With more and more Hong Kongers spending their holidays across the border to Mainland China, many Chinese restaurants have become a big hit among the locals. These popular brands, such as Tai Er Chinese Sauerkraut Fish,  HaiDiLao Hotpot, HEYTEA have seized the opportunity to extend the reach of their brands to Hong Kong, hoping to leverage the city’s distinctive edge of “strong support of the motherland and being closely connected to the world” to enter international market. Undoubtedly, the emergence of  mainland brands will intensify competition in the local F&B market. Yet, the growth of the Hong Kong F&B industry has remained subdued in recent years since the pandemic. Such a challenging business landscape has led some small-and-medium restaurants in Hong Kong to closure due to high operational costs and rents. While many industry professionals are concerned about the increasingly fierce competition, some believe that healthy competition may drive innovation and improvement in the Hong Kong F&B industry. In face of all these challenges, how can the local F&B industry maintain its competitiveness?  Avoid Cut-Throat Price Competition The costs of opening and running a restaurant are significantly high when compared to mainland China due to high wages and soaring rents. It is therefore unwise for the F&B owners to attract consumers by solely relying on continuous price-cutting approaches. Unlike the retail sector, restaurants cannot effectively apply “a small profit margin and sell more” strategy. In fact, such a strategy may pose greater risks in the long run, as restaurants may need to lower the quality of their food and services in order to reduce the operational costs for sustaining their businesses, which may eventually result in a financial loss. Such an approach may not only tarnish the reputation of the brand, but also lower competitiveness. Instead, the local F&B industry should develop cost-effective strategies and prioritize improving the quality of their offerings. By focusing on improving food quality and service standards with strengthened cost monitoring, restaurants can cultivate a strong brand image and reputation, thereby attracting and retaining loyal customers.  Enhance Operational Efficiency via Digitalization To develop cost-effective strategies for enhancing operational efficiency, F&B owners should actively engage in the digital transformation trend by implementing various systems to reduce manual operations and strengthen cost control. Some local researchers have suggested the F&B industry adopting an electronic ordering system to replace traditional manual methods. This transformation can not only increase ordering efficiency but also enhance customer experience while minimizing labour cost and  reducing workload for frontline staff.  On the other hand, it is beneficial for restaurants to adopt a POS system for recording daily sales data, as well as to implement a food procurement and inventory management system specifically designed for the F&B industry like FOODIVAL to effectively manage relevant data. FOODIVAL can assist F&B owners in implementing systematic procurement and inventory management with its comprehensive functionalities and user-friendly interface design. It can not only help enhance the control over procurement costs, but also monitor actual business performance, including procurement costs, food costs, menu analysis and more, ultimately facilitating data-driven decision making and the formulation of more targeted operational strategies. Attract Consumers with Innovations Keeping abreast of the latest F&B market trends and consumer preferences can help F&B owners generate innovative ideas and improve their offerings, satisfying the ever-changing market demands. According to recent F&B trend research , many research institutes have pointed out that consumers will pay more attention to personalized dining experiences, fusion cuisines and local elements. It is crucial for the F&B industry to catch up with the trends by creating innovative cuisines that blend local and international features, providing a more diverse and customized favours to their customers for cultivating a stronger brand image. In fact, while many Chinese F&B brands have actively expanded in Hong Kong in recent years, numerous brands have underestimated the costs and challenges of running a business there. Last year, some once-popular Chinese F&B brands announced their decision of closing their branches and restructuring their businesses in Hong Kong. For instance, “LMM Perfume Lemon Tea”  in Mong Kok is one such example. Therefore, whether Chinese F&B brands can establish and stabilize their operations in Hong Kong still remains to be seen. Yet, the positive competition that Chinese F&B brands bring to Hong Kong's F&B industry is undeniable.  If you aim to optimize your restaurant's performance through improved procurement and inventory management, along with effective cost control strategies to boost overall competitiveness, we invite you to reach out to our system experts  and reserve a complimentary consultation to explore the latest functionalities of FOODIVAL!

