The Food Service Professionals (FSP) Fellowship is a gathering of food service professionals such as consultants, representatives, kitchen equipment contractors, manufacturers, suppliers and service providers from around Asia. FSP was first mooted by an idea that Mr Alburn William, President of CKP Group and Mr Rudolf Kitzbichler, Managing Director of MEIKO ASIA, had mulled for a while as there was a great need to unite the minds in the industry and remove the dividing barriers and hierarchies.
The purpose of the fellowship dinner is to facilitate effective networking and professional engagements to enrich the ability of the industry’s professionals to meet the demands of clients in the foodservice arena. Headed by industry professionals on a rotation basis, 6 brands take the lead and 2 dinners are organised annually between Malaysia and Singapore with a particular brand hosting the dinner.
The last FSP dinner was hosted by MEIKO SEA on the 16th of November at ANDAZ Singapore. Unlike the previous event, this dinner included a new activity – a forum made up of a panel that was put together to bring forth and discuss issues affecting the industry from a design, build and equip angle. In total, there were 77 attendees coming from 47 companies and from countries around the Asian region, namely, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Hong Kong.
The panel included the following members, with Mr Rudolf Kitzbichler acting as Moderator:
1. Food Service Consultant, DISHES – Mrs Shariffa Binti Jari
2. Food Service Consultant, CKP – Mr Vant Tan
3. Manufacturer, HOBART – Mr Thanos Svoronos
4. Manufacturer, MKN – Mr Matthew Wong
5. Kitchen Equipment Contractor, FABRISTEEL – Mr Jeffrey Soh
6. Hotelier, ANDAZ Hotel Singapore – Mr Olivier Lenoir
SNIPPETS FROM THE FORUM
The Forum’s panel members were asked their opinion on Value Engineering and their insightful comments are highlighted below:
Mr Vant Tan
“Any foodservice equipment budget must be reasonably established in order to align with the F&B vision. As the Front-of-House is always prioritised, the Back-of-House often becomes the sacrificial point. Proper education is necessary to ensure smarter fund allocation without disrupting the vision of the design. Collectively, the developers, operators and consultants must work together with the Quantity Surveyor so that the client is not short-changed in the process.”
Mrs Shariffa Binti Jari
“Value engineering is the ability to visualise the owner’s dream while working within a set budget, and to ensure the experience of the customer at the end of it.”
Mr Jeffrey
“During the process of outfitting a restaurant kitchen, there are various challenges, and disconnectivity between the whole value chain is one of them. When the process is divided, maintenance of the kitchen becomes a problem. Once the restaurant begins operation especially, there is a lack of after-sales service results on the efficiency of the equipment. That shouldn’t be the case – maintenance should always be accounted for.”
Mr Thanos Svoronos, HOBART Manufacturer
“To weather changes in the business, here are some points to consider during equipment replacement; it’s reliability and Safety is #1, unforseen breakdowns that could escalate repair costs and equipment downtimes, availability or difficulty to source parts on older discontinued versions, it’s daily running costs (utilities) and lastly, changes in regulations & standards.”
Mr Matthew Wong
“Problems can arise during the delivery of equipment in a project. Equipment is usually one of the last assets to be delivered and any problems at the site of delivery must be handled correctly. Communication and coordination is crucial especially with the other contractors from main contractor to MEP contractor to Interior Designer, not understanding the requirement of the kitchen equipment, this will result in compromising the agreed project timeline.”
Mr Olivier Lenoir
“Consultants must know the restaurant concept thoroughly and align themselves with the client and the client’s concept. By knowing what the owners want, consultants will not tend to over-design options to the owner.”
COMMENTS FROM THE FLOOR
Below are some comments heard from the floor that night.
Gabriele Vendruscolo, FIREX Consultant
“Developers should put a recommended spare parts list in the tender for sale. To come to an agreement on this between all parties, Consultants should add these aspects under the purview of the main contractor and ensure the wear and tear as well as provide a longer warranty period for the equipment. It is important to note that not all suppliers are committed to this and there is not enough influence over authority.”
Mr Alburn S William, CKP Food Service Consultant
“Communication between all parties is important. The Kitchen Equipment Contractor must notify and specify to the Engineering department which parts of an equipment is necessary to be maintained. Problems occur when the Project Manager fails to deliver the list of required parts to the Engineering team to be taken to the store.” This invitation-only event that is catered for all foodservice professionals living in the South East Asia region will once again take place in May 2019 in Kuala Lumpur. See you there!
