F&B stores should be more experiential

TEN years ago, if you felt like having fried chicken, the only choices were KFC and Arnold's. Today you can choose from 20 brands with over 200 outlets! While this explosion of choice has been great for the customer, it has led to steadily declining business for F&B operators.

According to Spring Singapore's August 2016 report, cash margins for profitable F&B stores hover around 5 per cent, with 28 per cent of outlets losing money - leaving little or nothing to weather any further downturn. What's worse, the industry employs 4.5 per cent of the labour force but accounts for barely one per cent of GDP.

Surprisingly, food service providers continue expanding.