As we approach 2025, many F&B businesses are preparing themselves for a resurgence by proactively reviewing their current operational strategies to better accommodate consumer demands and integrate into the digital era in order to seek new business opportunities. According to the “ Provisional statistics of restaurant receipts and purchases for third quarter of 2024 ” issued by The Census and Statistics Department, HKSAR last November, the value of total receipts of the restaurants sector in the third quarter of 2024, provisionally estimated at $26.7 billion, decreased by 1.3% over a year earlier. Over the same period, the provisional estimate of the value of total purchases by restaurants decreased by 0.1% to $8.8 billion. There is no doubt that the performance of the Food & Beverage (F&B) industry in 2024 was unsatisfactory, mirroring a subdued growth. The F&B industry must proactively improve its business performance through revenue-generating and cost-cutting strategies, as well as enhance customer satisfaction to encourage consumption. It is essential for businesses to understand the latest market trends before they can improve their offerings and seize new opportunities.  Without further ado, let’s take a look at the hot F&B trends highlighted by various research institutes and media from around the globe!  Sustainability & Local Sourcing According to the “ What’s Hot in 2025 – Culinary Forecast " conducted by the US’s National Restaurant Association last year, “Sustainability & Local Sourcing” has become the top of the chart in 2025, replacing “World Stage Soups & Stews”. This implies that more and more consumers will pay attention to green dining and environmental conservation. In the other words, when consumers are choosing F&B services, they tend to care more about the sources and production methods of the fresh ingredients. For example, they concern whether the restaurants support local sourcing to reduce carbon footprint in the delivery process; or whether the suppliers adopt sustainable methods in the farming and production process. It is therefore vital for the F&B industry to advocate "sustainable dining” in their businesses. This can not only help maintain biodiversity and thus ensure a stable supply chain of ingredients, but also attract like-minded consumers by offering healthier and diverse culinary options. Noteworthily, Innova, an international global market insights provider from the Netherlands, predicted that “Food Culture – Tradition Reinvented” will be one of the Top Ten Food and Beverage Trends for 2025 , coincidentally resonating with the trend related to “local” elements highlighted by the National Restaurant Association. They both believe that “local” elements will come into the spotlight. Consumers tend to preserve their local dining cultures and tastes, of which they are proud, while experiencing diverse cultural exchange. The Rise of Fusion Cuisine Photo source: Hong Kong Tourism Board & Time Out Hong Kong   As the pandemic subsides and international trade and travel fully resume, consumers' desire for diverse dining experiences is increasingly intensifying. Creative and palate-stimulating fusion cuisine is expected to become a new global trend by 2025. On the other hand, many F&B businesses have realized the challenges of crafting a complete foreign dining experience with imported ingredients after the pandemic due to international transportation restrictions and increased costs associated with logistics and imported food. Therefore, more and more restaurants are starting to reconsider how to create fusion cuisine using local ingredients, adding a touch of local flavours to exotic tastes. In Hong Kong, there are quite a number of popular fusion restaurants recognized by Michelin . “Whey” offering Singaporean mixed with western cuisine is one of the examples. Their Singaporean chef uses both local and organic ingredients to create South-East Asian cuisine with western cooking techniques. Some of their signature dishes include reinterpreted Bak Kut Teh, French bread with black fruit jam and Nyonya flavors and Musang King durian ice cream paired with caviar, immersing their customers into an extraordinary feast brought about by the integration of diverse food cultures and ingredients. Moreover, the third major F&B trend highlighted by Innova is “Flavors–Wildly Inventive”, which further reinforces the new wave of fusion cuisine in 2025. The survey indicates that more than half of consumers worldwide are interested in trying new flavours. In addition to the fusion cuisine presented by various restaurants, several well-known food brands have also launched a series of limited-edition co-branded products, such as "Coca-Cola x Oreo" cola and cookies, to attract consumers with unprecedented flavours and surprises.  Customized Dining Experience Many research institutes and media have also pointed out that consumers will increasingly focus on health, nutrition, wellness and other personalized demands in the future. This is also reflected in the The Top Ten Food and Beverage Trends for 2025 . The second, fifth and seventh trends highlighted are “ Health–Precision Wellness”, “Plant-based–Rethinking Plants” and “Beauty Food–Taste the Glow” respectively. The F&B industry needs to adjust its menu, ingredients and cooking methods based on personalized demands of different consumers to accommodate diverse dining habits by providing consumers with healthier options. For instance, adding vegan options to the menu or offering choices such as low-calorie, low-sugar or low-salt items. Currently, such personalized dining services are more common in bubble tea shops and coffee shops, where customers can design their drinks according to their preferences, including flavor, temperature, sweetness and milk foam, creating a bespoke experience. In Hong Kong, some Japanese ramen shops also allow customers to choose the thickness and texture of their noodles, making the dishes more tailored to individual tastes. Utilization of Operational and Sales Data  To improve operational efficiency and create better dining experiences, F&B businesses cannot rely solely on employee experience to adjust strategies. Instead, they have to collect relevant data about their operations, including costs, sales and customer preference etc., in order to understand the actual performance and make data-driven decisions. A targeted operational and sales strategies can not only help generate revenue and reduce costs, but also attract customers. Apart from the POS systems commonly-used by restaurants to record daily sales data, an increasing number of restaurants have started to implement food procurement and inventory management systems tailored to the F&B industry. Such systems can assist restaurants in systematically managing procurement data and strengthen food cost and procurement cost control for formulating better cost-saving strategies. Moreover, the system provides active inventory monitoring and recipe analysis functions. Users can conduct regular stock take and connect to the POS through the system for automatically integrating inventory and sales data for in-depth analysis, further understanding the restaurant's operations and performance. With built-in reports and management dashboards, operators can gain insights from multiple perspectives, including procurement costs, wastage, stock value, ideal and actual dish costs, supplier analysis and even the profit and sales distribution of each dish in your menu. The above data is useful for formulating new procurement and sales strategies to enhance business performance. As we enter 2025, the F&B industry will encounter various challenges and changes, but it will also present new opportunities. F&B operators must seize these opportunities by embracing digital transformation to replace time-consuming manual processes with automated systems. By utilizing more robust data, they can enhance decision-making and implement targeted improvements while progressing towards sustainable development. If you are interested in exploring digital transformation for your restaurant, please don't hesitate to reach out to us . Our system consultants would be happy to discuss the best digital solutions with you!

