Creative concepts

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas but escaping old ones”

— John Keynes

New Ideas… New Concepts

As we enter 2024, EP has been delighted to bring together an exceptionally talent team of ex CEOs, food and design experts, business plans and marketeers to launch a new division which we have entitled “Creative Concepts”; the aim of which is to work with clients to help develop new experiences and operating concepts for the modern market.

We are delighted with a range of international clients from Sweden to Spain, Italy, to India and the US as well as across the UK; to look, test and pilot new ideas.

There is an awareness that the consumer and market is slightly out of step with the understanding of many boards. There are some key trends in the market which is what has prompted many to understand the changes taking place and these include:

  • There is rising importance of traditional hospitality values in bespoke service and relationships. Research has shown that one of the primary concerns for operators has been the lack of available talent so how do companies find that balance between developing bespoke service levels and a lack of talent? What can be done differently? What solutions do exist?

  • Consumers are seeking greater experiences and one can see that the worlds of food & beverage, art, and music have converged. There are a range of new destinations which are seeing stronger dwell times in venues where food, art and music are all involved.

  • On the same theme, there is a genuine move towards the use of space to help engage all talent in being able to explore creative skills. Research has shown that the stronger the connection between one’s creative abilities, the stronger the mental well-being. There is a social role which such activity can play in supporting mental health and well-being plus creating new revenues flows and destinations.

  • Many arts and cultural sites are seeking to develop themselves to be destinations in their own right

  • With hotel developments, there is a growing desire to see stronger, authentic local connections and offers.

  • Consumer behaviours have changed too. Many are drinking less, many eating more healthily. How can new offers be developed to meet this need?

  • In the work place, there has been a new understanding of how important restaurants and design is in allowing employees to not just rest but interact, communicate and be more productive. It seems strange now that when we first launched the “Fuelling Productivity” debate back in 2017, it was quite a debate and it is now almost universally understood that employees will engage in spaces and workplaces which are engaging and supporting productivity; not just ask for relentless work at a desk. It was said to us that Covid proved the case for “Fuelling Productivity” which is true but we would have preferred for more to have understood the case back in 2017-19 as maybe then the return to work would have been stronger?