Retail News CRM

Tag: procurement

  • Informa Opens Restaurant, Bar & Café 2026 with 400 Brands in Hong Kong

    Informa Opens Restaurant, Bar & Café 2026 with 400 Brands in Hong Kong

    Informa Markets opened the 2026 edition of Restaurant, Bar & Café Hong Kong on September 1. More than 400 commercial brands across 11 countries and regions are taking part. The trade exhibition runs for three days at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Organisers expect to draw over 9,000 commercial buyers, operators and hospitality suppliers.

    Eight commercial sectors are represented, spanning food and beverage, coffee, hospitality equipment, natural products and front-of-house technology. Informa co-located the show with the Retail Asia Conference and Expo. That pairing links traditional foodservice procurement directly to retail automation, point-of-sale software and artificial intelligence systems.

    Equipment Debuts and Dedicated Sourcing Zones

    Exhibitors are using the floor to debut equipment and raw ingredients in Asian commercial channels. Hardware displays include the FSWAAI automated packing and labelling scale, as well as robotic dispensing units from Tao Bin Smart Beverage Machine (HK) Limited. Food suppliers brought premium lines such as Marble King Full Blood Wagyu and Kochi Prefecture chicken from Japan. These items target upscale restaurant buyers looking for differentiated menus.

    Dedicated sourcing zones divide the floor to speed up buyer meetings. The Japan Sake & Spirits Pavilion groups regional distillers and brewers. Nearby, the Eco-Innovation Hub concentrates on biodegradable packaging and certified organic food products. The Specialty Coffee Corner features live demonstrations at a dedicated Brew Bar, connecting green coffee importers with independent café chains.

    Retail Technology and Automation Take the Floor

    Hong Kong restaurant operators face heavy margin pressure from high rents and kitchen staffing shortages. Automation is no longer optional. Dining chains must automate basic prep work, weighing, inventory control and beverage delivery to protect their margins. Suppliers displaying self-service beverage dispensers and automated packaging systems are pitching directly to quick-service operators seeking to trim back-of-house headcount.

    Landlords and food hall operators face equal pressure to refresh tenancies with destination dining concepts. Store layouts increasingly require digital ordering kiosks, automated inventory integration and rapid takeaway counters. The commercial risk falls hardest on small operators. Many face steep capital costs when adopting proprietary smart kitchen tech that takes years to deliver a return.

    Demographic Shifts Drive Sourcing Priorities

    Consumer demographic shifts across East Asia shape this year’s conference programme. Organised with KPMG, the Retail Asia Conference focuses on artificial intelligence adoption and younger consumer engagement. On the final day, the IFSA Food Safety Symposium addresses nutrition and texture formulations tailored specifically to an ageing population.

    Local trade shows are working to rebuild international exhibitor numbers following years of travel disruptions and tighter regional budgets. Earlier editions saw smaller regional turnouts. Drawing 11 exhibiting jurisdictions sets a benchmark for the city’s cross-border hospitality trade recovery.

    Events wrap up on September 3 with the Hong Kong Coffee Challenge finals, the Pairing Sensations Awards and the release of final verified trade buyer attendance figures.

  • Siem Reap Trade Fair Opens Commercial Pathways for Local Producers

    Siem Reap Trade Fair Opens Commercial Pathways for Local Producers

    A regional trade fair in Siem Reap opened commercial channels for provincial producers seeking access to wider consumer markets. The event connects makers of domestic goods directly with retailers, wholesalers and hospitality buyers across Cambodia.

    Producers presented packaged food, agricultural goods, textiles and handicrafts to commercial buyers seeking local inventory. Direct exhibition formats give regional enterprises access to store shelves and hospitality supply chains without intermediary distributor markups.

    Connecting Provincial Goods to Supermarket Shelves

    Organisers built the platform to address distribution bottlenecks that often keep provincial goods out of modern retail networks. Direct contact with procurement managers allows suppliers to negotiate order volumes, adjust packaging and meet quality standards required by national store chains.

    Similar trade exhibitions across secondary cities in Southeast Asia have helped regional craft and food producers secure stable supermarket listings. Modern grocery operators and hotel groups in Cambodia face persistent demand for verified local products from domestic shoppers and international visitors.

    Expanding Domestic Supply Chains

    Retail chains and hospitality buyers face higher logistics costs on imported packaged goods, accelerating demand for dependable domestic alternatives. Local suppliers use the exhibition platform to align barcoding, packaging durability and batch sizes with formal retail criteria.

    Participating vendors are now fulfilling wholesale orders secured during the event as provincial trade organisers prepare follow-up sourcing sessions for the coming retail quarters.

  • Citi, Visa Launch eProcurement Platform In Singapore

    Citi, Visa Launch eProcurement Platform In Singapore

    Reports Friday said the companies are rolling out an eProcurement platform, Renepay, based on a reverse auction business model. The network will include B2B suppliers across the country within various industries, including financial services, marketing, real estate, telecom, beverages and more.

    Customers of Citi’s Visa Commercial Card will have access to the Renepay platform and can take advantage of extended payment periods without interest when making purchases on the network. The platform also digitizes paperwork typically involved in procurement processes, reports said, and aims to reduce contract negotiation time.

    The platform processes electronic purchase orders, invoices and payments, Citi and Visa noted.

    “We recognize that corporate buying is very specialized, and we wanted to provide buyers a platform where they can interact with leading suppliers online and arrive at the best price through the online negotiation center,” said Visa’s Vikram Kshettry, head of B2B partnerships in Asia-Pacific.

    “At every step of the procurement cycle, we allow corporates to decide on what best works for them including what to purchase, which suppliers to transact with and the payment process which they would like to adopt,” added Renepay founder Firdaus Morgul in another statement.

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  • Lippo Group Launches Web-Based E-Procurement Service Mbiz.co.id

    Lippo Group Launches Web-Based E-Procurement Service Mbiz.co.id

    Mbiz.co.id offers an integrated and web-based e-commerce experience. It offers an electronic catalog of thousands of products in  various categories, ranging from IT products, stationary and industrial tools to groceries, provided by a number of certified vendors in Indonesia.

    “The value of sales from online retail in Indonesia is less than 1 percent of the total [bricks-and-mortar] retail sales,” said Andrew Mawikere, co-founder of Mbiz.co.id, describing the growth potential in the sector.

    Christopher Hartono, head of general services at Bank Nobu, a bank owned by the Lippo Group, said ever since the lender cooperated with Mbiz.co.id since October last year, the company was able to easily acquire any goods it needed.

    “Transactions became more transparent and convenient,” he said.

  • Papua to use e-tender for goods and service procurement

    Papua to use e-tender for goods and service procurement

    The district of Biak Numfor would use online system of electronic tender for the procurement of goods and service in the 2016 fiscal year for efficiency .

    “Online system of e-tender would soon be applied to help accelerate the utilization of district budget fund,” assistant II of Biak district administration Mahasunu said here on Wednesday.

    Mahasunu said the mechanism of offering packages of project for the procurement of government goods and service would be socialized through website of the district administration.

    He said with the only system in project tender, it is hoped that there would be no misunderstanding between the providers of goods and services and the business players taking part in the tender.

    Another important benefit is that the system would allow less room for malfeasance and corruption, he said.

    “I hope that the process of implementing the online tender would be properly carried out,” he said.

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