ETL heads to Hotel, Restaurant and Catering (HRC) 2025
March 17-19, ExCeL London
The event covers the very latest innovations in the UK hospitality and foodservice industry
The ETL is delighted to announce that it will be heading back to HRC 2025, the annual trade event for the UK hospitality and foodservice industry.
HRC 2025 will take place from 17-19 March at London’s ExCeL.
What’s happening at HRC 2025?
Across three days, the event sees 30,000 visitors from the hospitality and foodservice industry convene, with 1,500 food, drink and hospitality suppliers exhibiting the latest innovations and trends, with activities including seminars and tastings.
Foodservice equipment manufacturers will be at HRC to exhibit their technology, revealing the latest advancements in the industry.
Why HRC is a must-attend event for the ETL team
This is the third year that our team will visit HRC. The event has a lot of relevance to the ETL as it’s a place to meet and interact with manufacturers, purchasers and professionals from the Professional Foodservice Equipment (PFSE) sector. It’s a great chance for us to learn about the future of the hospitality and foodservice industry.
PFSE launched as a technology on the ETL in December 2022, a significant move in making independently verified energy efficient catering equipment accessible for the sector.
When the ETL team attended HRC 2024, Junior Consultant Todd Leddy said, "It was great to see manufacturers demonstrating their energy performance at HRC with the ETL logo visible on several products. We also managed to engage with new refrigeration and PFSE manufacturers who wanted to use the ETL to back up the best-in-class claims they were making in their own advertising."
Andy Threlfall from the Foodservice Equipment Association (FEA) was interviewed on the day by the ETL team about the FEA’s experience with the scheme.
Andy said that “Listing products on the ETL conforms compliance, that they meet certain criteria for efficiency, energy performance and the standards created for the ETL scheme - essentially a bit more rigorous than what people tend to test their products to. So being on the ETL is a way of promoting that your products meet the strictest efficiency targets and specific requirements for the UK market. It provides stability for end users because everybody selling you an item will tell you theirs is the best, but [the ETL] is somewhere that the operator can go to compare equivalent machines.”
With the top 25% most energy efficient independently verified products on the market in their class on the ETL, it’s one of the world’s largest databases of energy efficient technology with around 8,000 products in one place. Backed by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, it’s our aim to spread the word about the ETL and its benefits for the foodservice and hospitality industry.
The ETL’s progress with PFSE in the last year
Since the PFSE category first launched, many advancements have been made. Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen an increase in products in the category, which contains catering equipment including Combination Steam Ovens, Undercounter Dishwashers, Hood-Type Dishwashers, and Convection Ovens.
In total, there are now 57 different PFSE products listed on the ETL, with 89% of these being added since last year’s HRC event. 82% of these products were Combination Steam Ovens from brands including Rational UK, MKN, UNOX UK, Electrolux and Eloma. We look forward to welcoming many more in the year to come.
In March 2024, the scheme approved its first professional dishwashers from Hobart. There are now two Undercounter Dishwashers and two Hood-Type Dishwashers from the brand listed on the ETL.
Tracy Southwell, the Managing Director of Hobart, spoke with us at HRC 2024 when the company listed its first dishwasher. She said, “For us to commit to the ETL listing was a bit of a no brainer in the first place. We're in that position of strength and it made sense for us to go that extra mile and really take that position of strength in terms of committing to the ETL listing ... The ETL, from the position of sustainability, dovetails really nicely into all of our efforts to make sure that we signpost to our customers and to the general trade that Hobart and sustainability go hand in hand. Therefore, the ETL listing simply enhances that mission even further.”
Case studies featured on the site about the catering and hospitality industry include Staycold’s Refrigerated Display Cabinets and Quintex’s HVAC Kitchen Ventilation Control system, which detail how ETL-listed products are helping to save energy in pubs across the UK.
ETL users will also soon benefit from Technical Specifications and BIM Object files being available to download on newly listed products, including in the PFSE category.
If you’re a manufacturer of energy efficient PFSE, then you can apply to list your product on the ETL. Head to the Manufacturers page for more details.
What the ETL team will be up to at HRC
We’re looking forward to meeting and interacting with purchasers and manufacturers in the professional foodservice industry to both inform and find out their insights on the ETL scheme.
We’re keen to interview PFSE professionals who would like to appear on a video for our YouTube channel about their insights from the event. If you’re a manufacturer and would like to take part, please contact us in advance at media@etl.energysecurity.gov.uk. You can check out our video from last year’s event here.
We’ll also be handing out ETL labels for manufacturers to display on their ETL-listed equipment. To arrange delivery of labels before the event, please email us on media@etl.energysecurity.gov.uk.
If you spot us on the day, then please say hello. Let us know if you’d like to arrange a meeting.
How to attend HRC 2025
Want to attend HRC 2025? The event is open for professionals in the food, drink, catering and hospitality sectors. To sign up for a free trade pass, visit the HRC website.
For more information on how the ETL is helping the UK to reach Net Zero and how you can get involved, contact us on info@etl.energysecurity.gov.uk.