I recently read an excellent article in Facilitate Magazine reporting on CBRE’s European Office Occupier Sentiment Survey 2026.

The findings are significant.

Sixty five per cent of European office occupiers are planning to relocate within the next three years. More importantly, occupiers are becoming increasingly selective about the buildings they choose. Eighty eight per cent say they would reject a building that failed to provide an amenity they consider essential.

Yet there is a contradiction.

Expectations are rising, but willingness to pay more is falling.

That should concern everyone involved in creating and operating workplace environments. (CBRE)

The workplace experience now matters more

The office is no longer simply somewhere people go because that is where their desk is.

People increasingly have a choice.

If an organisation wants colleagues to spend time together in the workplace, the experience has to justify the journey.

CBRE’s research reinforces this point. Engagement with colleagues, access to productive workspace and engagement with leadership are now amongst the strongest reasons people choose to attend the office. (CBRE)

But there is another part of the workplace experience that deserves greater attention.

Food and hospitality.

Good food, good coffee, and welcoming hospitality are not simply amenities to place on a property brochure. They influence how people experience a workplace and whether they see value in spending time there.

Food brings people together naturally.

A coffee can become a conversation.

Lunch can become a meeting.

A welcoming hospitality space can create the informal connections that organisations increasingly want from the workplace.

Expectations are increasing

Customers are becoming more demanding.

They expect quality.

They expect convenience.

They expect choice.

They also expect value.

This presents a challenge for workplace food service.

Simply adding more expensive amenities is not the answer. Neither is reducing food and hospitality provision until it becomes an uninspiring operational necessity.

The opportunity is to provide better experiences and better value.

That requires food service providers to understand their customers rather than simply operating a catering facility.

The future of workplace food service must be more responsive to how people actually use buildings.

Different working patterns.

Different attendance levels.

Different customer expectations.

Different moments during the working day.

A traditional approach designed around predictable daily volumes increasingly makes less sense.

This is where PINCH has a vital role

For me, CBRE’s research reinforces much of the thinking behind PINCH.

The workplace is changing.

Customers are changing.

Expectations are increasing.

But budgets remain under pressure.

PINCH believes workplace food and hospitality should be an integral part of the customer experience, not simply another cost centre.

The challenge is to make food and hospitality more relevant, accessible, and responsive to the people using the workplace.

That means understanding the customer.

Understanding how they use the building.

Understanding what they value.

And creating food and hospitality experiences that give people another reason to spend time there.

PINCH is not interested in adding complexity for its own sake.

Nor should the industry assume that every workplace requires another expensive amenity.

The opportunity is to deliver better food, better hospitality and a better customer experience in a way that stands for genuine value.

The opportunity for occupiers and landlords

CBRE deserves credit for highlighting the growing gap between customer expectations and the supply of workplaces capable of meeting them.

The answer will not simply be more space.

It will be better space.

More purposeful space.

And, increasingly, better services within that space.

Food service has a key role to play.

A workplace can have exceptional architecture and impressive technology, but if the everyday customer experience is poor, people will notice.

Conversely, a well operated food and hospitality offer can help transform how people feel about a workplace.

That is why I believe food service needs to be part of the workplace conversation much earlier.

Not as an afterthought once the building has been designed and the budget allocated.

But as part of the thinking around how a workplace attracts people, supports them, and creates a genuinely positive customer experience.

My view

The most successful workplaces of the future will not necessarily be those with the longest list of amenities.

They will be those that understand what their customers value.

For many people, that will include the quality of the food they eat, the coffee they drink and the hospitality they experience during their working day.

CBRE’s research makes one thing clear.

Expectations are rising.

The challenge for workplace operators and food service providers is to meet those expectations without simply increasing cost.

That requires better thinking.

Better service.

Better food.

And a much clearer focus on the customer experience.

That is where I believe PINCH has a genuine opportunity.

The workplace has to earn the journey.

Food and hospitality can help it do exactly that.