The kit parade

The downturn in international hotel business since the last Hotelympia in 2002 has left owners and operators reluctant to embark on high capital expenditure for prime cooking equipment. Similarly, lots of hospitality companies put expansion on hold.

Essential replacement - where equipment had clearly died and gone to heaven - has still happened, but purchasers, aware of the slowness in the equipment market and their own tight financial restraints, have pushed profit margins down to the bone. Economic gloom has also meant that entrepreneurs have been held back, further depressing the catering equipment market.

Few of the exhibitors interviewed for this report were predicting a boom in sales, either from the show or for the rest of 2004, but there is agreement that the corner has been turned and that Hotelympia will produce good business.

Keith Warren, director of CESA, the Catering Equipment Suppliers Association, explains why exhibitors are quietly confident. "There's no point in denying that 2003 was tough for many equipment suppliers, since equipment sales just reflect the business activity of the hospitality industry as a whole," he says. "By the same measure, the pub industry is becoming much more food-driven, restaurant openings are picking up, and hotel occupancy and room revenues are showing sharp recovery, particularly in London - all of which will encourage operators to invest in new catering equipment in 2004. And the good weather of last summer will also aid equipment investment, particularly in the pub sector."

Another reason for the expected uplift, adds Warren, is that after two years of reluctance over making non-essential replacements of kitchen equipment, operators are going to have to play catch-up and replace equipment that really is at the end of its working life.

Warewashing supplier Winterhalter has been a prominent exhibitor at Hotelympia for many years and has known the good years and the quiet ones. But marketing manager Simon Aspin says he is confident that 2004's Hotelympia is shaping up to be one of the best for many years for equipment suppliers.

He says: "It's not just a matter of waiting until the doors open before you can judge how successful a show is going to be. You get a feeling from customers in the weeks and months leading up to the show. We've booked many more appointments on the stand with customers planning to buy warewashing equipment than two years ago. They have already made their mind up to buy and are going to use Hotelympia to narrow down the choice and ask the detailed questions."

Rational is also expecting a good show and a good year ahead. Managing director Andrew Jones says that while sales of combi-ovens in general were slow last year, Rational experienced 15% year-on-year growth. "And we expect that to grow again in 2004. What is certainly fuelling the growth in combi-oven sales is the growing number of hotels which are switching to a cook-chill plated service for banqueting rather than battling with cook-serve and silver service at the table," he explains.

Another developing market for combi-ovens, adds Jones, is in fine-dining restaurants. In the past a lot of restaurant chefs have regarded combi-ovens as something for hotels and big catering operations. "That's changing as restaurants learn to use combi-ovens in a slightly different way from hotels. They are doing low-temperature overnight cooking to really tenderise and bring out flavour or using the oven for drying fruits," says Jones.

The export market has always been important to UK equipment manufacturers, and Hotelympia has always welcomed a high number of overseas visitors. Nick Skerritt, managing director of Hobart Foster International, says there is room for optimism for the show and for the year ahead, not least through the pound edging downwards against the euro.

However, Skerritt says, he will watch with interest overseas visitor attendance levels at the new location of ExCel in London. For overseas visitors, he is concerned about the problem of getting to ExCel and the lack of hotel accommodation in the area.

Aware that overseas visitors may find the new venue confusing, CESA has been proactive in contacting them with information about the new location and is hosting a reception for overseas visitors where they can meet informally with exhibitors.

Louie Salvoni, co-founder of coffee equipment business Brasilia, welcomes the move to ExCel. He believes that as visitors have increasingly less time to spend browsing the show, the more ordered layout of ExCel will allow them to get around quicker. Salvoni says: "Earls Court is antiquated and doesn't make for a good business environment. ExCel does."

However, Salvoni is cautious about how successful the show will be for coffee equipment suppliers. "Operators are much more knowledgeable than they used to be. You can't just show them a shiny machine and pressure them to buy it. There are lots of good coffee machines on the market now, and it's what you offer after the box has been opened that matters now. Partnership, trust and service is what operators will want to hear about at Hotelympia."

While the heavy end of catering equipment found the market tough last year, light equipment held up quite well, mostly through its relatively low cost. For this reason, light equipment manufacturers are expecting a busy show and a busy year ahead. Pauline Harvey, a marketing executive with light equipment exhibitor Elia, says that in the past year the company has expanded its front-of-house restaurant range to include tableware and cutlery. "We are going to use Hotelympia to show Elia has developed into a comprehensive dining room supplier," says Harvey.

The number of first-time or returning exhibitors to a catering show is a good industry thermometer, and figures just released by Hotelympia organisers Fresh RM show the temperature rising. There are more than 80 new faces in the equipment hall this year, ranging from big international names such as Frialator International to special equipment companies such as Toastabags.

Returning to the equipment hall at Hotelympia this year after a four-year break is E&R Moffat. Perhaps better known in the past for institutional products, the company has undergone a major change, rebranding itself and developing a much wider range of products for the hotel and restaurant sector.

Moffat sales director Gary Allen intends to use the exhibition to show its big investment in both design and manufacturing capability. Allen says: "Moffat was something of a sleeping giant but with huge potential. We will be using Hotelympia as both a national and an international platform to shout out that E&R Moffat has changed and expanded."

Allan McDonald, a director of equipment distributor Cemak, another first-time exhibitor, has high hopes for his company's presence at the show. "Cemak is a relatively young company, and being small means that getting to all our potential customers is an extremely difficult task. Hotelympia draws visitors from all over the world and so it represents an excellent opportunity for us to put ourselves in front of tens of thousands of those customers, many of whom we would find it difficult to get to otherwise."

Lec is a familiar name in the domestic refrigeration market but is using its first solo visit to Hotelympia to showcase its move into the competitive commercial refrigeration market. According to Lec marketing executive Annalee Tebay, the company is making its debut appearance as part of a strategy aimed at establishing Lec as a leading player in commercial refrigeration.

While much equipment described as new is often an updated version of an existing product, new company Food Now is both a first-time exhibitor and showing a novel product. Its pizza vending machine can hold up to 40 12in pizzas in a refrigerated cabinet. When the coin mechanism activates the vending machine, a pizza is taken out of refrigeration, cooked using induction technology and delivered in a box to the customer - all in four minutes.