HoReCa - what is it? Predominant types of cuisine

Today we will consider the topic: “horeca - what is it”, we will try to highlight the most important thing and, if necessary, an algorithm of actions. At the same time, you have access to exclusive comments from our expert. You can ask all questions in a special form after the article. Please note that before asking questions, you should carefully read the article, because most of the answers are already there.

HoReCa (Ferret) is a segment of the service industry and a sales channel for goods with direct consumption of goods at the point of sale.

HoReCa term– an abbreviation for words denoting places of sale with direct consumption of goods and services: Hotel, Restaurant, Catering/Cafe.

HoReCa (Horeca) as a segment of the service industry– these are services of hotels, inns, guest houses, apartment rentals. This term refers to the hospitality and catering services industry.

HoReCa trading channel (Ferret segment) unites public catering enterprises, service industries, suppliers of b2b goods, goods for resale at HoReCa points of sale, as well as manufacturers of these goods and information and marketing intermediaries.

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The HoReCa segment has been rapidly gaining weight recently. The number of clubs and hotels, restaurants and bars is growing. At the same time, the accompanying HoReCa business is developing, companies specializing in the supply of special equipment, decorative products, textiles, lighting, uniforms for service personnel and other exclusive products for bars, restaurants, hotels, and catering establishments appear.

HoReCa sales points. Horeca's definition of a point of sale includes all points of provision of catering services. HoReCa points of sale combine the process of direct consumption of products at the point of purchase by the consumer of the service. The HoReCa segment includes: restaurants, hotels, cafes, snack bars, night clubs, canteens, coffee shops, bistros, food courts.

HoReCa products– goods for sale at HoReCa points, as well as goods and equipment to support the activities of HoReCa enterprises. These types of goods include:

ready-to-eat food products: alcohol, cigarettes, snow products, etc. goods for resale at HoReCa points of sale;
semi-finished products for subsequent preparation: frozen and freeze-dried foods, etc. goods for final preparation at points of sale;
exclusive premium products for restaurants;
specialized HoReCa equipment, various devices for the hotel and restaurant business;
B2B goods to support the activities of enterprises, consumables for HoReCa;
no-food group products – consumables for customer service.

HoReCa POS materials– advertising and information materials that promote the promotion of a brand or product at HoReCa points of sale. These types of marketing tools include: napkin stands, ashtrays, label awnings, menu holders, etc.

Catering HoReCa– segment of catering and catering services outside of fixed HoReCa outlets.

Marketing HoReCa. It is worth separating the marketing of a HoReCa point of sale and the marketing of goods sold through HoReCa points of sale.

Marketing of goods sold through HoReCa – marketing promotion and promotion of sales of goods at the point of sale. The HoReCa segment is not intended for sales in large volumes, which suppliers and retail sellers are accustomed to. As a rule, for consumer brands, HoReCa is a specific channel used to expand market presence and create a brand image. Selling goods at HoReCa points allows you to add additional value to the product due to the ambiance of the establishment, the skill of the service staff and the experience of the chefs. This channel actively stimulates the promotion of certain brands in retail.

Unlike retail, at the point of sale of ferrets, with rare exceptions, there is no need to present many competitive brands and products. Exclusive contracts are common in this market segment. The following marketing tools are used to promote products:

programs for material incentives for the loyalty of HoReCa decision makers;
conquering the space of a HoReCa point with the help of components of the visual environment, advertising at points of sale, placement of POS materials and branded equipment, branding serving elements;
outdoor advertising of the ferret point: from signs to outdoor summer branding block (umbrellas, tables, trenders, etc.);
carrying out marketing campaigns at HoReCa points: tasting, “2 for the price of one”, etc.;
promotion in show format - holidays, festivals and other events belong to the field of event marketing, but are used at HoReCa points of sale.
sponsorship campaigns of goods suppliers at HoReCa outlets: festivals, auctions, “brand days”.

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HoReCa point of sale marketing– marketing of a HoReCa point of sale, carried out inside the point itself, as well as outside it, using the advertising and information space of the target audience of the point.

