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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Europe

Beyond Meat Boosts European Retail Presence

Plant-based meat giant Beyond Meat announced today that it is bolstering its presence at retail stores across Europe this spring.

In its press announcement, Beyond said that its products are already available at roughly 122,000 retail and foodservice outlets in more than 80 countries around the world. The new European distribution includes:

United Kingdom – Beyond Meat products recently launched in Sainbury’s and Waitrose, and will be available in 445 new retail stores throughout the UK.

Germany – Beyond Meat will be expanding its product offerings in more than 1,000 new retail stores via Kaufland, Tegut, Famila, and Real.

Austria – Beyond Mince will be available in nearly 1,500 new retail stores including SPAR, BILLA and BILLA PLUS.

Switzerland – Beyond Meat will be distributed to 155 Migros stores.

The Netherlands – Last month, Beyond Mince started selling through nearly 1,000 Albert Heijn and Jumbo stores.

Today’s announcement comes on the heels of a report last week Beyond’s chief rival, Impossible Foods, is preparing to go public this year. Impossible has yet to enter the European market, as regulators there raised flags over its use of soy leghemoglobin (heme). Beyond Meat is already publicly traded and its European expnsion will help solidify its first-mover position over there before Impossible potentially ramps up its own global ambitions after any IPO.

Beyond Meat has been making some big moves all around this year. In addition to its retail expansion in Europe, the company recently opened up a manufacturing facility in China, the company’s first outside of the U.S. Beyond also signed a big global distribution deals with McDonald’s and Yum Brands.

Turkey: Getir Raises $300M to Get People Groceries in Ten Minutes

Turkish on-demand grocery delivery startup Getir announced on Friday that it had raised a $300 million Series C round of funding. The new round was led by Sequoia Capital and existing investor Tiger Global, and comes just months after Getir finalized a $128 million Series B investment round. The company has raised $470 million to date.

Getir is part of the current crop of startups that promise super speedy grocery delivery. Getir operates a number of smaller distribution centers that are set up in different neighborhoods within a city. Users order items via an app and couriers are dispatched to complete deliveries in roughly 10 minutes.

In February, Getir expanded to offer delivery in London, and the company says it will use its new funding to expand into The Netherlands, Germany and France. But it will face competition as it does so, as a number of speedy grocery delivery startups in Europe have received funding recently. In London, Weezy and Jiffy offer similar services. And in Germany, Gorillas just closed a $290 million round last week for its own Euro expansion.

As we covered last week, all of these startups (plus the ones in the U.S. like GoPuff and Fridge No More) are all angling to change the way consumers view grocery shopping. By providing delivery in 10 minutes or less, companies essentially turn groceries into a utility that is available on tap. Shoppers could literally get groceries multiple times a day to fulfill a need or even just on a whim because they want something.

It’s still very early stages for all of these startups however, and it remains to be seen if and how customers will respond to such a service, and how far these types of services can scale. Can speedy delivery only work in dense urban environments? And as more players compete, how many micro-groceries stores does one neighborhood need? Given the rate of funding in the space, I assume we’ll find out pretty fast.

Delivers AI Robots Making Deliveries in Turkey

You know those RVs that have a map of the U.S. on their spare tire cover? The maps illustrating where those driving nomads have been? I should get a map like that, only of the countries of the world and fill it in wherever delivery robots pop up, given how quickly those li’l rover bots are proliferating around the globe.

In addition to the U.S., England, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia (and more that I’m unaware of at this time), we can add Turkey to the delivery robot list, thanks to Delivers AI.

Delivers AI - Autonomous Delivery Robot / Europe

Like Starship, Woowa Brothers and Yandex, Delivers AI also creates cooler-sized robots that autonomously wheel around sidewalks and streets to make food and grocery deliveries. Delivers AI robots travel 6 – 7 km/hour and can carry 15 kg (33 lbs.). They are equipped with camera, LiDAR and radar to detect and avoid obstacles, people and traffic. While the robots are autonomous, a human still monitors and supervises the robot while it travels.

Right now, Delivers AI robots are making commercial deliveries in Instanbul, Turkey. According to an email from Delivers AI Founder and CEO, Ali Kutay YARALI, his company will have 10 robots in Q1 of 2021, growing its fleet to 100 robots in a year and 1,000 robots in two years. The company has raised $350,000 from undisclosed investors.

