The current situation forces us to rethink the business model within Food & Beverage, the way processes are designed and the way our long-term strategies are setup. This doesn’t change the fact that in the meantime we are still uncertain what will be possible and when it will be possible. What will the situation be a month from now? What about three months or a year? What will the hospitality industry look like next year? Some changes will be short-term focused, other will remain. What we do know for sure is that, at least for the short term, we will have to deal with social distancing within everything we do. This in itself already seems to be a Herculean task, but fear not!

1. The Conceptional.
Covid-19 (re)opening.
Playbook.
F&B CONCEPTS • F&B PLACEMAKING
FOOD & BEVERAGE
PLACEMAKING
FOOD & BEVERAGE
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
FOOD & BEVERAGE
PERFORMANCE & GROWTH

2. Index
1. Introduction 3
2. What’s Happening? 6
3. Opinions of guests 8
4. Internal Operational Changes 11
5. External Consumption 19
6. Manegerial Actions 24
7. Adapted Communication 28
8. How can Conceptional Help? 32
2

3. 1. Introduction
3

4. We believe food deserves the best
attention and care. We believe
you and your guests deserve the
best attention and care.
Conceptional
values
That is why we want to develop F&B concepts and places that work.
Commercial and creative, that’s exactly what you can expect from us. We
always search for perfection in balancing these two ingredients. With
our hands-on approach, we make ideas come to life from analysis to
implementation. We become your partner and give you and your guests
the best attention and care.
4

5. COMMERCIAL
& CREATIVE
TEAM CAPTAIN
WINNER’S
MENTALITY
EYE FOR DETAIL
HANDS-ON PERSONAL
OWNERSHIP IMPACT
5

6. 2. What’s
Happening?
6

7. The current situation forces us to rethink the business model, the way processes
are designed and the way our long-term strategies are setup.
This doesn’t change the fact that in the meantime we are still uncertain what
will be possible and when it will be possible. What will the situation be a month
from now? What about three months or a year? What will the hospitality industry
look like next year? Some changes will be short-term focused, other will remain.
What we do know for sure is that, at least for the short term, we will have to deal
with social distancing within everything we do. This in itself already seems to be a
Herculean task, but fear not!
Conceptional has set up this Playbook, in which we have compiled the latest
insights, to assist you in implementing the changes Social Distancing brings
to (or forces onto) the hospitality industry and to help you in optimizing your
business performance under the current circumstances.
Please keep in mind that these are suggestions and that one should always take
local law and guidelines into account, as well as what consumers in your specific
region are expecting and demanding.
Reopening for
Operators
7

8. 3. Opinions
of guests
8

9. Not only have the rules of the game changed, but the behaviors, perceptions and
expectations of its clients have changed as well. All our guests will be impacted by
this current crisis. Trust is weakened, views and beliefs are changing. Aside from
this, economic consequences are resonating in disposable income and economic
behavior. Some examples directly relating to visiting behavior & food safety can
be found below.
Locations consumers indicate to avoid:
Source: Datassential
9

10. What guests worry about most per generation
What guests want to know concerning food safety
for delivery
Source: Datassential
Source: Datassential
10

11. 4. Internal
Operational
Changes
11

12. Health
Buddies: If you have teammembers who
have trouble communicating in the local
language at hospitals or clinics, appoint
them a ‘buddy’ to help them during a
medical emergency.
Travel: Strongly discourage traveling for
you team. Let your team know that if they
decide to travel, they must self-isolate for
14 days before returning to work.
Increase testing: Offer these tests (or similar using
tech like heat sensoric camera’s to anyone visiting
your premises and if possible let deliveries be
delivered outside. Communicate your procedures
with all your suppliers.
Explain: F&B is not an industry in which
staff can work from home, so there will
always be a risk of infection. Ensure that
your team understands these risks.
Fever: Invest in contact-less thermometers
and add daily temperature controls for the
teamtothehouserules.Sendstaffwithafever
(38 C or more) or any other Covid-19
symptoms home immediately and advise
them to stay home.
12

13. analyse.
amaze.
juicy.
13

14. Hygiene
Cleaning: Better cleaning over the entire
line with deep cleaning by an external
party every 10 days.
Hand washing: Staff must wash hands
for at least 20 second at least once every
30 minutes.
Masks: Masks must be made available
and must be mandatory for BoH staff
and preferred for FoH staff.
Communicate: Ensure infallibly clean
sanitation and communicate what you
are doing to ensure it.
Disinfectants: Hand sanitizer and
disinfecting towelettes must be available
absolutely everywhere (minimum 60%
alcohol).
Menus: Start using single-use menus. It
prevents you from having to clean the
menu’s after every single contact.
14

