strategy and planning if not for the business model itself but to look inwards at its people and take care of relationships there within.”

                                                                                                                                                    Reflecting on how the typically friendly-competitive industry has chosen to band together, Alan Lo of Duddell’s shares that “this support system, (with) everyone coming together will be the beginning of something quite exciting, where restaurant and bar owners can help each other not just through the crisis but down the road to make the scene even more exciting. I do think that (delivery) is here to stay because fundamentally, the model where we expect people to come to restaurants in large groups and sit close together may change permanently,”

"With dine-in service put on hold, many restaurants pivoted to a delivery model. However, the panel of exerts called out delivery aggregators who charge hefty commissions, effectively obliterating restaurants’ already razor-thin margins, a move akin to “profiteering,” says Syed Asim Hussain co-founder of Black Sheep Restaurants, “Restaurants will be even more important when all is said and done, they are the last non-digital frontier.”

Garima Arora, executive chef and founder of Gaa says that "in cities where restaurant clientele largely consists of overseas diners, restaurateurs have begun to question the sustainability of a tourist-dependent model. So, we’re looking at better ways to make sure that we have a stronger local base that supports us in times like these. That means rethinking not only what you’re serving but what you’re cooking as well., “When it comes to the joy and romance of going out for a meal, a home-delivered box just doesn’t cut it.”  




And Peter Kreiner, CEO and partner in The Noma Group suggests that maintaining staff morale is also crucial. We went into family mode. We want to keep their spirits high and keep them updated by communicating with them regularly.Then, people would be a little reluctant to just do what they used to do, but that said, I do believe it is up to us to create environments and set-ups where people feel safe and actually want to go".