The Future of Food Retail? PwC’s Harold Dutzler Breaks It Down 🍎📉 | Live at CGF 2025

Hello everyone.

This is Omnitalk Retail.

I'm Chris Walton.

And I'm Anne Mazinga.

And we are coming to you live from the Vusion Group's booth at the Consumer Goods Forum in Amsterdam.

Come on by, say hello.

We're going to be here all day.

And thanks to the Fusion Group for helping to make our coverage from the Consumer Goods Forum possible.

Now joining us is Harald Dutzler, the global sector leader for consumer goods at PwC.

Harold, welcome to Omnitalk.

Thank you for having me here.

It's great to be here.

Well, Harold, tell us about yourself.

Sir.

Tell us about your background and what you do with PwC.

Yeah, so I do work at PwC.

I'm a strategy consultant by profession.

Doing that for 25 years.

25 years.

Okay, 25 years.

Always based in Vienna, so always out of Austria, mostly in a European environment, sometimes a global environment.

And predominantly working in the food value chain.

That's my home turf.

Doing supply chain work from farm to fork, working with retailers, consumer goods companies, aggregators, also players further on towards the agri and farming side.

Wow.

Okay, so along the entire value chain.

Wow.

Wow.

What brings you to the Consumer Goods Forum?

I'm guessing this is not your first time here.

Is that guess correct?

That guess is correct.

True.

I really love being here at the Consumer Goods Forum for two reasons.

I mean, one, it's my passion that food value chain.

Therefore it's the place to be, right?

That's where people along that entire value chain meet up and think about collaborating.

That's what it's all about.

And secondly, a bit of institutionally, as I have the honor of leading consumer goods globally for PwC, it's the logical place to be.

I also have the honor of presenting our latest study tomorrow, tomorrow morning with an exciting panel.

So.

So we'll have a good conversation.

Let's talk about the study.

What were some of the findings from the most recent release?

Oh, it's hot off the press.

It actually came out yesterday.

It's a consumer survey.

We did it with more than 20,000 consumers globally.

And it's focused on food and how people buy food, how they want to change their behaviors and around food purchases, not purchases in general, but really around food.

And it's, I mean, the first important message from there is price dominates.

Obviously the interesting news around it is it all developed also actually in a cost of living crisis.

So it's not only price is important, but it's essential.

You know, it's not a choice anymore, but it's the wallets are just not big enough.

After inflation over the last couple of years, it's the biggest worry.

But at the same time, consumers in particular, younger consumers and emerging market consumers.

So the consumers of tomorrow, those who have growing wallets tomorrow, they are aspirational, they want more.

Okay, yes.

Within it needs to fit within that non existing wallet.

They don't have the money.

Exactly.

And we hear a lot of that today.

So that the price is a given.

That's not going away.

You can't price yourself out of it in this environment.

But they also want much more health, functional and we're hearing a lot about that today also and probably the rest of the week.

Sustainability to some extent, but for many that's a too far away concept.

They say yes, it's important, but how it exactly impacts themselves, they don't really know.

And how exactly the product has an impact on sustainability and on the environment, they also don't really know.

Every study says something different, every claim says something different.

They are confused about that.

Right.

And that's the third key point about it is they really ask for more help.

It's such a complex environment, it's such a complex purchasing decision.

They do it ten times a day.

It needs to fit in their wallet.

They are hearing all of these things unhealthy, non healthy, you know, they're getting confused left and right.

So help consolidating all that information, consolidating.

All of that they use.

They use on average four apps to help to sort their life.

Right.

I mean running, sleeping, many people have a ring, we are used to that.

But on food, that doesn't really exist.

So part of the answers they are giving to us is they would be ready to use technology much more.

That makes sense.

It starts with online buying, social buying, but also other things of technology helping them to, you know, what do I need to buy to make my weekly purchase with a certain calorie amount.

Enter agentic AI.

Right?

Yes.

Voila, voila.

Right, Voila.

There's no real, we were talking to somebody earlier too.

