The Chief Marketing Officer at Puratos, Sophie Blum, has spoken about the role of digital technology in a rapidly changing market. Puratos, the international supplier of products to bakeries, patisseries and chocolatiers, has recently begun a startup incubator, Sparkalis, to support emerging SMEs in the food sector. Sparkalis will be providing advice, direct investment and mentoring to startups, with a particular focus on digitalisation.
Ms Blum commented on the importance of digital technology in the food sector: “Digital, artificial intelligence, data and - in some cases - blockchain are definitely the way forward. It’s not a case of should we or should we not, it’s more about how and what levels we need in order to accelerate and transform to continue to serve consumers and customers.”
Changes to the bakery industry include greater demand for next day delivery and increasingly rapid lead times. In order to meet these quick turnover times, services have started offering 24/7 digital customer and consumer support. Implicit in this is a need to have constant access to full data per production process: information about oven and warehouse temperature, conveyor belt speeds, packaging and staff, for example, are constantly being relayed.
“The boundaries have blurred between customers and consumers and it’s true that our own customers - the professionals baking or making chocolate - themselves need to always anticipate new trends to stay at the forefront. There is no other way than digital.
You see it everywhere - this week at a trade show and everywhere it was about how you use digital to have access to data to be able to empower your teams to be more productive in the positive sense, in line with trends and the real-time evolution.
There are a lot of challenges that go along with this opportunity because not everything is structured to have the fluidity of transition, but it is certainly the way forward.”