Yarali said the company is focused on the European market and will be working with stakeholders there to develop a legal and technical framework for autonomous robotic deployment there.

One factor that could accelerate adoption of delivery robots in Europe is the ongoing pandemic and continued desire for more contactless experiences when it comes to how we get our food. Robots can provide more human-free interactions when for food ordering and delivery. Additionally, robots can operate for long stretches of time without needing a break.

One thing I will be needing is a bigger map.

Vive La Veggie Burger! EU Says Plant-Based Meats Can Keep Their Name

There’s good news for European vege- and flexitarians! Instead of having to order and shop for veggie “discs” and “tubes” they can order veggie burgers and sausages.

The European Parliament today rejected a proposal from the EU agriculture committee submitted last year to ban the use of meat labels like “burger” and “sausage” on similar plant-based substitutes. Proponents of the legislation believed that terms like “burger” on veggie products would cause confusion in the marketplace. Thankfully, common sense prevailed and you don’t have to shop for plant-based “pucks.”

We’re having our own labeling fight here in the U.S., where a number of states have put forward their own legislation banning plant-based products from using terms like burger and meat. Mississippi, one of the states advancing the restrictive re-naming agenda, wound up easing its policies, allowing terms like “veggie burger” to be used.

These labeling laws seem meant to stifle competition, especially at a time when sales of plant-based meats are on the rise. As we wrote last year:

Big Meat trying to quash alterna-meats’ popularity by telling companies how they can or can’t label themselves feels protectionist and ineffective, not to mention desperate, at this point. After all, the flexitarian movement is gaining strength not because consumers are unclear about whether the burgers they’re buying are made from plants or beef; rather, it’s bolstered by growing environmental and ethical concerns, health reasons, or because meatless meat is a media darling.

Since the time of that writing, the pandemic sparked a surge in sales of plant-based meat, and illuminated the ethical and logistical shortcomings of our existing traditional meat processing infrastructure. And with companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat rapidly expanding their retail presence across the country, the innovation and mainstreaming of plant-based burgers and hot dogs could quickly outpace any legislation aiming to curb it.

That doesn’t mean existing entities won’t try to inhibit plant-based alternatives. It wasn’t all good labeling news in Europe today. While you can order veggie burgers, the EU Parliament also imposed stricter rules for dairy substitutes, saying even the terms such as “milk-like” cannot be used on dairy-free products.

Beyond Meat’s Impending European Production Facility Marks a Move Towards Global Domination

Beyond Meat announced today that it will open a new manufacturing facility in Europe. The company is expanding its partnership with Zandbergen World’s Finest Meat, who already distributed Beyond products across Europe, to begin making plant-based meats in the Netherlands by Q1 of next year. This will be the El Segundo, Calif.-based company’s first manufacturing facility outside of the U.S.

Beyond’s impending production facility shows how the company is flexing its plant-based muscle — armed with post-IPO capital — to really get serious about global expansion. Beyond is already in 40 countries around the world, and just moved into grocery stores in the Netherlands and Belgium last month. It’ll now be able to create a wave of new foodservice partnerships and deepen its foothold in grocery stores throughout Europe.

(Interesting side note: Zandbergen is also Tyson’s exclusive European distribution partner — maybe the poultry giant helped set up the Beyond partnership before the two parted ways?)

There’s certainly a demand for what Beyond is selling. According to Allied Market Research, Europe accounted for nearly 40 percent of global plant-based meat sales. Sales are expected to grow at a yearly rate of 7 percent through 2025.

Europe is one playing field that Beyond has a distinct advantage, at least over plant-based meat competitor Impossible Foods. Beyond’s products are GMO-free, whereas Impossible uses genetic engineering to manufacture heme, the magic ingredient which makes their burgers “bleed” and taste extra beefy. Europe is especially strict on regulating genetically modified foods, so if Impossible wants to sell in Europe, they’ll have to jump through a lot more hoops.

That doesn’t mean that Beyond doesn’t have any competition in the region. In the U.K. Moving Mountains makes ruby-hued plant-based burgers that taste pretty similar to Beyond, and Nestlé’s Incredible burger is already on menus at McDonald’s in Germany. European supermarkets like Aldi, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s have also been developing their own line of plant-based meats.