There's no real common language or definitions for how even we in the industry should look at some of those questions.

Right.

So I'm curious then on that point, like you know, you being a student of the industry like you have been for the past 25 years, is there anything you've seen either the retailers themselves or the CBGs do that has been successful in this arena to get people in, you know, to, you know, take action on this in the right way?

I think they all work on that they want or the other way.

Yeah.

One complexity is indeed.

There is no common language and I'm not talking technological languages, I'm not a tech guy, but a common language, it starts with the, the of rest recipes or it starts with labels.

Right.

I mean there's so much variety and if you don't have that, it's very difficult to kind of bundle it all together.

So all of them do things.

I just saw recently and we had a conversation in Spain with a actually medium sized, actually small sized retailer, less than 10 billion, which is in global scale, not, I mean it's not Walmart.

Right.

And they are trying to do quite innovative things.

It's not overly technological because of their scale, but they are trying to offer information to consumers to start going that direction of how do they put actually a healthy basket together and how can they over time improve their basket?

On health related topics, also on price.

And they can also give you advice on what you can buy to actually reduce your, your wallet by buying more clever.

Not every day a small peg, but once a week a larger peg on something.

So whatever.

So things like this and I think many of them are playing with that, many are playing with loyalty schemes and they have a very rich data set, but not translating that into this.

How actually do you help the consumer in making this complex and emotional?

It's good that it's emotional, right.

It's food, these emotional decisions, I think that's still the next step.

So Harold, if I were to play back what you said, then would you say you would advise retailers to make sure that the prices of their products are as easily understandable as they can be for their consumers, particularly in this budget conscious arena that we now, or world that we now live in, I should say, would that be one.

And then the second thing would be also how do you identify the nutrient quality or the healthiness quote unquote of the products in your store in a way that your consumer can also understand?

Would you say that there are two things that every retailer should be striving to do?

Yes.

And so yeah, absolutely.

The price side harmonized way of talking about content and what it actually really does, but then also helping consumers with more information about it.

We all, I mean we spend a lot of time on buying food and eating food and we love it.

Hopefully we do.

But actually we have no PhDs on it.

Right.

I mean we hear so much stuff.

This is this and this is good and this is bad.

We are confused.

So beyond the basic information, which already is a big win if you do that.

I mean, it starts with things like the Nutris core or whatever.

There are so many things out there that you could do, but that's only the starting point.

That's the kind of, that's the minimum transparency to have.

But then providing them additional help, how can they bundle things together in a meaningful way to make actually meals for their entire family in a convenient way and avoiding food waste and things like that.

That's the end.

Got it, got it.

So how do you.

So let's shift gears too, because you brought up sustainability, you said that the average consumer still is not quite understanding what role that's going to play in their lives.

So how should the industry then approach that topic?

Like where can they find success?

I think you need to start there, where you can explain in a simple way a direct impact.

Okay.

And everybody is worried about climate change, but what the individual product does on climate change and what that actually means is, is a very difficult subject to understand.

So start where you can explain to consumers the direct impact that it has also for them.

And some of it is actually linked to probably attributes that you wouldn't directly say, oh, that's a sustainability attribute.

Local.

Okay, local.

Got it.

People do have something in their mind.

Local means less transport.

It's good.

It's probably biological.

Whether it is or not is not the question almost.

But it has a certain connotation that it's linked to a positive sustainability impact.

Is there anything else?

Are there any other attributes that you'd identify that are similar to that or is local?

The one you'd lead with?

The other ones is where you can make a direct connection between a health impact and a sustainability impact.

Less sugar.

I'm not even sure whether that's a very good example now, but you can make a direct connection because the health impact they understand that's also the reason why health attributes and features are so popular now and people are willing to pay because they see a direct impact.

Protein is good for my muscles.

Local plant based would be a good example.

That's a good one in that arena.

Is what you're saying in that direction.

And there they do more directly understand it or seem to more directly understand it.

Got it, Got it.

So, Harold, we've been talking about a lot of things with you just now.

