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    Will corporate canteens survive the pandemic? Elior India boss says they will return, but pre-packaged food in demand

    Synopsis

    The manner in which the food is served and the menus being requested has changed.

    iStock-1224667602iStock
    Office canteens will for a while be an area where social distancing will play a key role in terms of how food is consumed.
    A live-stream of the kitchen proceedings especially in corporate cafeterias will become a hygiene compliance. Could this be the new norm for corporate canteens?

    Sanjay Kumar, CEO & MD, Elior India, a food services company catering to Fortune 500 companies across India such as Godrej, Goldman Sachs, Cognizant, Linked In, Ashok Leyland, Visa Master, Daimler, Pfizer, Cisco, MRF, Vellore Institute of Technology, Larsen & Toubro, Panasonic, shares details on the future of eating at the workplace.

    What is the future of community-eating in offices looking like?
    Till such time that a cure or vaccine is found for COVID-19, food-at-work will be an area where social distancing will play a key role in terms of how food is consumed. Hence, most of these cafeterias will ensure that a protocol is put in place, where people do not sit and eat at crowded tables.

    What has changed in your way you’re servicing clients?
    There is demand for food-at-work and we are working to service that. What has changed is the manner in which the food is served and the kind of menus that are now being requested. There is an increasing trend towards packed-food and healthier food which can boost employees’ immunity. Besides that, the fact that people still need to eat and work does not fundamentally change. If people are going to be coming to work, they will need to eat and to be fed. The only difference is how and what they are fed.

    How has the approach to meals changed post COVID?
    Typically, organisations that valued food as a part of the employee value proposition offered lavish buffet spreads and multi-cuisine choices ranging from Oriental to Indian to Continental cuisines at work. Many of our clients perceived food as a critical part of their value proposition. Now, that has changed. Food continues to be a critical part of the value proposition, but the value-driver is not around taste and variety but around safety and health. This is one of most significant changes we have seen. In the short term, we foresee greater demand for packed food in comparison to buffets and we believe that this will be the ongoing trend for at least the next 4-8 quarters.
    Elior India CEO & MD feels that the office canteen will survive and return.​iStock
    Elior India CEO & MD feels that the office canteen will survive and return.

    What would be a possible solution for canteens post COVID?
    Industrial canteens will now be required to ensure that there is staggered availability of food in order to avoid overcrowding in the cafeterias. Therefore, the work-patterns will change. This has become a necessity because production levels have gone down and manufacturing sector is currently operating between 30-40% strength. Hence, the attendance of the workforce at industrial establishments is low. Due to this, staggering lunch timings allows for the maintenance of social distancing norms in industrial canteens.

    Tell us about contactless corporate dining.
    This is where technology plays a key role. We have built a digital platform, an application that allows employees to pre-order (a day prior), or order on the same day, the food they wish to consume. The app has in-built features to limit the delivery of food in a manner such that if the employee is consuming it at the cafeteria, the total number of employees that cafeterias allow inside is in-sync with the requirement of social distancing norms. For example, if a cafeteria previously allowed 100 people to sit and eat, today that has reduced to 15-18 in order to maintain the minimum of 6 feet of social distance.

    Will canteens survive?
    The world has survived longer than any pandemic has. Hence, irrespective of this pandemic or, God forbid, another one, life will go on. Business has to continue to perform and the show must continue. Not only will canteens survive, so will all of humanity and the day is not far off where we will come out of this crisis stronger than before.
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