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Food and Beverage Industry in Southeast Asia Primed for Tech-Fuelled Growth

By fida

Technological advancements have opened up multiple avenues of income for F&B or the food and beverage industry in Southeast Asia (Asean), which, in part, is why this sector is experiencing rapid disruptions.

From cloud kitchens to delivery services, quick-service restaurants (QSR) to full-service restaurants, innovative business models are fuelling outfits vying for a slice of the pie.

Projections of a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.58%¹ between 2024 and 2029 put Singapore in pole position as the fastest-growing F&B market in Asean. In Indonesia, the online food and beverage market is growing at five times the pace of the offline market, while full-service restaurants still remain the largest food service type². In the same vein, the Thailand F&B market continues its upward trajectory, spurred on by the reopening of borders and the arrival of a steady stream of tourists.

For F&B operators in Southeast Asia, the key to survival and growth lies in agility and adaptation. In this context, leveraging cloud technology is not just a choice but a necessity. Solutions like cloud ERP for food and beverage companies can bring about significant operational efficiencies and unlock key insights that are critical for growth.

Below, we examine some of the features of a cloud ERP for food and beverage companies and the benefits it can bring to F&B businesses.

Finance and Accounting

QSRs with multiple outlets need total visibility into their finances across their subsidiaries. Solutions like a cloud ERP for food and beverage companies can provide quick-serve restaurants with real-time, 360-degree, consolidated view of their finances.

Procurement, Inventory and Supply Chain Management

Whether you are a cloud kitchen, quick-serve restaurant, or full-service restaurant, fulfilling customers’ orders is a central plank to the success of your food and beverage business. In an era where customers barely show any brand loyalty, a failure to fulfil orders can result in churn. Keep your customers happy by leveraging a cloud ERP system like Oracle NetSuite. Take charge of procurement through efficient vendor management and purchasing processes and keep down your cost of goods sold.

Full Integration with Your Point of Sale System (POS)

For cloud kitchen F&Bs, if your POS system is not fully integrated with your back-office solution, then you will have to manually manage key business processes. This is hardly a recipe for efficient management of business as manual processes often result in human errors.

To avoid inconveniences like these, cloud ERP systems like Oracle NetSuite provide full integration with POS providers. This ensures a single source of item, inventory, customer, and order data.

Unlock Insight, Slice and Dice Data With Customisable Dashboards

Revenue from in-app purchases in the Indonesian food and beverage market is estimated at US$5.96 million³, while in Thailand, it is US$360,000⁴.

For cloud kitchen F&Bs or those whose major source of revenue comes from online sales, having an up-to-date view of customers’ purchase habits can help them roll out targeted marketing to customers. Cloud ERP for food and business provide a great data stream and helps unlock insights that help food and beverages surge ahead of competitors.

In a Nutshell

This is a critical juncture for food and beverage businesses operating in Asean. On the one hand, Southeast Asia is a cultural melting pot offering a variety of delicacies that serve as a major tourist attraction while proving equally delectable to a growing domestic market. On the other hand, F&B remains a notoriously small-margin industry.

Much of the growth witnessed in the food and beverage industry in Southeast Asia has been fuelled by technology, and it is only logical for F&B operators to embrace the best that cloud technology offers. Solutions like cloud ERP for the food and beverage industry can help unlock key data, bring operational efficiencies, and contribute towards growth and improved profitability.