You've been going to several sessions.

I'm curious when you think about those things that you just mentioned as themes, the study and work that PWC has been doing also, what were some of the standout moments from the show for you?

So Far I really liked some of the individual examples.

Some companies were giving very specific examples.

So not the, oh, in five years we will be there.

Right.

But you know, we are doing this and this and that's the impact it's having Razor sharp.

Having a clear problem, having a solution or offering one solution to the problem.

Playing it out here.

We had a session in the very morning today on circularity.

I found that super powerful.

All three companies, they are bam, bam, bam.

And another round of bomb.

Bomb, bomb.

Yeah.

Giving examples in real life.

There was a good example on a reuse test in a city in Canada.

I found that very fascinating actually by coincidence, my Canadian partner colleague was sitting next to me.

She was really freaking out.

This is so exciting that you talk on big plenary about their example.

Exactly.

That's exactly.

She was really proud and happy and rightly so.

Yeah, right.

Because it's a topic packaging reuse.

It's mentioned for many, many years, but does it really pick up?

Not that much on plastic bottles.

And there they are now making a pilot in one city, Ottawa, not a small city.

So in one place to actually test it out.

I think it was two or three retailers and four consumer goods companies collaborating, coming together, doing it together.

I found that, you know, very wow.

Very fascinating.

It's not rocket science, but it's wow.

And it's a new concept for the industry.

Really like collaborating in that way with a shared goal.

We talked to some people here from Danone about that earlier too.

That's so critical, so important that it's easier said than done.

There are so many things that stand in the way.

Right.

We've seen similar things like that try to take off in the States too.

Although not probably as successfully.

All right, Harold, let's get you out of here on this.

I've been trying to think of a consulting type question to ask you.

So if you were a betting man, on which trend would you say is?

Which trend would you say is going to impact the grocery industry the most over the next, say five to 10 years?

Wow, that's a loaded question.

I think I can give you two answers.

I had the benefit of sitting now in a room and there was some also investors and they were talking about that a bit.

So I can benefit from having picked up.

But I can also, I think add what I think my own theme would be.

My personal perspective would be health related.

That's what I was gonna think.

Health related products and services.

So not only a product and services at affordable price.

Got it.

So food as medicine at an Affordable price.

Is that the right way to say that?

Yes.

And all the services around it.

So helping people understand it, what we talked a bit about before.

Yeah.

So it's not only the product.

I believe the product is too short because it's.

Yeah.

It's just so complex.

It's a differentiation point probably.

For the other one I heard in the.

Sorry.

The other one I heard in the round and I can also subscribe to that is around scarcity.

So things that are becoming more and more scarce.

And we also do.

We do a lot of research.

I mean, we are a consulting company, probably that's the consulting question.

We are consulting companies, so we do a lot of research and we've done a lot of research on climate, climate change at the individual commodity and crop level.

So what does it mean for cocoa, coffee, sugar, but also for rice and wheat?

So for the base things.

And you can do it at the global level, at the country level, down to the zip code level.

And what does it have?

Climate warming, drought, actually too much water and some catastrophes.

You can choose different scenarios and you can see that.

Well, it will be tight, therefore, to put it mildly.

Yes, it will be tight.

Yeah.

Actually what we are arguing is physically it will not be possible.

This has nothing to do with sustainability or this is just physically it will not work right.

Therefore the whole system needs to change.

Whether you like it or not, it will change.

That's why I love doing this job.

I've not heard that before.

That is a great nugget to end on scarcity and how do you think about it?

Use it as an opportunity, but also counteract the problems that come with it too.

Wow, thanks, Harold.

Yes, thank you.

Thanks for having me.

Hopefully everyone sticks around for that one.

Yes.

Well, Ann, you want to take us out?

Thanks again to Vusion Group for making all of our coverage today possible.

We'll be here for the next couple of.

Couple of days, so make sure to continue to follow all of our coverage here on LinkedIn and on our YouTube channel.

And until next time, be careful out there.