Meet BellaBot Robots shown to hospitality industry as partial solution to labour shortages By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 2:00 AM CDT Wednesday, Apr. 26, 2023

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This article was published 26/04/2023 (924 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

She stands maybe 4 feet, with cat-like ears, luminescent sides and a duty to the kitchen.

“Your… return on investment can be incredible,” said Christina Bourbonneire, looking at the white machine to her left. “She never calls in sick, she’s always there.”

BellaBot stood at the ready, loaded with four empty food trays as people sauntered past. Members of Manitoba’s hospitality industry packed a room at the Victoria Inn Tuesday for western Canada’s largest trade show of its kind, a joint venture between Manitoba’s hotel and restaurant associations.

Labour shortages, and a rebound in the hospitality sector, have left imprints on the annual event. See: BellaBot.

“The interest is growing,” said Bourbonneire, a sales representative for Russell Hendrix Foodservice Equipment. “It’s a real time-saver… If you have one server for, say, five tables, that one server can now maybe look after 10 tables.”

Put empty plates on BellaBot and “away she goes” from table to kitchen.

“With innovations, we’re able to keep up,” Bourbonneire said. “Restaurants can still exist and not rely on that labour pool.”

The robot hasn’t drawn many buyers yet, Bourbonneire noted. Its price is in the ballpark of $25,000.

Next to BellaBot was iVario, a roughly 4 by 4 ft. machine encompassing a tilt skillet, flat top, fryer and stock pot.

“(It) basically turns the job (of) four or five people into one or two,” said Jaime Briones, a certified chef with Rational Canada, the company selling the equipment.

This is the future of the industry, Briones predicted — fewer staff, with those employed able to both cook and work the technology.

It isn’t so hard to find employees, when comparing now to post-lockdown periods, said Shaun Jeffrey, CEO of the Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association. Retention, however, is challenging.

“The focus needs to be on innovation,” Jeffrey said.

“(It) basically turns the job (of) four or five people into one or two.”–Jaime Briones

Winnipeg hotels are largely back to pre-pandemic staffing levels, added Michael Juce, the Manitoba Hotel Association’s president.

But look beyond the city’s borders, and staff shortages are common.

“Hotel owners, some of them are being put in a situation where they’re not renting rooms again, because they can’t go and clean it quick enough,” Juce said.

Labour shortages are clear in small details — many hoteliers are scrapping the individual bottles of shampoo for larger options that don’t need to be frequently replaced, said Evan Bloomfield.

“Every so often, you have to refill them, but it’s not a constant thing,” noted Bloomfield, the co-owner of National Sales, who sells hotels everything from bathroom products to bedsheets.

Steps away, Kathy Downs cut a hard-boiled egg open for a customer. Egg wraps were among the dishes on display at her trade booth.

“Sales are better than they’ve ever been,” said Downs, a sales representative for Egg Solutions Vanderpol’s.

“A lot of places are looking more towards places like me who manufacture ready-to-serve products as opposed to doing it themselves,” she added, grabbing an egg wrap.

Food and drink manufacturers are once again hungry for restaurant and hotel customers, noted Michael Mikulak, Food & Beverage Manitoba’s executive director.

“They want to work with the Syscos, they want to work with the big hotel chains,” Mikulak said. “In some ways, it’s simpler, because you can sell in bulk.”

Demand in the hospitality industry fizzled during pandemic-era lockdowns. Many manufacturers focused on retail or direct-to-customer sales, which provided its own challenges. Individual packaging is expensive, and it’s hard for small businesses to enter the “incredibly concentrated” grocery industry, Mikulak said.

The manufacturing sector is increasingly automated, he noted. Many Food & Beverage Manitoba members are missing 20 to 25 per cent of their workforce.

“Automation will never replace that person-to-person connection that comes with a full service restaurant,” said Austin Rysen, general manager of the Mr Mikes SteakhouseCasual off McGillivray Boulevard.

His restaurant is hiring; he’s seeing plenty of soon-to-be high school graduates applying.

“You can only automate so much,” Rysen added. “You really can’t beat the quality that someone making your meal can provide.”

Restaurant sales have been on the upswing, he noted.

As for Motel 6 and Days Inn locations, 2022 was “a banner year,” said Lorne Jolliffe, a regional director of franchising for Realstar Hospitality (which works with both brands).

Pent up demand for travel, and Canadians sightseeing within Canada, led to increased demand, Jolliffe said.

Hotel operators continue to deal with pandemic-era debt and setbacks from rising interest rates, said Juce from the Manitoba Hotel Association. Restaurants face a similar situation.

“I think the year ahead is optimistic. People can get out and travel a lot easier,” Juce said. “It’s sunnier days ahead.”

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com