In addition to the series of modules and functionalities introduced in the previous blogs, FOODIVAL also provides a wide array of reports and efficient management dashboards. These tools help integrate various data and analyze business trends through different appealing and easy-to-read charts, empowering F&B owners to gain deeper insights into their business performance and monitor operations over time. Meanwhile, FOODIVAL incorporates a wide variety of standard reports, allowing the procurement department to extract useful data to generate necessary reports with just a few clicks. This helps restaurants save considerable time and effort on manual work such as collecting and consolidating data each month, which significantly improves work efficiency and strengthens data analysis capabilities of the procurement department.  In addition, the system seamlessly integrates with the third-party analytics tool, Power BI, which helps automatically update operational data from various data sources on a daily basis. Data may include ingredient procurement, inventory levels, stock movement, inventory value, recipes, sales, payroll and more, allowing users to analyze these operational data from multiple perspectives with greater flexibility and depth, preparing them to make data-driven business decisions! Diverse Reporting FOODIVAL comes with over 50 built-in basic reports, including monthly store report, procurement summary report, monthly inventory balance report and wastage report. Simply select the required data and time period and FOODIVAL will automatically extract relevant data and generate the appropriate reports. This feature not only saves employee’s time in collecting, consolidating and applying complex formulas to organize various data, but also enhances the accuracy and reliability of the reports. Moreover, FOODIVAL allows users to create more targeted and specialized reports by using the pivot tables function, further improving operational efficiency.  Management Dashboard Apart from standard reports and built-in reporting tools, FOODIVAL’s interactive dashboard also helps restaurants integrate and analyze data related to procurement and inventory management, such as procurement costs, wastage, stock value, supplier analysis and more. This allows management to easily monitor all major data and performance metrics in one consolidated interface. By incorporating a wide variety of presentation charts into our dashboards, FOODIVAL enables management to consolidate and analyze different data trends more efficiently and effectively. Cost Analysis & Comparison In addition to the procurement and inventory data recorded and processed by FOODIVAL, the system can integrate with third-party POS systems to regularly extract and consolidate sales data for analysis. By comparing and analyzing sales data with procurement, recipe and stock-take records, the system can easily determine the ideal and actual dish costs for each outlet. This helps management gain a deeper understanding of the restaurant's procurement costs and profits, allowing them to adjust purchasing and sales strategies based on cost effectiveness, and ultimately increasing overall profitability in the long run.    Connection with Power BI For Comprehensive Analysis If F&B owners require a more in-depth and multidimensional data analysis, they can opt for FOODIVAL's latest Power BI Dashboard which automatically updates restaurant's daily operational data from various data sources. This includes information regarding ingredient procurement, inventory levels, stock movement, stock value, recipes, sales and even payroll data, providing a broader, deeper and more comprehensive analysis. For instance, in terms of labor and ingredient expenses, the Power BI dashboard can display ratios related to profitability and manpower costs. This includes metrics such as monthly ingredient profit, average daily sales revenue and the proportion of monthly labor costs relative to total expenditures, helping the management understand the actual operational efficiency and performance of their business. Additionally, by integrating sales data from the POS system, Power BI can analyze the actual profitability of each dish based on FOODIVAL's e-recipes and procurement data. By presenting the profit and sales distribution of each dish using an XY scatter plot, Power BI allows F&B owners to quickly identify “star products” that are both popular and profitable while eliminating dishes that are neither selling well nor generating profit. Based on this data, they can develop new sales strategies by boosting the sales of profitable products that are underperforming.  In today’s challenging and fast-paced F&B business environment, if you wish to find a suitable cost-saving solution to improve operational efficiency, increase revenue and enhance business performance, you must first strengthen your data analytical capabilities in order to achieve effective “data-driven decision-making”! If you are interested in learning more, please click here to contact our system experts for a free system consultation.

