Tabletop Trends: Viewpoint: big challenges, but vast opportunities…
Viewpoint: big challenges, but vast opportunities…
TableCraft’s Jeff Tait on the challenges facing the LET sector, his hopes for the foodservice industry, and why eating out is good for the soul.
Jeff Tait is president of TableCraft Products Company. Despite being head of a major global light equipment and tableware brand, with a multimillion dollar turnover, he’s a man who enjoys getting hands-on experience with his staff, distributors and end users. Tabletop Trends caught up with him over a Teams meeting at the company’s head office in Illinois, during a break from his travels.
We kicked off by asking him what he saw as the big challenges and opportunities for the worldwide LET sector right now.
“The challenges are many, but especially the labour market, along with food and energy costs. However, the opportunities are vast as well. Dining out is still a treasured event for many families and friends. Interacting face to face over a meal is such a positive human experience. Finding new dining concepts and cuisines to attract younger folks to the benefits of going out is a massive opportunity.
“On the downside, the LET industry worldwide is being hit by higher costs across the board. Oil price increases impact our product costs, our distributors’ costs, and operators’ costs. It is a major pain point across the channel.
“What foodservice operators need is stability in availability and pricing – that’s how the LET supply chain can help them. We all need to hold off on cost increases if possible. It’s also important to have good levels of stock. Foodservice operators need consistency and stability after years of global events causing chaos in the supply chain.
“Right now operators are carrying on using equipment and tableware until they absolutely need to replace it, which is great in terms of sustainability. However it means that, for example, changes to the tabletop have slowed as most operators do not have the funds for a full reset. Adding or subtracting a piece or two, to give presentation a refresh, is the trend.
“For example, sharing towers are really big in the US and are becoming more popular in the UK and Europe. They make a massive visual impact on the table, they’re theatrical and they’re fun. They’re a part of the whole collaborative dining trend that includes sharing platters and the like.”
Looking at 2026 to date, and TableCraft’s plans for the UK, Jeff was very positive. “Q2 softened a bit after the US/Iran war, but we are still tracking to grow and hit our targets, so things are looking good. Our team in the UK is doing a fantastic job. We’ve added new staff to help them generate deeper relationships with our business partners – it’s so important to understand the distributor at all levels of the organisation. Having the additional staff will help both us and our customers. For example, it’ll give us more opportunities to give the distributors training on our products. The more knowledge we can provide to our distributors, the more comfortable they will be selling the TableCraft brand. Hopefully it will encourage them to stock more, too!”
TableCraft has a huge range of products. How does Jeff see that developing? “We’ve moved to three product launch windows every year in the UK, so we need to expand. During each window we’ll launch anything from twenty to sixty products. New products are a key part of our growth strategy – none of our distributors ever ask ‘what’s old?’ They want to know what our NPD guys have been up to.
“We’ve spent a lot of energy building our range of back of house items and that will continue – no matter if consumers are eating in or taking away, operators still need to cook.”
Jeff is a foodservice industry person through and through. “I love it. Everyone I meet is great, everywhere I go. Distributors, operators, and other manufacturers have some wonderful people. We understand we each have a part to play to support the industry.”
Outside of work Jeff is a huge American football fan – although he admitted to having enjoyed watching the World Cup, too. He loves cooking, especially on the barbeque (he’s a ‘Two Big Green Eggs’ guy). When he’s in the UK, he’s become something of a sausage roll afficionado and loves a good pub steak dinner – especially with peppercorn sauce.
What about the future of foodservice? What would Jeff like to see? “It’s back to where I started, with dining out. I’d love to see a deceleration in take away and more people enjoying a meal out. One of the best ways to engage and connect with other humans is enjoying a meal together. I’d love to see eat in dining increase its market share, as it can have a positive impact on society.”
For more on TableCraft click here.