Beyond could also have to tackle a headache of rebrand if the E.U. decides to go forward with its proposed ban on using ‘meat’ labels to describe vegetarian products. The European Parliament is meant to vote on the measure after the just-completed May elections, so stay tuned: Beyond might have to continue its world domination not with plant-based meat ‘burgers,’ but with plant-based ‘discs.’

 

Beyond Meat Goes Dutch as it Continues European Expansion into the Netherlands

Looks like Beyond Meat is scheduling a quick trip through Europe before its IPO next week. The company announced via corporate blog post that starting today, its plant-based Beyond Burgers will be available in 700+ Albert Heijn grocery locations throughout the Netherlands. The move comes just days after the company announced similar expansion plans in Albert Heijn stores in Belgium.

The moves come at a critical time for Beyond, which is set to go public next week. Beyond has been plagued with production issues in the past, which delayed its expansion in the UK for a time. Showing the public market that it can plant-based muscle its way into new European markets will be attractive for growth-hungry investors.

The news also comes during the same week that McDonald’s Germany announced it was going with Nestlé’s own plant-based, meat-like Incredible Burger for its new vegan menu item. Being a Swiss company, Nestlé has a leg up in the European market and the money to potentially box out Beyond before it can establish a foothold.

The entire plant-based meat sector is hot right now. According to Nielsen, sales of plant-based meat in the U.S. rose 42 percent from March 2016 and March 2019, with sales totaling $888 million.

Restaurants across the U.S. are jumping on the bandwagon with big chains like Burger King, Del Taco, Qdoba, Red Robin and White Castle all offering some kind of plant-based meat option from either Beyond or its rival, Impossible Foods.

Right now, Beyond’s moves into Europe are still in the grocery aisle, but if its IPO goes well, it will have the money to ramp up and roll out across more countries globally.

Apeel Brings Its Longer-Lasting Avocados to Europe

Holy (long-lasting) guacamole! Today Apeel Sciences announced that it’s partnering with Belgium-based produce importer Nature’s Pride to bring their long-lasting avocados to the European market.

If you don’t know, Apeel Sciences is a California-based startup that makes an edible post-harvest coating for fruits and vegetables (called Edipeel) which can significantly increase produce shelf life. Edipeel-coated avocados — Apeel’s first product — are currently available in select grocery stores in the Midwest, including a string of Costco’s.

Nature’s Pride’s new Edipeel-coasted avocados will have a co-branded label to increase consumer awareness around Apeel’s mission. The companies expect that the long-lasting avocados will be available mid-2019 in select retail stores in Europe, as long as they gain EU regulatory approval. There’s no word as to where in Europe Apeel/Nature’s Pride will first roll out the avocados.

The timing is ripe (sorry, I had to). Roughly 88 million tons of food is wasted in the EU every year. In 2012, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that roughly 50 percent of fruits and vegetables in the EU go to waste, and over half of that waste occurs after food is brought home from the store.

Apeel’s edible coating won’t help Europeans (or anyone) be better about eating all of their produce, but it will give them a longer window before said produce goes bad. According to their website, Apeel’s technology has led to a more than 50 percent decrease in food waste at the retail level. If those statistics hold true in Europe, it could take a huge dent out of those 88 million tons of food waste.

In August of last year Apeel raised $70 million, bringing the total funding for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-backed startup to just north of $110 million. Next up, Apeel plans to tackle citrus and asparagus.

The Spoon Newsletter: European FoodTech Investment, Future of Grocery, SKS Vids

This is the post version of our weekly (twice-weekly, actually) newsletter. If you’d like to get the weekly Spoon in your inbox, you can subscribe here.

Catherine here! Pleasantly full from sampling Pizzametry’s pizza-making robot/vending machine, ready for a weeklong sojourn to Copenhagen to eat as many cinnamon rolls and fermented things as humanly possible.

Speaking of Europe, this week I spent a good chunk of time sifting through piles of data on the state of European food tech. Now, I’m not complaining — we at the Spoon love a good data sift, the nerdier the better. And we uncovered some interesting trends emerging across the Atlantic. Check out our distilled report to find out which companies, investors, and countries are forging the way in European food innovation.

There’s plenty of action right here in our own backyard, too. Take food delivery: a whopping $3.5 billion has been invested in startups in the space this year alone — and it’s only October.