Mastering the cost of ingredients and menu dishes has always been the most essential part of Food & Beverage (F&B)  operations. If operators lack this information, they cannot determine the actual profits of their business accurately, let alone formulate strategies that can help save resources and improve business.  Yet, calculating food costs cannot be done without a complete and reliable record of your procurement activities and recipes. Without a proper system, a restaurant owner may need to spend considerable manpower and resources to record relevant data before calculating related costs by using various complicated formulas in Excel manually. This traditional approach is not only time consuming, but also prone to inaccuracies. Yet, FOODIVAL’s Recipe Module digitizes food cost management for F&B owners by establishing e-recipes and calculating the ideal dish cost by extracting the purchase prices from daily procurement data following the “first-in, first-out” principle. Meanwhile, FOODIVAL can even integrate data from POS systems and regular stock take to reckon the actual cost and profit of the dishes for conducting more in-depth recipe analysis.  Create e-recipes   By leveraging FOODIVAL’s Recipe Module, restaurants can create a reliable database for their recipes, including semi-finished products like home-made sauces. Users can record the ingredients and required quantities for each dish to improve recipe management and facilitate cost calculation.  Simplify Procurement Process  When managing daily procurement, users can not only place orders based on inventory level monitored by FOODIVAL, but also simply input the number of a specific dish that they would like to produce. The system can automatically calculate the total amount of ingredients needed based on the e-recipes, streamlining the entire procurement process by saving the time required for searching each ingredient one by one.  Analyze Ideal & Actual Dish Costs By integrating with a POS sales system or importing sales data, FOODIVAL can automatically calculate the ideal cost of each dish based on the purchase prices of each ingredient. Additionally, it is possible to obtain the actual cost by taking the total amount of ingredients used through regular stocktake into account. FOODIVAL is capable of automating the calculation of these figures and comparing the actual costs with the ideal costs, assisting F&B owners in identifying operational deficiencies from the discrepancies. This insight serves as a valuable reference for owners to improve their recipes or procurement strategies to enhance cost-effectiveness.  Analyze Recipe Profitability with Power BI FOODIVAL can connect seamlessly with a third-party analytic tool – Power BI to synchronize all procurement,  inventory and recipe data for conducting a more in-depth and multidimensional analysis. Taking recipe and procurement analysis as an example, FOODIVAL can thoroughly analyze the actual profitability of each dish by integrating sales and procurement data. The result can be presented in an XY scatter graph, allowing users to identify the star products (i.e. both popular and profitable) as well as those that are profitable but not popular, or neither profitable nor popular. With this analysis, owners can review and formulate sales strategies and menu designs. For instance, they can eliminate items that are neither profitable nor popular, or implement various promotions to boost the sales of profitable products. Moreover, users can further analyze the profitability of each outlet or study the detailed breakdown of costs of the menu through the “Drill Down” function, allowing owners to refine their recipes, procurement and sales strategies.  Ingredient Substitution  Users can pre-set substitutions for each ingredient, enabling the system to automatically adjust stock level based on the pre-set substitution lists and ingredient usages. This feature helps restaurants to maintain accurate and up-to-date inventory levels. Through FOODIVAL's comprehensive recipe module, F&B operators can establish a complete e-recipe system for their restaurant, which helps centralize the management of menu design and ingredient usage. This ensures food quality while also replacing manual processes with a system that can automatically integrate data and generate various reports. This not only enhances overall efficiency but also helps restaurants make data-driven decisions to improve menu design, procurement, and sales strategies.

Building on the success of our participation in Malaysian International Food & Beverage Trade Fair (MIFB) 2024, FOODIVAL has further expanded our reach to the nearby financial centre, Singapore, making our first debut at FHA-HoReCa 2024 last week (22 - 25 October), where we had the precious opportunity to connect with the world’s leading suppliers, solution providers, industry leaders as well as professionals from the foodservice & hospitality sector. FHA HoReCa 2024 is one of the most highly-anticipated premier foodservice and hospitality Events in Asia which brings together a comprehensive array of industry professionals and suppliers with five specialized sectors, including Bakery, Pastry & Gelato, Foodservice & Hospitality Equipment, Hospitality Style, Hospitality Technology and speciality Coffee & Tea, attracting thousands of visitors from around the globe to explore the latest trends in the global marketplace. This year, the tradeshow returned with a green focus on sustainable foodservice and hospitality, particularly emphasizing on using technology to solve challenges in the industry. Taking the advantage of this invaluable platform, FOODIVAL showcased our comprehensive procurement & inventory management solution and addressed major pain points of the Food & Beverage (F&B) industry by streamlining and automating their daily workflows with our unique features tailored to the industry. Visitors were amazed by how FOODIVAL can enhance the overall operational efficiency to ease manual work while strengthening food cost control with in-depth data analytical ability.  This year, we even prepared some travel tags as unique souvenirs for our guests which garnered significant attention. These tags are perfect for both travel enthusiasts and business travelers, making them a thoughtful and practical keepsake for anyone on the go!

