Pinnacle Awards - Dec 2021

human response to a place. I can’t think of a
place on the earth that doesn’t have deep cultural
riches that can be incorporated more fully
into our business models. That way, those business
models are serving the local places. Then,
travellers will respond to that,” says Cobb.
“We’ve got to see the end of cheap. There’s no
such thing. The planet is paying for that.”
The Fogo Island Inn is thoughtfully
designed, accessible and built on the notion of
human community. Currently, Cobb and her
team are looking deeper into creating wholesome
food programs that manage food waste
and prioritize ocean ethics as well as other
environmental programs.
Next, Anne Larcade, president and CEO
of Sequel Hotels, and co-founder of WITH,
spoke with Robyn Streisand, CEO and cofounder
of The Mixx and Titanium. As a
recognized member of the LGBT community,
Streisand spoke about her experience in marketing
around the themes of diversity and
inclusion and how these inclusive marketing
strategies need to be implemented at all levels
of the tourism and hospitality industry.
“I find myself feeling a little out of place in
these cookie-cutter hotels. Places and spaces
need to think about who the audience is,” says
Streisand. “As you look across communities,
people want to feel welcome, heard and seen.
People want to have places they’re going or
staying be a reflection of who they are. This is
a huge opportunity.”
The future is bright, however, Streisand
recognizes this ask will take time to fully surface.
“It’s going to take something for companies
to make these pivots and shifts. It’s going to
cause conflict,” says Streisand. “It’s going to
take aligning and strategizing and communicating
and understanding. There’s going to be
testing, learning and then building out strategies
for success in the future.”
That’s a Wrap
In their closing remarks, Larcade and Caira
offered some key takeaways from the Summit.
“I know virtual meetings can never really
replace live events, but I’m so grateful that
through platforms like Zoom, we’ve still
been able to meet and keep the conversation
moving during very difficult and challenging
days,” said Caira. “I know it’s hard to synthesize
so many of the points that we’ve heard
today. But I love to see the passion that has
been at the forefront today. Whether it was
Ritou Maloni demonstrating how, despite the
setbacks that she faced through the pandemic
and the challenge of being a mother with a
young son, she still managed to forge ahead
and create a chain of restaurants that really
allows women to shine through their nurturing
and empathetic ways, but also through a different
kind of economic model. It’s also great
to see companies like Wyndham coming to
the forefront by promoting female ownership
of hotels, which we have not seen much of in
the past two decades. It’s great that they took
on the challenge of addressing the lack of role
models in the industry and making sure that
the process wasn’t as complicated as it has been
for women. And, more importantly, to provide
that access to capital that has always been lacking.”
“When people are asked how successful
women rose in their careers, what I always
take away is their sense of grit, resilience and
where they got that from,” said Larcade. “So,
when you dig down deep, the suffering can
actually be very positive. And that’s how we
invent, create, and innovate. And through the
depth of despair, we rise and emerge stronger,
which is the theme for our conference.” FH
THIRD-PARTY DELIVERY
ONLINE ONBOARDING
The big three delivery companies continue to fight for diner dollars
BY ROBERT CARTER
Every Knorr® Professional Base begins with real
ingredients. This allows the true intended flavour
of the base to come through, bringing depth
and richness to every dish. One taste against
the competition and we’re sure you’ll agree
our bases deliver true flavour you can taste.
To get your FREE sample visit:
ufs.com/knorr
ILLUSTRATION BY ALANDRA MONETTE VIA MAISON ZOLTS
Online restaurant meal ordering
and delivery continues to be
a hot trend with Canadians.
Driven by technology and convenience,
its popularity started
to accelerate about nine years
ago with the launch of a small
Canadian company from Saskatoon called
SkipTheDishes. Based on a simple premise of
offering independent restaurants a direct solution
(or enhancing an existing) delivery service,
while at the same time creating an online
marketplace for consumers to shop restaurant
food to be delivered, SkipTheDishes went on
to define the newly developed third-partyaggregator
model
in Canada and has successfully become
the dominant leader in providing online
restaurant meal shopping and delivery to
millions of Canadians each year. And,
according to market-share data from Unified
Data, SkipTheDishes continues to be the
leader in this segment in 2021.
In 2019, Canadians spent an estimated
$6 billion on online restaurant ordering and
delivery and the country now ranks among
the top-five countries globally for per capita
usage of online restaurant-delivery services.
As a result, online ordering and delivery
has been the fastest area of growth in the
Canadian restaurant segment, outpacing all
other areas of opportunities for restaurants.
And the battle for consumer dollars is heating
up in a segment dominated by just three key
players — SkipTheDishes, Uber Eats and
DoorDash. The dominance of these three
players has accelerated during the pandemic
as all three food-delivery companies scrambled
to sign on new restaurants. According to
Unified Data, a record number of Canadian
restaurants in 2021 now offer online ordering
with direct delivery to consumers thanks to
SkipTheDishes, Uber and Doordash, which
combined, provide services to an estimated
50,000 restaurants across Canada.
And the trend of restaurants signing on
to the big three online-ordering platforms is
not slowing down. According to Unified Data,
in the past six months, an average of 1,000
restaurants a month have signed on to one of
these companies. SkipTheDishes is leading the
way, capturing the largest share of those new
restaurant sign-ups by onboarding approximately
354 new restaurants a month since
March 2021. In second spot, DoorDash is
averaging 330 new restaurants a month. Uber
Eats was slower to onboard new restaurants
compared to its competitors over the past six
months, averaging approximately 311 new
restaurants a month.
Online ordering of restaurant meals
for direct delivery is now a foundation of
today’s restaurant business model and it’s very
possible that within the next few years, every
restaurant unit in Canada will be part of an
outsourced delivery service provided by the
big three. FH
As managing partner of
The StratonHunter Group,
Robert Carter leads a
portfolio of high growth
companies in the restaurant
and food-tech industry.
He can be reached at
robert.carter@stratonhunter.com
14 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY 15
Try Knorr® Professionals Bases and taste what true flavour is all about.