We’re also seeing a lot of companies experimenting with delivery methods. Chris wrote about how Kiwi’s food delivery robots are rolling out in Los Angeles, which he thinks is a smarter play than Uber’s goal to start delivering your pad thai or chicken burrito via drone.

Outside of delivery, robots are also continuing their march into the restaurant space. Chinese hot pot chain Haidilao has teamed up with Panasonic to launch a Berlin location with a completely robot-run kitchen. Maybe good news for consumers, but bad news for people looking for entry-level restaurant jobs.

In the front of house, Jenn wrote about the partnership between Ordrslip, a company which powers mobile apps for restaurants, and payment software Square. Together, they can help smaller mom-and-pop eateries enter the age of mobile ordering and payments — something that’s becoming less of a nicety and more of a necessity.

Jenn also has the story about an epic Twitter thread from the founder of CircleUp about the future of grocery. Ryan Caldbeck’s seventeen-tweet thread told the story of a three hour conversation he had recently with an unnamed CEO of a large grocery chain. He provided a few key takeaways from the conversation, including how low-pricing is a losing strategy and how the old axiom “location is everything” holds less relevancy in an era of delivery-everywhere. What does matter? Product selection optimized by “non-commoditized data”. You can read Jenn’s post about Caldbeck’s thread here.

Also from this week: Chris wonders if 2019 could be the year that we move beyond traditional meat, as plant-based meat continues to gain popularity with vegetarians and flexitarians alike. It’ll be a while longer before the average person can sink their teeth into cell-based (also called cultured or clean) meat, however. In anticipation of its market launch, the USDA and FDA hosted a joint meeting earlier this week to discuss how they would label this emerging technology.

Oh yeah, one more thing: Our photos and video page from Smart Kitchen Summit 2018 is in. We have all our photos up and a bunch of videos (with most being up by next week), so check it out!

That’s all from me! Farvel (Danish for see ya later.)

Catherine

In the 10/26 edition:

Video: Richard Blais Wants to Make a Drone Delivery Service for Donuts
During his fireside chat at the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit, Richard Blais talks about his thoughts on the future of food technology in the restaurant and home kitchen: food delivery, robotics, and drone-delivered donuts.

Product Selection Will Drive Future Growth for Grocery, Says CircleUp’s CEO
Whether it’s about personalizing the shopping experience, changing the way stores are set up or shoppable recipes, most folks in the food industry have an opinion about what will drive future growth for grocery retailers. This week, another voice joined the conversation and offered a new take on where retailers should be looking in terms of future of grocery.

Haidilao and Panasonic Team Up for Robotic Hotpot Restaurant
Haidilao, which operates a hotpot restaurant chain, has partnered with Panasonic to open up a robot-run kitchen in Beijing on October 28. The new automated kitchen will reportedly be used to help Haidilao expand to up to 5,000 locations around the world.

Trendwatch: Is 2019 the Year We Move Beyond Traditional Meat?
Consumption of beef and chicken was estimated to hit a record high this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But traditional meat’s time at the top of the proverbial food chain may be nearing an end, if two new 2019 prediction pieces are to be believed. But how close is that to the truth?

Allergy Fears and Transparency Among Issues at latest USDA/FDA Meat-ing
Earlier this week, scientists, entrepreneurs, and concerned members of the public got together to discuss the future of cell-based (also called “cultured” and “lab-grown”) meat during a joint meeting put on by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A big issue on the table: labeling.

Video: To Survive, the Future Kitchen Must be Personalized, Flexible, and Emotional
The first panel of the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS) North America tackled the disrupted meal journey. Just after Jon Jenkins, Director of Engineering at Hestan Smart Cooking, Dana Cowin, former Editor in Chief of Food & Wine, and Michael Wolf kicked off SKS by discussing how the kitchen has to adjust if it will survive in the future.

Bee Vectoring Technology Uses Bees to Apply Pesticide on Crops
Bees are pretty remarkable creatures (once you get past all that stinging). They pollinate crops, make delicious honey, and if a Toronto-based agtech company, Bee Vectoring Technology, has its way, bees will be used to apply pesticides to crops to help ward off disease and increase yields.

$3.5 Billion Invested in Food Delivery Startups This Year
Investors have a big appetite for food delivery companies this year. The Wall Street Journal reports on Pitchbook data revealing that $3.5 billion has been invested in food and grocery delivery startups so far in 2018.