To promote a HoReCa outlet, the following marketing tools are used:

point branding;
loyalty programs among regular visitors of the establishment;
incentive programs to increase the average check, number of checks per visitor
cross-marketing programs with suppliers, landlords (in the case of placement in shopping centers and other outlets with their own clientele;
queuing programs inside and outside the point:
- banquet programs,
- outbound trading programs;
- catering;
- summer (seasonal) service programs;
outdoor advertising;

The key to successful HoReCa marketing– joint work of the point of sale, suppliers and information partners, ensuring maximum satisfaction of HoReCa visitors. Successful HoReCa marketing includes the following elements:

quality and repeatability of quality;
the constancy of everything that is recognized by the client as “successful”;
manufacturability of the process, product and packaging;
tolerance and decency towards the consumer;
successful branding of the point and branding of goods at the point;
effective information coverage of audiences outside the point;
joint investment of funds and efforts in marketing goods at the HoReCa point.

Any person working in the restaurant or hotel business knows perfectly well what HoReCa is. However, most people working, for example, in retail and not related to the hospitality and catering services sector, do not understand the meaning of this term. What is HoReCa? Basically, the concept of HoReCa is used by specialists working in hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars, as well as suppliers of products and equipment for these establishments. However, HoReCa is not only the catering services sector and the hotel industry, it is an entire industry that includes business, without which neither hotels, nor restaurants and cafes simply can operate stably.

The concept of HoReCa itself stands for Ho tel, Re staurant, Ca fe. However, there is a widespread belief that today the last two letters of the term are more consistent with such a direction as catering. Still, a cafe as a sales channel is not much different from a restaurant, but catering is an independent line of business with its own characteristics of purchasing and selling products and goods.

HoReCa - what is it?

Now HoReCa is a multi-billion dollar industry. But her story began more than modestly. Alcohol companies were the first to become interested in this promising sales channel and began supplying expensive premium drinks to restaurants and hotels. As practice has shown, this was the right move - high-quality exclusive alcohol was sold much better in restaurants and bars in luxury hotels than in regular retail stores.

After a short time, the success of alcohol suppliers interested food manufacturers and companies that supplied furniture, textiles and special equipment to hotels, restaurants and cafes.

At first, a small segment of the economy began to develop rapidly, and today the HoReCa sector includes companies that supply literally all categories of products or goods for the restaurant and hotel business to the service sector. At the same time, most of the goods sold in this segment belong to.

HoReCa segment

Unlike retail or, the HoReCa segment is characterized by relatively low sales volumes. HoReCa distribution channels themselves are not intended for large wholesale supplies. Most suppliers collaborate with hotels, cafes and restaurants to expand market presence and increase brand awareness. This approach allows you to give the product additional value in the eyes of the consumer. Beautiful interiors, skillful staff, extensive experience of cooks, waiters and head waiters make any product exclusive.

Another feature of the HoReCa segment is the so-called on-trade approach. It is distinguished from ordinary retail by the way the product is provided - the product purchased by the consumer is delivered open, without packaging and consumed in the same place where it was purchased.

A simple example: a restaurant visitor ordered a steak and a bottle of red wine. His order will be fulfilled, but before that he will go through a transformation stage: the meat will be cut and grilled, and the bottle will be opened. This is exactly how the HoReCa segment differs from retail – the lack of packaging, transformation before sale and adding additional value to the product due to the surroundings of the establishment.

HoReCa companies

The HoReCa segment is so vast that it is not possible to count the number of restaurants, cafes, bars, snack bars and other enterprises operating in the hospitality sector. Likewise, it is impossible to say exactly the number of companies serving this segment. The names of many HoReCa suppliers are familiar even to people far from business - these are brands such as “Baltic Coast”, “Bonduelle”, “Russian Tea Company”, “Aqualife”. These companies supply food and beverages. Equipment, dishes, furniture, workwear, as well as ventilation and air conditioning systems are supplied by hundreds of suppliers throughout Russia and from abroad. Perhaps their names will mean little to a person far from the HoReCa sphere, but each of these companies is a full-fledged market participant. Despite the fact that many of the named suppliers are actively engaged in the field of wholesale sales and conduct their main activities in the B2B segment, HoReCa sales channels are very important for them, as they work on the brand image and its recognition.

