The biggest trends in QSR next year.

Speaker: Luke Irving

Luke Irving: Hi Luke here from Fingermark and I've been asked to give my thoughts on QSR in 2023. The big trends. obviously we're going into a recession or so, so they say, which I think as we know always gives gives us are a nice little sort of revenue boost as people look for more efficient fuel. you know, cost effective protein. So I think from a, from a revenue perspective, I think QsR is going to be in good shape. are we still gonna have the labor shortages possibly. I think they've got on top of those or something. Some pretty much have got on the front foot with them at least. But I think you're still gonna have a lot of inexperienced staff trying to deal with a huge capacity. and I think the drive-thru is gonna come into into effect and I think that's where a lot of focus is going to be in terms of optimization and technology focus. Data is going to play a huge role. I can start to see this year, the brand is actually starting to understand data, their understanding you know, the power of using the data, whether that's consumer data, whether that's you know, optimization data within the restaurants. So I think we're gonna see these these brands double down on that and then use that data for good. So be able to understand where they need to put effort investment to help them drive a better customer experience where I am thinking there's probably gonna be a bit of M & A (Mergers and Acquisitions) opportunity out there probably from more from a a store level. You're starting to see some of these franchise groups buy into new brand and I think there's gonna be more of that next year. And I think there's gonna be some M & A And probably some consolidation around the technology sector as well, but we're yet to see what those moves will be all in all. I think it's gonna be a reasonably healthy year from a technology investment perspective, I think they're gonna be sitting on their hands to see where this recession lies. You know, how bad it's gonna get. I think probably April, May next year we'll have a better understanding of, what are these big brands really gonna double down on in terms of technology? I think that the human resourcing thing is gonna be a big focus is gonna be really interesting to see how they tackle that, you know, retaining staff, they don't want to have another covid. So how they're going to keep this stuff engaged, how they're going to keep them rewarded, It's an area that I'm really interested in. And I think the drive thru is is another thing I think we're gonna see a whole lot of kiosks roll out And this is just logical quick wins, which are a no brainer really quick So yeah, but I think all in all we're gonna um it's gonna be a year, which will be, I think we really are not gonna see any of the true effects of the recession until probably april May. And if we have a recession at all, so let's yeah, fingers crossed, but I have a merry christmas to you all um and uh and a happy new year, stay safe and we'll see you next year.