Kiwi Delivery Robots Expand into Los Angeles
If you live in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, you can see sunshine, the occasional movie star, and now delivery robots shuttling food to hungry local denizens. According to the Daily Bruin, Kiwi Campus started rolling out its delivery robots at the beginning of this month.

Cookitoo Brings Rental Kitchen Marketplace from Down Under to the Bay Area
Australian startup Cookitoo is bringing their online marketplace for underutilized kitchen space to the Bay Area, with hopes to expand into other U.S. cities over the next year and a half.

Mealhero Raises €900,000 for its Frozen Meal Kit and Smart Cooker Service

Mealhero, the European meal kit delivery startup, announced at the end of last week that it has raised a €900,000 (~$1.04 million) seed round of funding.

According to Dutch publication datanews (translated via Google Translate) roughly one-third of the €900k comes from loans, another third from subsidies from the Flemish Enterprise Agency and the final third from IMEC and an investment angel.

The Belgium-based Mealhero differentiates itself from other meal kit services on the market through its combination of frozen food and a dedicated connected cooking appliance. As we wrote about the company last year:

The mealhero service is comprised of three parts: a box of frozen ingredients delivered to your home, an app to help you assemble your ingredients into a recipe, and a connected three-container steamer to cook them automatically.

The app knows what [Mealhero] ingredients you have and can suggest a recipe, or you can assemble a combination of foods how you like. The frozen ingredients include vegetables, starches, and meats and come in their own containers, each with an RFID label. Once selected, you scan each container on the steamer and place the ingredient in its own compartment. The steamer knows how long to cook each individual component, so you don’t have to actually do any cooking.

One of the benefits of Mealhero’s approach is that since it ships frozen food, the ingredients will last longer, so you can make them when you like. More traditional meal kit companies send fresh ingredients that spoil more quickly, so you have to make them relatively quickly, whether you want to eat that meal or not.

This new seed funding adds to the €79,151 Mealhero raised on Kickstarter last year as well as an undisclosed amount of funding the company had prior to Kickstarter. The Mealhero device is available for purchase (the company’s website says 100 smart steamers are available for delivery at the end of Sept.), with the Starter Pack costing €299 (~$350 USD).

Mealhero was also a finalist at the Startup Showcase at our first Smart Kitchen Summit: Europe earlier this year. Be the first to see the next generation of food tech startups at our flagship Smart Kitchen Summit: North America event in Seattle next month!

Thoughts On Dublin: A Look Back At Smart Kitchen Summit Europe

We held the first Smart Kitchen Summit in an old cannery.

Part of the reason was it was affordable. Events are big investments, and we are in many ways a startup; when I founded SKS, it was just a crazy idea about getting the people who were working on the future of cooking and food together in the same place for a day and to start a conversation.

But to be honest, I also liked the idea of having an event about the future of cooking and the kitchen in a hundred-year-old building that had its roots in food. As nearly 300 people gathered between those exposed beams and brick walls to talk about the future back in November 2015,  we were reminded it’s necessary to be mindful of the past behaviors, traditions and cultures that have shaped our food experiences as we discussed how innovation will impact every aspect of the meal journey.

And so when we began planning to take SKS across the Atlantic, I thought what better place to hold our first European event than at Guinness Storehouse? The idea of talking about the future of food and drink in an iconic 20th-century brewery was exciting, but I also like the inherent tension of a place steeped in history while modernizing to create a better experience for the consumer.

In a way, it’s that tension between old and new that’s at the heart of the food tech and what makes it such an exciting space to explore, something we were reminded of last week in Dublin as the day unfolded.

The conversations, discussions and demonstrations made it clear that the future of food and the kitchen is still being established in diverse regions across Europe. Below are some key takeaways from the day – you can also check out some of the pictures from SKS Europe here.  And, if you’d like to connect with many of the same execs, make sure to attend our flagship event in Seattle on October 8-9th.

The Changing Meal Journey

“50 years ago, if you wanted to eat, you had to cook,” said the BBC’s LuLu Grimes on a panel discussing the reinvention of the recipe. “You don’t have to cook anymore.”

This is true. Whether it’s the abundance of food delivery options, more automated cooking technology or dining out, consumers today have many more options at their fingertips and will only have more in the future.

