Canteens fill up again, but high costs weigh on operators' results
The sector is worth EUR 4.4 billion and has recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but the thousand companies supplying 780 million meals a year at EUR 5.7 are suffering from rising raw material costs
3' min read
3' min read
The Italian collective catering sector exceeded 4.4 billion euros in turnover in 2023, with 50% attributable to contracts with public bodies. A sector that, despite having recovered pre-pandemic values and kept employment levels unchanged, has seen a significant erosion of its business margins, with an operating result down 69% compared to 2018. This is what emerges from Nomisma's analysis 'Challenges and Opportunities for Collective Catering in Italy' carried out for Oricon.
The sector, which has thousand companies and employs 100,000 workers (80% of whom are women), guarantees 780 million meals every year at an average price of 5.7 euros, which drops to 5.3 euros in school catering. But these numbers conceal a complex reality, characterised by "growing demands to which the sector must respond, also in terms of environmental and social sustainability", which translate into "a continuous erosion of business margins, especially in those segments where the share of public tenders is higher", as the Nomisma study points out.
Carlo Scarsciotti, president of the Canteen Catering and Nutrition Observatory (Oricon), during the conference 'Canteen Catering: a strategic sector between regulatory pressure and growth opportunities' held in Rome, highlighted one of the main problems: "What has perhaps created the greatest problems is too much attention, expressed in a fragmented, often heterogeneous way: and I am referring to the disorganisation of regulatory interventions, laws, ministerial decrees, guidelines and more, in which collective catering is only perceived as an outlet market, within reach, oriented, preferential, organised, constant".
The Nomisma report highlights how the sector has suffered an increase in costs for food raw materials (+19% since 2018) and energy (+37% coal, +36% natural gas, +28% oil), without being able to adjust prices proportionally due to the rigidity of the regulatory framework. In particular, the study underlines how the system imposes 'quantity and quality of raw materials to be used, but does not provide for a total adjustment of prices to be borne by public administrations in the event of significant cost increases'. Alberto Luigi Gusmeroli, President of the Productive Activities Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, speaking at the Oricon event, emphasised that 'quality is paid for' and proposed the establishment of 'an authority to determine the quality-price ratio'.
However, research conducted by Ipsos for the Cirfood District Observatory reveals the welfare dimension and essential service for the community performed by canteens. The study "Lunch break: habits and needs of those who work" shows that 76% of workers consider company canteens a concrete tool for wellbeing, quality of life and socialisation. Moreover, 58% of workers who do not have a company canteen would like one to be introduced, a percentage that rises to 67% among those under 35. "In recent years, corporate catering has seen an important development, the result of people's renewed focus on healthy nutrition and, at the same time, on welfare services that combine wellbeing, socialisation, work-life balance and sustainability," said Alessio Bordone, group chief sales officer Cirfood, a company that serves over 100,000 workers every day.
