Top 2024 Food & Beverage Trends

What’s the biggest food & beverage industry prediction for 2024? Record-high growth!

The food and beverage industry has witnessed healthy growth over the past couple of years and with this trend there have been some significant shake-ups. The sector has evolved across every function and go-to-market channel. Social media has become a powerful force that propels food trends to spread rapidly through our cultural consciousness.

Like most other industries, artificial intelligence (AI) has infiltrated multiple facets of F&B and is helping create efficiencies, make smarter business decisions, and support a greener future. Far be it from me to pretend to have a crystal ball, but it is clear all forecasts suggest that in 2024 consumers are looking for convenience, value for money, and -of course - taste like never before. Those brands that can deliver on those three key criteria are going to be the biggest beneficiaries of the record spend on F&B in 2024.

What we are consistently hearing from our clients is, the two biggest challenges remain technology and supply chain, with both intertwined in numerous ways:

Technology in F&B

As technological advances play an ever-important role in the industry, approaching technology from a new perspective will reap the greatly promising benefits in the future. The principle use of technology to date has been for better slicing and dicing of customer data for history and preferences - and for better targeting and analyzing populations for marketing purposes. That’s been a big growth factor for most brands. But why haven’t we used AI more as a management resource? The key will be talent and leaders who can bring fresh perspective to drive technology innovation into the F&B sector.

Supply Chain in F&B

Supply chain professionals faced unprecedented upheavals over the past several years. A confluence of events from the pandemic to geopolitical tensions caused significant, ongoing disruption to supply chains across the globe. Meanwhile, ERP silos are being dismantled to foster more integrated and agile operations, cybersecurity is not going away as a significant tension, skilled labor remains in tight supply, and open-source software is the new oil in supply chain operations. Some of the critical themes in the contemporary supply chain landscape consist of the impact of sustainability laws, the need for building resilience - especially amid concurrent cost pressures - and the concept of Supply Chain as a Service as a crucial competitive edge. What does this mean for companies in 2024 and beyond? Once again, we see talent and leadership that can bring fresh perspective to the organization as critical in fueling growth and capitalizing on opportunities.

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I look forward to seeing you and the many new innovations that Expo West ’24 holds in promise.