But what about using technology to get more of us into the kitchen? There was a general debate happening both on stage and over coffee on whether it was the job of technology to make cooking easier and more enjoyable or if tech could someday just take over the role of chef entirely. But the one question we kept revisiting was: how could innovation make cooking more approachable?

Chef Angela Malik at Smart Kitchen Summit Europe

According to chef Angela Malik, it’s by thinking more inclusively – we need to be making anything used for cooking or preparing food that can work with diverse ingredients and foods. Particularly in a region as diverse and varied as Europe, with a long list of cultures and traditions around food. Audiences will feel compelled and connected to an appliance or product that feels like it could fit into their lifestyle.

Other speakers felt the development of guided cooking will make preparing food at home less intimidating. Jon Jenkins of Hestan Smart Cooking talked about how the arrival of software and precision heating technologies will make cooking outcomes better, which ultimately will make people want to cook.

Personalization Will Drive The Kitchen Of The Future

Another recurring theme we heard during the day is new ways to create more personalized meal experiences are fast approaching.

Onlookers watch Tailor Made cocktail robot at SKS Europe opening reception

“Unearthing the right recipe for the right person at the right time is where technology is going,” said Kishan Vasani of Dishq.  Convenience is the end game, said Vasani, but with personalization at the center of it. Groups like FoodPairing and FlavorWiki are trying to capitalize on these trends by capturing data points about taste and flavor and creating algorithms that leverage data combined with personal preferences to create meals that have the right nutrition and the right flavors for you.

Food, Kitchen and Cooking Are Platform Opportunities

While big companies like Amazon and Google are creating broad horizontal platforms around AI, conversational interfaces and IoT, a number of companies see the unique and multi-varied nature of our relationship with food as an opportunity to create vertically focused platforms. Drop’s Ben Harris spoke about how the kitchen is the “heart of the home” and how they’ve built a company around focusing on the food making journey.  Innit’s Ankit Brahmbhatt spoke about how the beauty of the kitchen is it’s complicated and definitely not binary, which means there will never be just one solution to figure out the meal journey every day of the week.

Google’s Devvret Rishi, meanwhile, spoke about how Google has identified food as an important space and talked about how the company is working to find ways in which Google Assistant can be plugged into the meal journey.

Innovation Happening In Companies Big and Small

I always enjoy hearing about an entrepreneur’s journey, especially when it’s told with a little humor and lots of authenticity. Christian Lane recalled his roller coaster journey from the heady early days as the Dragon Den’s youngest-ever entrepreneur (19 years-old) to building the first prototype for what would eventually become Smarter with the last 90 pounds in his bank account after the crash of his first company.

Christian Lane talks about his entrepreneur journey into the smart kitchen

We also heard from the eight early-stage companies in our Startup Showcase. From AI-driven meal personalization apps like PlantJammer to hardware/food delivery service offerings like Mealhero, to the Showcase winning effort of Mitte which was focused on healthier & more efficient mineral water usage at home, it was inspiring to hear the stories of these driven innovators trying to bring change to the kitchen.

Whether its in a certain category or trying to create an entire ecosystem for the kitchen, innovation is not just small companies.  We heard from those responsible for driving change at Electrolux, BSH Appliances and V-Zug and how these companies are changing decades-old practices as they transition their business towards the digital kitchen. Mario Pieper who leads digital strategy at BSH Appliances (Bosch, Siemens, Gaggenau brands) talked about the importance of external *and* internal changes that must be addressed while legacy enterprise organizations work to keep up with the pace of disruption and the new players looking for partners and often times competition.

Similar to our first SKS in the U.S., kitchen appliance brands in Europe are eager to lead the conversation in the space, understanding the key role they play in the consumer kitchen but also recognizing the increasing role of digital content, connected platforms and grocery and home commerce brands. One startup founder during a networking break questioned why the larger grocery and retail chains were not on stage looking at how they plan to keep up with the future of food and the kitchen. “They aren’t sure what it means for them yet,” he remarked.

My guess is in the future they will be. Much like in Seattle and SKS Japan, I expect SKS Europe will continue to grow and incorporate more perspectives as we explore how the interlocking pieces across the entire food system recreate the meal journey. I hope to continue the conversation in Seattle and Japan and I hope you will join me.