Food catering businesses in Singapore seek new solutions amid rising demand and labor shortage

SINGAPORE: Food caterers in Singapore are looking for new ways to deliver amid ongoing labor shortages and rising demand.

Demand is picking up this holiday season with a 20% increase in orders over Christmas and Chinese New Year compared to the same period before the COVID-19 pandemic.

To accommodate more orders, these caterers are coming up with new solutions, from self-heating buffets to automated food ordering.

Self-heating mini buffet

How’s Catering invented the self-heating mini buffet a year ago. Such buffets now account for 20% of orders.

According to the company, this will allow them to meet the growing demand for celebration catering without having to hire more people. This has enabled him to deliver more than 30 orders daily while saving him 15% in labor costs.

Francis Tan, director of information technology at How’s Catering, said the move is more convenient for consumers.

It will also reduce the burden on delivery staff, he added. “It’s easier to do a one-trip delivery than it is to have a fancy culinary set-up that needs to be torn down after the event.”

Staff at St. John Singapore (Headquarters) were among the customers who recently tried out the prepare-to-dispose buffet experience.

For them, traditional buffet lines are stressful. Because the caterer has to collect the setup within a certain amount of time and not everyone can be at the table at the same time.

Mr Valering, Chief Administrative Officer of Saint John Singapore, said: anytime.

“Some staff come after 15 minutes or 30 minutes, but it’s still warm when they come.”