FOODIVAL -  Procurement and Inventory management system has been nominated for the “2024 Most Innovative Solutions Award" organized by Business Innovator. It stood out among numerous brands and was awarded the "Best Restaurant Management System of the Year” for the first time. This recognition showcases FOODIVAL as a comprehensive and innovative solution specifically tailored for the Food & Beverage (F&B) industry and its performance has been well recognized by both the F&B and technology sectors. The awards ceremony was successfully held last Friday (September 13) at Hotel ICON. The event brought together representatives from over 60 outstanding companies, as well as government officials, industry leaders, and representatives from the business sectors, providing FOODIVAL with valuable networking opportunities for exchanging industry insights. During the ceremony, FOODIVAL's Deputy Director of Business Development, Ms. Jessica Yuen, expressed her gratitude in her acceptance speech, acknowledging the dedicated efforts of the FOODIVAL’s professional team in continuously enhancing the system's functionality and customer service quality through innovative technology. This commitment has allowed FOODIVAL to become a reliable and entrusted partner for the F&B industry, which is growing alongside their clients and driving the digital transformation with collective efforts. FOODIVAL is a procurement and inventory management system with a user-friendly interface specifically designed for the F&B industry. Its comprehensive features cover areas such as ingredient procurement, inventory monitoring, cost and recipe analysis, and more. This allows restaurants to establish an accurate and reliable procurement and inventory database, helping them solidify their foundations and promote sustainable development. Regardless of the procurement model or the establishment of a central kitchen, FOODIVAL can effectively streamline a restaurant's daily operational processes, enhance communication and transparency among departments, and improve management efficiency. Furthermore, FOODIVAL can connect with other management systems under FlexSystem, third-party systems, or intelligent analysis tools like Power BI, building a F&B solution ecosystem that significantly enhances data analysis capabilities for restaurants.  Looking ahead, FOODIVAL will continue to make every effort to support the local F&B industry in its digital transformation by incorporating AI elements. We will actively enhance system performance to provide customers with more comprehensive, targeted, and effective features and support services, helping them in maximizing their business potential.

The RBHK 2024 was successfully concluded last week! It was a 3-day event (3-5 September) held at the Wan Chai Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) which gathered quality exhibitors from around the world, showcasing global ingredients, local cuisines and the latest Food & Beverage (F&B) technologies, aiming to provide visitors with an exceptional procurement experience. Unlike previous arrangement with the theme "Bar • Restaurant", this year's RBHK has redefined its branding to "Bar • Restaurant • Café" in response to the local coffee culture craze, introducing a dedicated café area for the first time to attract more coffee enthusiasts. This year, RBHK continued to promote green dining, environmental conservation and food safety by hosting a series of related events such as food safety forums and seminars about organic. The events invited experts from various fields of the F&B industry to share insights related to environmental conservation, sustainable development and food safety. In addition to engaging in in-depth discussions on various topics, the experts also offered suggestions, directions and solutions for future development. They also  introduced how technologies can change people's lifestyles and dining habits to mitigate food waste, fostering a brighter and greener future together. Apart from seminars, RBHK also prepared an array of exciting activities, including wine tasting and food pairing, cocktail demonstrations by world-class bartenders, the "Best of the Best MasterChef" competition and the Best Bar Awards. These activities allowed visitors to broaden their culinary horizons and experience the charm of Hong Kong's diverse food culture! This year, FlexSystem showcased our unique F&B system ecosystem and innovative functions under the theme "Where Innovation is Brewing". Our cloud solutions cater comprehensively to the needs of clients of various businesses and sizes, covering aspects from F&B procurement and inventory management, human resources management to accounting. By offering our clients greater system flexibility and scalability, FlexSystem reduces both investment costs and internal technical resources on digital transformation. This allows our clients to choose the appropriate modules based on their actual operational needs and even connect to third-party systems, enhancing overall management effectiveness and data analytical capabilities. During the Expo, we showcased the latest features of BridgeBuilder HRMS for the first time, including Recruitment, Self-Onboarding, e-Appraisal and e-Learning, covering all key areas of HR management. Furthermore, to enhance the system's data analytical capabilities, BridgeBuilder HRMS and FOODIVAL can assist clients in connecting to third-party analytics tools like Power BI, automatically synchronizing system data on a daily basis. This enables clients to conduct more in-depth data analysis in a multidimensional and interactive manner. Our new features have attracted numerous inquiries from visitors.  Furthermore, we were pleased to collaborate with Heung Kee Coffee to provide freshly brewed coffee to visitors at our booth. This arrangement attracted a large number of visitors who could enjoy a cup of refreshing coffee while engaging with our system experts to learn how the system can help them address their daily operational challenges. Many visitors even scheduled system consultations on the spot! It is worth mentioning that FlexSystem also prepared new product brochures and souvenirs for the Expo, including portable luggage scales and luggage tags, which are particularly suitable for travel-loving Hong Kongers. The response from visitors was enthusiastic. Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on promoting local digital transformation and provide more industry insights and exciting events for everyone! Should you have any enquiries, please contact us at 3798 4400.

