As more and more consumers purchase prepared food rather than cook at home, the currently attractive margins for such offerings face mounting challenges. Not the least are labor costs, which are under pressure from economic and regulatory trends. Integrating higher labor costs into the pricing algorithm represents the next major challenge for food sector leaders.
Whether a neighborhood deli, central food kitchen, gourmet restaurant, or fast casual franchise the need to find ways of doing more with the same or fewer employees is expected to become more important in 2017.