Hot food-to-go brands chase hybrid potential

Hot-holding and food-to-go experts, Flexeserve, are seeing a growing number of food-to-go operators with big aspirations pivot to post-COVID trends.  

It’s well known that the food delivery market is up – in short, we’re eating differently. In fact, according to month-to-month comparisons by the ‘CGA & Slerp Hospitality at Home Tracker’, food delivery sales more than doubled during the pandemic. 

This growth was driven by quiet, locked-down high streets, but now the food-to-go industry is back with a hunger to push strategies and sales forward. Flexeserve is at the forefront of the sector and this year won its second Queen’s Award for Innovation, for its industry-leading hot-holding unit, Flexeserve Zone.

Warwick Wakefield, Customer Experience Director of Flexeserve, said: “The sharp rise in delivery demand throughout the pandemic opened up new opportunities for QSRs and other food-to-go operators to run a hybrid operation. These cater for both pickup and delivery, as well as their usual walk-in customers.

“At the same time, operators are seeking greater operational efficiency to address staff shortages, reduce wastage and achieve a faster speed of service.”

These challenges and aspirations increase pressure on kitchens and serving teams, but technology can assist here. In recent months, Flexeserve has helped a range of well-known brands to optimise their operations whilst maintaining excellent food quality – through its true hot-holding.

Launched during the pandemic, Flexeserve’s latest innovation – Flexeserve Hub – is the first hot-holding unit designed for the booming food delivery market. This high-capacity hot-holding unit can stage multiple orders and maximise batch cooking – ensuring food is always hot and ready for collection. This reduces the pressure on teams at peak service times. 

“Hub is transforming efficiency across entire hot food operations – from the kitchen to point of sale. Some customers are even using Hub in their kitchens to hold hot food to replenish their Flexeserve Zone unit front-of-house”, Warwick added.

Flexeserve has helped customers achieve their goals for hot food sales and waste reduction. Their unique team of hot food-to-go specialists with extensive culinary, technical and operational experience helps customers embrace true hot-holding – smoothly, efficiently and profitably. The business refers to this all-encompassing service as 'Flexeserve Solution' and it can even be used to build an entire hot food programme from the ground up.

If you’re looking to review your hot food operations or want to know how Flexeserve can help you increase efficiency and meet new demands, visit flexeserve.com.