Last Friday (June 28), FOODIVAL held a seminar to advocate digitalization in the F&B industry in collaboration with VGather - F&B Management Platform and Storellet - Membership Management System for the first time. The event primarily targeted F&B industry clients, aiming to share with the industry how to inject new energy into their traditional operational flows with systems and automation. The seminar helped the participants to understand how digitalization can help streamline both frontend and backend workflows as well as to improve operational efficiency. Moreover, with proper systems, restaurants can not only enhance marketing effectiveness, but also strengthen cost control ability which is beneficial for increasing revenue and reduce expenses in the long run. The seminar was divided into three sessions. The first part featured Project Manager from VGather who introduced their comprehensive F&B digital management solution. This one-stop solution covers self-service ordering systems, cloud-based digital menu, POS system and more,  addressing all the common and daily operational challenges faced by frontline staff and improving the operational efficiency as well as customer experience. In the second part, Assistant Project Manager from FOODIVAL illustrated how the system can effectively streamline backend procurement workflows and inventory management with authentic client case studies.  FOODIVAL team also discussed how integrating the system with a POS system can enhance a restaurant's data analytical capabilities, including in-depth analysis on cost of each dish and  menu, for identifying the best strategies to improve their profitability. The last session featured Assistant General Manager from Storellet who shared with the audience how to build a comprehensive membership management system for their restaurants in order to stimulate consumer spending, recurring consumption habits and boost marketing effectiveness. The event received an overwhelmingly positive response. FOODIVAL looks forward to our continued collaboration with various business partners to organize more exciting events in the near future with an aim to share the latest industry insights and assist the F&B industry in implementing digital transformation with a dedicated ecosystem of F&B management systems. Missed the event? No problem! FOODIVAL offers free one-on-one system consultations and demonstrations. If your restaurant is facing challenges related to procurement, inventory or cost control, don’t hesitate to reach us for further discussion on your tailored digital transformation solutions!

The recent Malaysia International Food & Beverage Trade Show (MIFB) brought together stakeholders from across the industry to explore and connect new business opportunities. As a leading F&B business event in Malaysia, MIFB provided FOODIVAL an ideal opportunity to directly engage with food and beverage operators. This event marked a significant breakthrough for FOODIVAL as it was the first time FOODIVAL ventured into overseas markets beyond its domestic presence in Hong Kong. F&B operators in Malaysia often need to manage businesses across the country’s vast territories. FOODIVAL can help tackle various operational challenges encountered in cross-regional management, fostering a sustainable business development. During the show, we met with F&B owners and managers to understand key challenges like rising costs and obscured inventory visibility across locations. At our booth, FOODIVAL demonstrated how our integrated solutions address these issues by streamlining procurement, inventory and order management processes end-to-end. Attendees observed how our system delivers enhanced cost control and productivity gains. Our complimentary gelato station proved to be a crowd-pleasing and popular destination among the trade show attendees. As operators eagerly sampled the refreshing treats, provided the perfect opportunity for us to engage them and demonstrate FOODIVAL's capabilities and values in solving procurement and inventory pain points surrounding restaurant operations. We also participated in speaking sessions on topics including optimizing costs, minimizing waste, and streamlining procurement workflows. This allowed us to share valuable insights with fellow exhibitors and visitors. The high-quality connections formed at MIFB will help advance our mission of empowering F&B businesses through technology-enabled supply chain management from procurement to profitability. We thank all who engaged with us and look forward to exploring new platforms that will help us forge even stronger connections with both the local and international markets. See you soon!