HoReCa sales

When it comes to sales in the HoReCa segment, specialists working in retail or involved in large wholesale note the high level of difficulty in promoting products to the market. When the counterparty is the owner of a restaurant or hotel, you have to build special relationships with them, since not every product is suitable for sale in their establishment. Most restaurants and cafes prefer to work with suppliers who provide quality, yet inexpensive products with the highest yield during the conversion process. The more processing stages a product goes through before a customer buys it, the higher its final cost. Therefore, it is much more profitable for restaurants and cafes to sell dishes made from simple ingredients (sushi, rolls, pizza, any food prepared in the kitchen) than Snickers, packaged ice cream or bottled beer.

If the product offered by the supplier corresponds to the concept of the buyer working in the HoReCa segment, then there is hope that the cooperation will be long and mutually beneficial. The key word here is “long”. One of the distinctive features of HoReCa enterprises is the desire to preserve the recognizable characteristics of the products offered to visitors to the establishment. Steak or pizza, coffee or freshly squeezed juice should have a pronounced taste and aroma that should not change. Preferably never. If visitors to the establishment feel changes, especially for the worse, this will immediately affect the revenue.

It is for this reason that restaurateurs and hoteliers choose food suppliers so carefully - they are primarily interested in the stable quality of the product. If the supplier changes, the taste of the prepared dishes offered to visitors changes, which in many cases is unacceptable.

Therefore, sales managers working in the HoReCa departments of large supplier companies need to be very convincing in order to melt the ice of doubts among a potential buyer. After all, no matter how famous the brand is, the buyer still only evaluates the quality of its product. If it is stable, then this sales channel will work as long as possible. Cooperation can only end if a restaurant, cafe or hotel closes or a competitor appears on the market offering exactly the same product, but at a lower price.

The hotel and restaurant business industry is one of the five most risky business areas. In this article we will look at the distribution channel in the field of sales and customer service - HoReCa. Let's start with definitions.

Origin of the term HoReCa

This term comes from abbreviated definitions of words: Hotel(Ho) - hotel, Restaurant(Re) - restaurant, Cafe(Ca) - Café or Catering or Casino (cafe, catering, casino). A distinctive feature of this area is the sale of goods that are consumed (ready for consumption) directly at the point of sale. This is the most important difference between Ferret and retail. What is retail, read.

The term Ferret has several other names, for example: on-trade(unpackaged, opened, ready to eat) or Foodservice or hospitality industry. In Soviet times, all this was called the catering industry, and in the domestic space today, there are such names as: KaBaRe (cafe, bar, restaurant) and GRB (hotel and restaurant business).

In retail, the sales channel is called the other way around off-trade(sale in packaging to the final consumer). Such products can be seen in any supermarket. They are purchased in packaging independently and for final use. However, if the packaged juice is sold to a restaurant, poured into glasses and sold at a premium to the visitor, then the juice will become a product sold in the HoReCa distribution channel. In a supermarket, the same juice that the end consumer purchases for himself will already be considered a product sold in retail retail.

Specifics of Ferret sales area

The HoReCa distribution channel can easily be called sales; one business sells goods for another business, only often in a smaller volume. BiTube is more associated with wholesale, and HoReCa, as you already understand, is completely different.

Example: an average supermarket buys from 1000 bottles of wine once a month, and an average restaurant or cafe from 20 to 100 bottles a month, but that’s not the only difference.
Another example. The supplier sells the meat to the restaurant, then it is made into a steak and beautifully served to the customer. They offer red wine and sauces with the meat, live music plays, the waiter carefully listens to the client’s wishes and fulfills them with a smile. As you already understood, the client pays not only for the steak! Agree, it’s not without reason that Horeka occupies its own niche in business and is singled out as a separate sales channel.

Please note that there is always an intermediate link between the seller and the end consumer: a hotel, cafe, nightclub, etc. This is the whole essence of HoReCa - to wrap the product in a shell of service and hospitality.

The client is always sold a ready-to-eat product, without packaging, often without a brand (or already under the brand of the establishment) and at a special price. The more intermediate stages a product goes through before being sold to the final customer, the more it costs him. Therefore, restaurateurs try to order already processed products, for example: potatoes that are cut into strips, meat packaged for steaks, etc. This helps reduce time and labor costs, which significantly reduces the cost of the finished product and the competitiveness of the establishment.

