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With the announced redesign of Noma, the “best restaurant in the world”, co-owner and chef René Redzepi attracted the attention of the international press at the beginning of the year. He explained the reasons for his decision to New York Times He cited not only the problematic working conditions for many employees in the top-class gastronomy sector and the associated "crisis of social sustainability." A personnel crisis, exacerbated by the forced coronavirus shutdown in the gastronomy sector, also led to his decision.
However, this personnel crisis does not only affect the top gastronomy, as can be seen in the Austrian guest competition shows. And in Bavaria, too, many positions remain vacant. According to BR, Würzburg ranks first nationwide in terms of the vacancy rate, i.e. the proportion of unfilled positions. Accordingly, 83.6 percent of the vacancies in the catering industry in the region cannot be filled. The Bavarian regions of Passau follow in the nationwide rankings with 82.9 percent and Weiden in der Oberpfalz with 80.8 percent. In Munich, however, the situation is much more relaxed, with the rate being only 5.5 percent. However, the state capital is the exception: the Bavarian average is 62.5 percent.
Digital solutions for the hospitality industry
Can startups help here? They can at least help make work in restaurants more effective and employee-friendly, such as Ordercube The company has developed a small cube that, when placed on restaurant tables, replaces common candle holders and simultaneously enables new functions. Not only can the cube be used to call and pay waiters, it also provides valuable data about a restaurant's service quality, helping to optimize average waiting times or occupancy. You can hear who's behind Ordercube starting at minute 4:50.
Allo (from minute 7:35) has set itself the task of helping small restaurants with their digitalization. To this end, the startup aims to offer tools for restaurants bundled within its platform, thus "making the technological level of McDonald's and Starbucks accessible to small restaurants," as stated on the company's website. Founded in 2020, the young company completed a financing round of 1.4 million euros just last December.
The thing about tips
Tips are a crucial source of income, not just in the restaurant industry, but in the service sector in general. However, with the increasing prevalence of card payments, the question arises: Does the money actually reach the service staff? The startup Edrixx (starting at minute 10:00) has developed a solution for this. Using the Munich-based company's web app, guests can transfer tips directly to their server's account. This also benefits restaurant owners: Not only is their staff happier, but they no longer have to calculate the tip from each individual card payment and allocate it to the correct person.
Personnel problems in the hospitality industry
Hotels, which are often grouped together with the restaurant industry as the "hospitality industry," are plagued by very similar problems to restaurants. The startup Hoscom With its solution, Hoscom aims to help them digitize and improve communication among employees, but especially between departments. This should make the daily work of hotel employees easier and thereby improve the quality of the hotel. We reveal exactly how this works and who is behind Hoscom starting at minute 12:30.
The Drink Innovation Campus DICA
At the end of this episode we present the DICA The accelerator program was launched in 2019 by the SCE together with the industry magazine Inside and partners from the beverage industry. The program aims to enable startups and companies to learn from each other through co-creation. DICA partner companies include the Bitburger Brewery Group, Frankenbrunnen, and the Ardagh Group.