FOODIVAL is well aware of the complexity and diversity of procurement management in the Food & Beverage (F&B) industry. Different types of restaurants may adopt different procurement models, such as direct procurement by restaurants, central procurement, or even a hybrid model, to meet daily operational needs. As such, it is vital for the F&B industry to take the comprehensiveness of a procurement system into account when considering digital transformation. If the system is not comprehensive and user-friendly enough to meet a restaurant’s needs, there is a high chance that employees will be less willing to learn and use the new system which may cause them to revert to the old and familiar way of manual working, or even leave the system idle, ultimately wasting resources invested in digitalization.  Yet, FOODIVAL is designed to tackle the above pain point. With its comprehensive functionalities, FOODIVAL provides a wide range of features that can easily cater to F&B’s daily operations and flexibly adapt to various procurement models.  With just one system, restaurants can centralize the procurement and inventory management tasks across different outlets and departments to simplify the entire workflow, reduce human errors and improve work efficiency. This article will introduce the key features of FOODIVAL in terms of central procurement, covering order management, "reconciliation" (verifying documents), supplier management and more - you surely don’t want to miss it! Centralized Management of Purchase Requisition form Different Outlets In addition to inventory monitoring, the central procurement department often needs to manage the procurement work by integrating and processing the purchase requisitions (PRs) from different outlets. Without the help of a system, the department has to collect and integrate the orders, including the types and quantities of ingredients required by each outlet, through traditional channels such as emails and WhatsApp manually. If the number of outlets and the types of ingredients grow, the department has to spend considerable time and resources to handle the entire order collection and procurement process, which may eventually lead to placing “wrong orders” to suppliers due to human errors. With FOODIVAL, the central procurement department can replace all the manual processing by system automation.  The system can directly receive and automatically integrate the PRs from different outlets. The PRs approved by the central procurement department will be sent to different suppliers via WhatsApp, e-fax or emails seamlessly, reducing human errors. The departments can also modify the PRs based on the inventory levels while the outlets can check the modifications through the system to improve communications between backend and frontline. Keep Track of Delivery Documents Anytime FOODIVAL incorporates a document upload function which allows outlets to upload relevant delivery documents, such as delivery notes and product photos, during the good-receiving process. Since all data will be uploaded to FOODIVAL’s back-end system in real-time, the Central Procurement Department can access the information in the system at any time, strengthening its management of the procurement activities and status of different outlets and improving management efficiency. "Reconciliation" (Verifying Documents) Unlike the conventional manual operations performed by most restaurants, the Central Procurement Department no longer needs to spend considerable time and resources on collecting procurement-related documents from different outlets and manually verifying all the documents for payment settlement after implementing FOODIVAL. By having direct access to all the necessary documents in the system, the Central Procurement Department can now efficiently review and reconcile the procurement documents across all outlets, including purchase orders, supplier invoices and more, for reconciliation purposes without relying heavily on the outlet managers to provide the information manually and regularly which helps prevent overdue payment due to cumbersome and time-consuming reconciliation process.  Supplier Management The Central Procurement Department can centralize supplier management through FOODIVAL. Supplier information including but not limited to supplier name, delivery schedule, cut-off time for orders, can be well organized and recorded in the system to strengthen supplier management. Moreover, the Central Procurement Department can collect feedback and comments on suppliers’ products and services from frontline users which can serve as a reference for reviewing the quality of suppliers and improving the overall procurement strategy.  Price Comparison Incorporating a suppliers’ price comparison feature, FOODIVAL allows users to compare prices of similar products across different suppliers in a tabular format, accelerating the overall procurement process.    If you would like to know more about FOODIVA’s latest functions and features, please visit our blogs or contact us here .

FOODIVAL is a procurement and management system tailored for the Food & Beverage (F&B) Industry with an aim to handle procurement orders in a centralized and digital manner, eliminating the need for error-prone manual operations and strengthening the control of food cost. Taking the major challenges faced by the F&B industry into account, FOODIVAL has developed a series of practical functions with a handy user interface catering to F&B’s daily needs and operations which further enhances user experience. In this article, we will share a series of unique features for facilitating procurement order placing, hoping to provide you with helpful references for selecting the right procurement solution for your restaurants!  Customized Digital Procurement Order (PO) Unifying and standardizing the format of PO, FOODIVAL not only effectively reduces the risk for human errors and confusions that can be arised from written orders, but also  strictly regulates the supplier lists and ingredients that can be purchased by the frontline staff. Additionally, to enhance the user experience, FOODIVAL offers a flexibility for users to display the ingredients list in either text or visual format, depending on their preferences and needs. Furthermore, the system is equipped with a powerful search engine and filter function which significantly accelerates the entire order placing process. Users also have the convenience of easily modifying the PO template at the backend system, allowing them to adjust it for their specific daily operations and requirements.  