OPERATIONS
“That’s what a lot of our clients are looking to us for: Amenities to drive the experience so people want to be there at work,” says Chef Margaret Occhipin - ti, who oversees B&I accounts for Ara- mark’s upscale B&I division, LifeWorks. More companies are sinking their teeth into making bigger investments into providing meals for employees. A recent survey by workplace food tech platform ezCater shows that meal programs for employees are on the rise, with 43% of companies now offering re- curring meal programs, a 17% increase from 2024. “Today’s workplaces require adapt- able solutions, especially with the rise of hybrid work models,” said ezCater’s Chief Growth Officer Cindy Klein Roche in a statement on ezCater’s new self- serve Relish app, which allows employ- ees to order individually packaged meals from a rotating list of local restaurants with a meal subsidy from their employ- er. What’s for lunch? As anyone who’s ever had the thank- less task of ordering lunch for the office knows, the logistics alone are a burden (and heaven help you if you get some- one’s order wrong!). Now, that’s a bur- den that can be taken over by an app like Relish, whose features, according to Roche, “are about giving organizations the power to create a flexible meal program that truly works for them. Workplaces looking to boost employee engagement can feed their people with- out worrying about logistics, overhead costs, or fluctuating headcounts.” Having meals streamlined from cool places might make workers excited to return to the office in these first years post-pandemic. Right now, companies like SeatGeek, NorthPoint Development and Stax have been seeing encouraging results with the Relish app. “Relish has helped Stax simplify the in-office experience while making it eas - ier to get people excited about coming in,” said Natalie Rosenthal, Executive Assistant, Stax, in a statement. “Our peo-
ple are happy to sit together, share a meal, and discover a new restaurant.” Best of all from the employer’s standpoint, Rosenthal said, is “when lunch is over, they leave feeling good about the experience and that spills over into the afternoon.” The ezCater survey showed that employees save on average 30 minutes of their workday when meals are provided, and 68% report feeling more productive. Work- places are responding by dedicating more of their budget to workplace food, with 60% planning to spend more this year, with nearly a third expecting budget increas- es of 25% or more. Restaurants and the local economy benefit as well, with restaurants grabbing a big portion of their sales volume from large catering orders from businesses. FSD’s sister company Technomic has found that the 2023-24 average revenue growth rate for restaurants is 3.3%. But ezCater found that restaurants with catering programs did better, with a 5.1% increase in the same time period.
QUARTERLY | Q4
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