HoReCa products

Many people think that ferrets only include food and drinks, but this is not true. This group of products also includes:

Crockery, equipment and accessories for cafes.
Cleaning products for hotels and catering.
Accessories for catering (outdoor events). Thermal containers, trash cans, display cases, buffet stations, lighting, etc.
And of course food (convenience foods, snacks), drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), cigarettes.

As you can see, a product catalog can contain thousands of items that represent individual brands, of which there are also many.

For some goods, such as luxury alcohol, HoReCa points of sale are much preferable to retail trade (supermarkets and shops), since hotels and restaurants are more successful in selling their expensive products.

The sale of snack products (candy bars, crackers, chips, nuts) has also firmly occupied its niche in Horeka, since this product does not require any modification and is ready to eat immediately, with a markup from the establishment, which makes it very attractive. That is why on the bar of almost any restaurant you can see a counter with Mars, Snickers, Twix, Bounty, M&M’s chocolate bars and other snack products from world brands.

Clients of the HoReCa sales segment

Clients and sales points of the Horeka channel:

Hotels, hotels, guest houses, recreation centers, cinemas.
Discos, nightclubs, casinos.
Restaurants, cafes, bars, pubs, bistros.
Organizers of shows, off-site and seasonal events.

Each HoReCa client has its own specifics, its own requirements, its own nuances. But they are all interested in the same thing:

Product quality and consistency. If a restaurant enters into an exclusive agreement for the supply of wine, then it must be sure that in a year this wine will have the same food properties as the year before.
Product cost. Ferret's clients do not want to overpay for packaging, drying, frying, ice, etc., therefore, the lower the entry cost for them, the more attractive this product will be.
Stability of supplies. There should be no supply disruptions, otherwise business problems may arise. Imagine leaving a cafe without bread or meat. If a customer sees that many menu items are out of stock, he will remain dissatisfied and will most likely change his dining location forever.
Ease of communication with the product supplier. All issues should be resolved easily and quickly. If a cafe decides to change the menu or needs to make changes to the assortment or volume of purchases, the client (cafe, restaurant) should not wait weeks for a solution to the problem. This is precisely the reason for the change of the Ferret seller.

Prospects for the HoReCa sales sector

If you live in a city, you've probably noticed a trend of increasing number of different recreational facilities. Nightclubs, restaurants, cafes are becoming more and more numerous. With the development of the hospitality industry, the sales market for HoReCa products is also increasing . The needs of end consumers are growing every day, which creates a favorable environment for increasing the range of goods in this segment.

But there are also problems:

The most important thing is competition. The one who offers the best price will receive a supply contract, or maybe even an exclusive cooperation agreement. Since it is constantly impossible to reduce the price of your product, in pursuit of the client, (ferrets) sales managers for Ferret products are even ready to provide free equipment just to get a contract for cooperation.
There is also the problem of product quality. Finding a truly high-quality product in the Ferret segment is a whole problem, since the price for a quality product is sometimes not acceptable to customers, so sellers of average quality goods at the best price remain in the game. It is quality that plays a huge role in the field of Ferret.
Exchange rate fluctuations greatly affect the cost of the HoReCa product, which cannot but affect the prices on the restaurant menu or the cost of a hotel room. This negatively affects not only the satisfaction of end consumers, but also the profitability of the enterprise (cafe, hotel, restaurant, etc.)
Rapid changes in fashion trends in the hotel and restaurant industry. Everything changes: the kitchen, the design of hotel rooms, the style of relaxation. All this affects demand in the HoReCa sector. You need to feel these changes and maintain the relevance of your commercial offer constantly.

What should a HoReCa sales representative be like?

As in any field of sales, Horeka requires the main thing from the candidate - the ability to sell! In more detail, the sales representative must be:

Disciplined.
Result oriented.
Sociable.
A team player.
Have a well-spoken speech and a presentable appearance.

The responsibilities of a HoReCa employee include:

Search for new clients in the designated territory.
Increase sales and retain existing customers.
Negotiating with administrators, directors, owners of hotel and restaurant businesses.
Maintaining a client database in CRM.
Control of payments for orders and accounts receivable.

Conclusion

As you already understand, the field of HoReCa sales is vast and interesting. If you are looking for an office job sitting at a computer, this job is definitely not for you! You will need to travel around retail outlets, offer your products, work with objections, make presentations, and communicate a lot.

If you have experience in the HoReCa field, write about it in the comments. Expert feedback is important to us!