About Food Service

Food Service

Food Service (own spelling: food-service) is a German business trade journal for the gastronomy industry in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, published by the dfv Mediengruppe in Frankfurt am Main. Founded in 1982 and appearing eleven times a year, the magazine reports from a business-management perspective on management and marketing, market research, technology and design, keeping developments and trends in North America, Europe and Asia in view. Each March it publishes the Top 100 ranking of gastronomy companies in Germany, and at the Internorga fair in Hamburg it organizes the International Foodservice Forum with around 2,000 visitors.

Overview

Food Service is the business journal of the German-speaking gastronomy: the magazine for the entrepreneurs, managers and decision-makers of the restaurant industry – from system gastronomy and chain operators to individual restaurateurs, caterers and the industry's suppliers. Its editorial perspective is explicitly business-oriented: management and marketing, market research, technology and design – the disciplines that determine commercial success in the hospitality business.

The magazine's signature product is the annual Top 100 ranking of gastronomy companies in Germany, published each March with a focus on system gastronomy: the ranking documents the industry's leading companies by revenue, tracing the growth of the chains – from McDonald's, Burger King and LSG through Tank & Rast and Nordsee to the expansion-strong brands like L'Osteria, Hans im Glück and Peter Pane – and providing the industry's authoritative market overview. The Top 100 figures – Germany's 100 leading foodservice companies generating billions in net revenue across tens of thousands of outlets – are the industry's benchmark data.

The International Foodservice Forum, organized by food-service at the Internorga in Hamburg with around 2,000 visitors, is the industry's leading conference event: the meeting place of the professional gastronomy's decision-makers, with international speakers, trend topics and the networking that structures the industry's year. The European Foodservice Summit (EFSS) – the relaunched European summit, moved to Amsterdam in 2024 – extends the event brand to the European level, with the slogan "Be Part of the Family" expressing the character of the European network grown over more than 25 years.

The magazine appears eleven times a year as part of the dfv Mediengruppe's gastronomy media family, which also includes the Allgemeine Hotel- und Gastronomie-Zeitung (AHGZ), gvpraxis for professional communal catering, and the international FoodService Europe & Middle East. Together these titles cover the hospitality industry's full spectrum – from the individual hotel and restaurant through system gastronomy and communal catering to the international markets.

History

Food Service was founded in 1982, at a time when system gastronomy was establishing itself in Germany and the restaurant industry was professionalizing: the fast-food chains were expanding, new gastronomic concepts were emerging, and the industry needed a business journal that treated gastronomy as what it is – a major economic sector. From the start the magazine was conceived as the Wirtschaftsfachzeitschrift – the business trade journal – of the gastronomy, reporting from the management perspective on the industry's companies, markets and trends.

Over four decades the magazine accompanied the industry through its transformations: the rise and consolidation of system gastronomy, the coffee-bar boom, the better-burger wave, the delivery revolution, the digitalization of restaurant operations, the sustainability turn, and the pandemic that reshaped the industry's economics. The Top 100 ranking, published each March, has documented this history in numbers – the growth of the leading companies, the changing of the guard among the concepts, the industry's resilience and reinvention.

The International Foodservice Forum at the Internorga in Hamburg became the industry's central conference: with around 2,000 visitors, the forum brings together the decision-makers of the German-speaking gastronomy for the industry's strategic debates – the trends, the concepts and the business models that will shape the coming years. The forum's international speakers – from drone-delivery pioneers to global chain executives – reflect the magazine's international orientation.

The publisher, the dfv Mediengruppe (Deutscher Fachverlag) in Frankfurt am Main, developed the food-service brand into a media family: the German-language food-service magazine, the gvpraxis journal for professional communal catering (business, care, education), and the international FoodService Europe & Middle East – a structure that serves the hospitality industry from the local restaurant to the global market.

Content and Sections

The editorial program of Food Service follows the gastronomy business from the management perspective. Company and market coverage forms the core: portraits of leading operators, reports on new concepts and expansions, analyses of market segments – from quick service to full service, from coffee bars to delivery – and the Top 100 ranking that anchors the industry's market intelligence each March.

Management and marketing topics address the entrepreneur's daily challenges: concept development, brand management, pricing, digital marketing, customer loyalty, and the operational disciplines – staff management, training, and the skilled-labor shortage that has become the industry's defining challenge. Market research – the magazine's own studies and the industry's data – provides the factual foundation.

Technology and design coverage addresses the industry's innovation: kitchen technology, digital ordering and payment systems, delivery platforms and logistics, restaurant design and architecture – the physical and digital infrastructure of modern gastronomy. International reports keep developments and trends in North America, Europe and Asia in view, from the American chain innovations to the Asian concept trends.

The event journalism – the International Foodservice Forum, the European Foodservice Summit – extends the editorial brand into the conference business, with the magazine's editors shaping the programs and the industry's leaders shaping the debates.

Publisher and Organization

Food Service is published by the dfv Mediengruppe (Deutscher Fachverlag GmbH), headquartered at Mainzer Landstrasse 251 in Frankfurt am Main. The magazine is part of the publisher's gastronomy media family, which includes the Allgemeine Hotel- und Gastronomie-Zeitung, gvpraxis and FoodService Europe & Middle East – a portfolio that covers the hospitality industry from the individual business through system gastronomy and communal catering to the international markets.

The magazine appears eleven times a year, serving the decision-makers of the gastronomy in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The editor-in-chief is Boris Tomic, leading the editorial team from the publisher's Frankfurt headquarters.

The dfv Mediengruppe is one of Germany's largest specialist publishers, and its gastronomy division – with food-service, AHGZ, gvpraxis and the international titles – is one of the publisher's traditional strongholds, reflecting Frankfurt's role as a center of the German food and hospitality trade.

Digital Presence

The digital home of Food Service is food-service.de, the B2B online portal for the hotel, restaurant and catering industry. The site publishes daily industry news, market reports and background articles, serving the information needs of the gastronomy's decision-makers between print issues. The portal's digital media data has documented thousands of international recipients for its newsletters and online advertising.

The Top 100 ranking extends into the digital channels: the ranking's data, analyses and company profiles are published online, making the industry's benchmark figures accessible beyond the print issue. The event brands – the International Foodservice Forum and the European Foodservice Summit – maintain their own digital presences, with programs, speakers and registration serving the conference business.

Social media channels extend the magazine's reach into the professional networks of the gastronomy community, while the e-paper editions make each of the eleven annual issues available in electronic form. The combination of print depth, portal timeliness, event community and digital editions serves the industry's decision-makers in the formats they use.

With more than four decades of publication history, eleven issues per year, the authoritative Top 100 ranking, the International Foodservice Forum with 2,000 visitors and a daily-updated B2B portal, Food Service remains the central business medium of the German-speaking gastronomy – the journal that documents the industry's companies, concepts and markets, from the system chain to the individual restaurant.