15. Barriers: If practically possible, place
physical barriers (plexiglas) at counters
and/or inbetween tables.
Audits: Increase the frequency of external
audits.Considerusingcontinuoussurfaces
monitoring (specialized camera’s)
Be Aware: Guests are very sensitive to
hygiene. Everything that even looks
messy will translate in their mind to
unhygienic, so uniforms, hair, nails and all
visible surfaces must all be spotless, now
more than ever.
Condiments: Take out pepper- and
saltshakers and replace them with single
use bags or make them available only on
request.
Grab & Go: When offering “Grab & Go”,
reduce stock accessible to guests to an
absolute minimum.
Tools: Increase the frequency of tools
changes.
15

16. Community: Because of the growth in
online orderings, there is an increased
chance to get to know the guests, who
normally don’t leave their personal
information. Build a community! Focus
on loyalty.
Communicate: Point the procedures
that are in place out to the guests and
thank them for their patience while you
are working to ensure their safety.
Exit: See if it is possible to create an exit
out of the restaurant that is separate from
the entrance.
Ensure Distance: Avoid waiting rooms
and queues in and around the restaurant.
Design a process through which guests
can wait for their table.
Workstations: Adjust workstations so
that guests won’t be within the walking
path or within 1,5 meters from it.
Social Distancing: Maintain strict social
distancing with floor markings and with
reduced capacity in place, remove chairs
but not the table to mark distance.
Reservations: Consider only taking
reservations to optimize the layout of your
restaurant for the specific reservations.
This allows for maximizing space use
while respecting the guidelines.
Sanitizers: Place hand sanitizers with
contact-less use at the entrance.
Guests
16

17. Inside
Masks: Offer guests a hygienic option to
store their mask in during their meal. For
example, use a paper bag with a sticker,
or even just an envelope.
Technology is your friend: start using
PIN and contactless payments at table
only. Place the receipt printer facing the
guests consider starting with a mobile
ordering system.
Camera’s: When choosing to enforce a
maximum amount of guests, consider
installing a smart camera system that
counts the amount of guests inside.
Automation: Replace manual doors by
electric ones. Consider replacing manual
water taps, towel dispensers and soap
dispensers with automated ones.
Service: Consider guests picking up their
food and drinks themselves at a pick-
up point, possibly in combination with
a mobile ordering system. Alternatively
place side tables on which the waiter can
place the food.
Virtual Journey: Increase the virtual
aspect of the customer journey by
allowing reservations and pre-ordering.
17

18. Team
Organization
Local
Cooperation
Staff Rooms: Restrict the
amount of staff that can be in
the changing- or lunchroom
at the same time.
Combi-deals: Launch local
cooperation efforts by
offering combi-deals, for
example through delivery
(cross sell)
Platform: Consider setting up
a digital platform to be able
to inform staff regarding pre-
shifts and other changes in
the operation. A digital board
in the changing room could
also be an option.
Kitchen-sharing: See if there
are any local parties with
whom you could share a
kitchen to collectively reduce
costs.
Be Aware: ensure a team
culture in which nobody is
above service, so that even
the office team has followed
a basic training and has
worked in the restaurants,
allowing them to work
on-site when necessary.
Visibility: Look for ways to
increase your visibility locally.
18

19. 5. External
Consumption
19

20. Cashless: Start working cashless to
prevent any form of physical contact.
Curbside: Offer curb-side pick-up if
possible.
Transportable: Consider changing your
offer for something that is easier to
transport.
Creativity: Be creative. For example, offer
new deals outside of peak hours that are
fun and interactive for guests as well.
Sealing: Use additional airtight bag
sealers & tamper proof packaging.
Contactless pickup: When making
use of a delivery service, implement
(if possible) contactless pickup at your
restaurant. Don’t allow drivers to enter
the restaurants.
Delivery & To Go
20

21. To Go
Narrowmenus:Don’tusetheentiremenu
but only the most popular items. This will
reduce complexity for your organization
when working with fewer staff. A small
menu will also show the guest that you
are focused on delivering quality for the
items you DO have. This will increase the
trust the guest feels towards your brand.
Crowd Management: it is paramount that you maintain control
over the times guests will come pick up their orders. “Your order
will be ready in 15 to 30 minutes” like it used to go is no longer
good enough. Especially when many orders come in, it is essential
guests don’t wait in large groups in and around your restaurant.
Be more specific in the times and ensure the order is ready to go
once guests arrive.
Mobile ordering: if people can pay
through online systems like Google Pay or
Apple Pay, they should. This reduces the
amount of personal contact associated
with the use of credit cards or handling
cash.
21

22. Delivery
Alcohol: Offer alcoholic drinks
Third parties: When using
third party deliveries, ensure
you know their procedures so
you can explain them to your
staff and your guests.
Packaging: Consider the
impact luxury packaging
can make on your products.
Luxury packaging could drive
a higher sales price but could
also just lead to higher costs.
Disinfect: Consider delivering
a disinfecting towelette with
every order so that guests
can disinfect the tableware
themselves.
Menu matrix: This is the
time to strictly examine you
menumix and recognize your
stars. If these items have to
be adjusted for delivery, then
that’s a chance for you to
communicate this with your
guests.
Cover: Deliver the order in a
paper bag when you must
hand it to the guest.
22

