The food industry is increasingly facing well-informed and critical consumers. In addition to categories such as tobacco and alcohol, public discussion is focusing on other categories, such as meat/poultry and products containing sugar.

Sustainability, CSR and discussions about health will decide the future of providers and their long-term business models. Whether consumers are prepared to pay more for better food remains to be seen. Many retailers have focused heavily on developing high-quality private label brands for a long time. Now, manufacturers have also begun to sell directly to their customers (d2c), partly even using their own, bricks-and-mortar retail formats (e.g. Nespresso or Kiehl’s). The demand for managers with retail or e-commerce expertise will grow even further in the FMCG segment and competition for these profiles will become even fiercer in the entire segment.

The rise in commodity costs in almost all product categories is a great challenge for both manufacturers and retailers. Who will ultimately bear these costs and how this development will be met is yet to be decided. In the food segment, local/regional suppliers will become even more important, if they are also in a position to meet the partly greater demand for organic products from some retailers.