2. Multi Order Placing Channels The system streamlines the procurement process by consolidating PO from multiple outlets and facilitating order placing with suppliers through various channels including WhatsApp, email, or efax. This feature ensures the establishment of precise procurement records, where all transactions are easily traceable. Additionally, it provides significant benefits to the central procurement department by enabling efficient monitoring of order status and procurement costs for each outlet. This, in turn, enhances the data analysis process, making it more convenient than ever before. 3. Alert for Minimum Order Quantity By incorporating an alert function for minimum order quantity (MOQ), FOODIVAL will immediately notify the users by highlighting the item in red if the submitted order quantity for a product does not meet its MOQ requirement. Users can therefore review and revise the orders before sending them to the suppliers. This function significantly reduces the risk of placing incorrect orders and thereby minimizing the time and resources required for clarifying and revising wrong orders with the suppliers which further accelerate procurement efficiency. 4. Alert for Abnormal Orders When the submitted order quantity of a product greatly deviates from previous orders based on procurement history, FOODIVAL will promptly notify the users and ask for confirmation to proceed the order to prevent over purchasing and avoid incurring additional costs. 5. Special Remarks In order to facilitate the communications between the central procurement department and the frontline staff, FOODIVAL incorporates a remark function which provides flexibility and convenience for the backend staff to add and revise points to note for the frontlines. The remarks can serve as an at-a-glance reminder for the frontline staff which provide them with information regarding the suppliers, such as cut-off time, rest days, special delivery arrangement etc., further enhancing procurement efficiency.  6. Placing Orders via Mobile With FOODIVAL, users can place orders and pick up orders directly through mobile with a user-friendly interface where different icons represent different functions. Key features include outstanding task alerts, photo taking, document uploading and calendar view, assisting users in handling daily procurement tasks in a comprehensive manner. If you would like to know more about FOODIVA’s latest functions and features, please visit our blogs or contact us here .

As a highly efficient procurement and inventory management system, FOODIVAL can fully meet the daily operational needs of the F&B industry. In addition to the comprehensive order management functions mentioned in Chapter 1, FOODIVAL is also equipped with a series of  useful functions that can boost the efficiency of your good-receiving process, fundamentally solving the common obstacles that many restaurants may encounter in their workflows, such as unreadable hand-written amendments on the delivery documents and difficulty in tracking delivery status. With FOODIVAL, users can now handle various work related to the good-receiving process through their mobile phones or tablets anytime and anywhere on the go with ease, making their work more flexible and efficient. Document Upload In order to prevent delivery documents or receipts from missing, FOODIVAL has incorporated document-uploading and photo-taking features into the system. Users can take a picture of the documents or upload the documents directly to the system to ensure all relevant documents are well organized and documented. This practice helps build up a more reliable procurement database and allows the Central Procurement Department to keep track of the procurement and delivery status of different outlets, strengthening central control over the frontlines. Moreover, FOODIVAL encourages its users to leverage this feature to record any problematic products being delivered for future follow up with the vendors. Partial Receipt In general, the frequency and quantity of purchase in F&B industry tend to be higher when compared to other industries as restaurants have to guarantee the freshness and variety of the ingredients and dishes to meet with customers’ expectations. There may even  be sudden purchase or last-minute cancellation of orders in certain scenarios due to the dynamic nature of F&B industry. Therefore, it is not surprising that wrong delivery or partial delivery of goods is more frequent, which may lead to messy and incomplete delivery records. To tackle the problems, FOODIVAL has introduced the “partial receipt“ function which allows users to record part of the delivered orders in the system without the need for immediately changing the entire order status to “completed”. In this case, the order status will remain as “incomplete” and the system will continue to remind the users to follow up with the outstanding orders from time to time to avoid any missing delivery.     Catch Weight (Record the Weight) Unlike the conventional procurement process for office, procurement for F&B industry is relatively complicated which involves the use of multiple units of measurement for the same product when  placing the orders and receiving the goods. For instance, a user may originally place an order specifying the unit of measurement as "pieces," but when recording the actual delivery, they may record the received quantities using the unit "kg" instead. This discrepancy between the ordered and received units, can be considered as one of the biggest challenges for the F&B industry, which can create confusion and complications in maintaining accurate delivery records and calculating the actual procurement costs. FOODIVAL has therefore launched the “Catch Weight” function to enable its users to record the actual received units and quantity in the system, facilitating the reconciliation process executed by the Procurement Department and avoiding any discrepancy between purchase orders and delivery notes. This arrangement significantly enhanced the accuracy of procurement cost calculation.  Record Quantity of Freebies  FOODIVAL can cater for the scenario in which vendors offer freebies to the restaurants. Users can conveniently record the number of freebies received in the system to prevent affecting the calculation of the actual procurement cost, further ensuring the accuracy in the financial records.  Supplier Rating  In order to strengthen supplier management, FOODIVAL provides a supplier rating system. Users can leave comments or rate the suppliers during the good-receiving process. The comments and marks can serve as important references for evaluating supplier quality.  If you would like to know more about FOODIVA’s latest functions and features, please visit our blogs or contact us here .