23. In a report by Datassential the majority of customers thought all categories of to-go accessories
were atleast somewhat risky. Datassential recommends sealed packaging for all utensils.
Packaging matters!
Source: Datassential
23

24. 6. Managerial
Actions
24

25. Smart menus: Use a narrowed down
menu to reduce foodcost and waste.
Eliminate raw protein and specials.
Inventory: Keep small inventories.
Reduce SKU’s.
Pricing: Consider small price increases to offset your
reduced capacity and increased hygiene. Clearly explain
the reasoning to your guest experience.
Shelf life: Adjust to menu to incorporate
ingredients with longer shelf lives.
Break even: Calculate the break-even
point per day(part) excluding all fixed
costs.
Multipurpose: Design the menu in such
a way that you can use it for in-house as
well as delivery and to go.
Change of service: Eliminate buffets and
start plate service.
Menu & F&B Cost
25

26. Sales
Productivity
Mobile Ordering: Consider working
with a mobile ordering system or
ordering booths. This both decreases
the amount of contact between
staff and guests and increases the
productivity of staff (who are already
more busy than usual due to the
cleaning required to keep serving
guests).
Volume:
Out of store, High investments,
New Guests
Frequency:
In-store, Low investments,
Existing Guests
Ticket Value:
In-store, Low investments,
Existing Guests
In-house Pickup: Consider letting
guests pick up their food and drinks
themselves at a pick-up point, possibly
in combination with a mobile ordering
system. Another possibility is to place
side tables near tables so that staff
can serve the food to the table while
respecting the social distancing
guidelines.
Shifts: Spread out guests over multiple
shifts during broader hours to increase
table turns and maximize seating
26

27. From
appetite to
satisfaction
27

28. 7. Adapted
Communication
28

29. Communication
Transparency: Communication has
never been as important as it is during a
crisis. Keep, for both internal and external
communication, communication lines
open and transparent. Everyone is
scared of the unknown and currently
almost everything is unknown, so keep
on sharing. If possible, always share
information internally before it’s shared
externally. It is never preferred for guests
to be knowledgeable of information
before your team is.
Frequency: Ensure the messages on
all your platforms (social media, email,
EDM’s, press, conversations with guests
etc.) are propagate the same message
and are updated frequently. If you react
quickly, honestly and transparently you’ve
already won half the battle.
29

30. External
Communication
Platforms: Communicate on all your
platforms what you are doing to maximize
safety within your restaurant for both staff
and guests.
Reach: Invest in an even larger reach
online. Consider implementing an
additional Adwords campaign in which
you advertise a combination between
your restaurant and COVID-19 specifically.
Be Aware: Stay up to date and pay attention to the athmosphere
within your city of operation. If your restaurants are open, keep
an eye on any communication you send out. Review everything
thrice regarding social media; descriptions that were harmless a
few months ago can suddenly become a minefield in light of the
current situation.
Layouts: Prepare layouts for
communicating different scenarios that
you can quickly adapt and that you can
use on all media platforms.
Strategy: Decide your media strategy.
We prefer good news reaching guests
through the press, but bad news should
come from you directly.
30

31. Internal
Communication
Rules: Communicate the rules clearly.
Don’t forget any of your channels; social
media, website, table topper, signing on
walls and/or doors, menus etc.
All Aboard: Get a full buy-in from the team regarding all hygiene
and health protocols. Place guidelines in all spaces in the Back of
House to remind everyone daily.
Taboo: Do whatever is necessary to make
it clear to your team that there is no taboo
around COVID-19 and that they will never
be punished for communicating how
they feel around the subject.
31

32. 8. How can
Conceptional
Help?
32

33. In light of the Covid-19 crisis, Conceptional is offering an adjusted
service package. We will support you and your brand during the
start up of service over the coming period. Conceptionals team
has years of experience in developing national & international
hospitality concepts and brands, by working at various locations
in the Netherlands and overseas. We are all F&B professionals and
we want to do our share supporting the industry that has always
had a special place in our hearts. Contact us to find out what we
can do for you:
E: info@conceptional.nl
T: +31 70 20 55 688
33

34. F&B CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT • F&B PLACEMAKING • F&B PERFORMANCE & GROWTH
Icons:
Icons made by Darius Dan, Dmitri13, Eucaly.p, Freepik, Kiranshastry, Monkik,
Pixel Perfect, Smashicons, Srip, Those Icons, Vitaly Gorbachev & Wanicon from
www.flaticon.com
Made in cooperation with:
Edwin Spruijt
Experience:
De Beren Restaurants en De Bezorgbeer – Marketing Manager
Albron Center Parcs - Formula Manager
Debuut – Marketing Manager
Debuut – Region Manager
Happy Italy – Operational Director