The Federation of Wholesale Distributors held its annual conference fwdLive! at The Midland, Manchester, with the theme Unlocking the Power of Wholesale.
Presentations included a political update from DGA, social media & influencer marketing by PR agency Cirkle, AI & global wholesale by Choco and wholesale’s road to net zero by 3 Keel.
Jill Livesey, Managing Director, Lumina Intelligence & MCA, discussed the future of food-to-go.
The total eating out market is worth £98.8bn, the total convenience market is valued at £48.4bn and the food-to-go market is worth £23bn, Livesey revealed.
As easing tailwinds prompt an improved outlook for the UK economy, the share of out of home spend is expected to recover.
In May 2024, consumer confidence reached the highest level since January 2022.
The food-to-go market is expected to grow +£2bn by 2027 and food-to-go led channels are driving growth.
An additional 1000 food-to-go sites in the market every year is forecast from 2024-2027.
The food-to-go giants continue to target at home occasions and are investing in transport hubs.
Nearly half of food-to-go consumers are under 34 years of age and are more affluent.
Retail food-to-go is driving sandwich purchases, while weekend occasions are up 6 percentage points across two years.
Growth drivers include a stronger return to pre-pandemic lifestyles driving city centre and high street footfall; consumer demand for lower ticket meal solutions as a more affordable eating out experience; a variation in location strategy including more focus on drive-thru, travel hub locations and smaller formats; and tech-led innovations in digital ordering, payment and back of house operations boosting efficiencies.
Growth inhibitors revived competition for footfall and repeat visits in density worker locations; undifferentiated menu propositions losing out to more specialised and higher quality alternatives; food and ingredient price rises and supply shortages due to Brexit, extreme weather and war; sourcing issues and slow response to changes in consumer tastes and preferences especially for quality and freshness.
Stuart Leach, RSM Partner, Technology & Cyber Risk Assurance, talked about the cyber threat landscape.
High-profile cyber attacks have heightened cyber security awareness among middle market businesses.
Cybercrime will be worth £8.5 trillion by 2025, growing 40% YOY. Wholesale is the 5th most targeted industry for cybercrime, with 17% of wholesalers experiencing a cyber-attack and 42% believing AI enabled cyber-attacks to be a key future concern. The wholesale industry is attractive to cyber criminals because of its strategic position in the supply chain, its variation of valuable data and its sensitivity to disruption. 40% of wholesalers will focus on ensuring the foundations of cyber security are implemented and robust.
Prevalent forms of cyber attacks include malware and ransomware, phishing/whaling/impersonation, insiders, third party risks and system vulnerabilities.
Leach suggests building cyber awareness tailored and contextualised to your business, building knowledge to apply to challenges and understanding regulatory and customer expectations.
Wholesalers should build strong and robust foundations, understanding cyber risks and assigning ownership, implementing controls, using existing frameworks and monitoring controls in line with the threat landscape. Business owners should also understand the cyber footprint to manage third-party risk, understanding the value of data from an attacker lens.
Wholesalers need to set clear expectations and be prepared to respond to a cyber-attack, creating key relevant and practical policies, setting clear expectations for all parties and reviewing and practising cyber incident response plans.
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