Automation takes centre stage at Sydney hospitality show
Thu, 14th May 2026 (Today)
Food & Hospitality Week 2026 will bring a range of hospitality automation and energy management systems to Sydney, as four trade shows come together under one roof for the first time.
The technology on display reflects mounting pressure on Australia's hospitality sector, where operators are contending with labour shortages, higher energy bills and rising wages. Discussion is shifting beyond food and service towards systems that reduce staffing needs, improve consistency and lower operating costs.
Among the launches, Rolo Robotics will present Maya 3.0, an autonomous kiosk designed to cook made-to-order hot meals from scratch in under four minutes. The system is aimed at high-volume settings such as airports, food courts, universities, hospitals and aged care facilities.
The machine is designed to prepare dishes including stir-fries and snacks without on-site kitchen staff. It sits within a growing area of foodservice automation, as operators test whether machines can handle repetitive cooking tasks in environments that demand speed and predictable output.
Automated coffee
Future Cafe Vending will also show a fully automated café kiosk that uses a robotic arm to grind, brew and cap drinks in under 60 seconds. The unit offers more than 200 drink combinations and is designed to operate without staff.
The café segment has been among the most exposed to recruitment and retention challenges. A machine that can produce coffee without a barista addresses one of the clearest labour pinch points for operators, particularly in locations with steady foot traffic and limited staffing options.
Kitchen systems
Oxtech plans to exhibit its Robochef series, a commercial cooking system that uses 3D electromagnetic heating technology to reach 300°C in 26 seconds. The system automates tasks including stir-frying, braising and boiling.
For multi-site restaurant groups and franchise businesses, consistency across locations remains a central operational issue. Systems that standardise cooking cycles and reduce reliance on individual staff skill are becoming more relevant as chains look for ways to deliver the same product at different sites.
Energy focus
Not all the technology at the event is focused on food preparation. Flow Power will present energy products and services for hospitality businesses looking to manage one of their fastest-rising cost lines.
Its offering includes wholesale electricity plans, live data tools, solar and battery installations, and automated controls. In a sector where commercial kitchens run power-intensive equipment for long hours, energy management is becoming a bigger part of the conversation around profitability and operational resilience.
Food & Hospitality Week Event Director Jono Whyman described the broader aim of the event as bringing different parts of the industry together.
"We're breaking down the silos of the food and beverage world to get chefs, operators, and manufacturers in the same room," Whyman said.
The combined event will feature more than 450 exhibitors and over 80 free education sessions across six stages, alongside live cooking competitions. Organisers are presenting that mix as a way to narrow the gap between technologies developed for hospitality and those adopted in commercial operations.
That matters because new systems often face a long path from demonstration to day-to-day use. Operators may be interested in automation, but they still need to test whether a machine fits their menu, site layout, staffing model and customer expectations before committing capital.
Australia's hospitality industry is valued at about AUD $70 billion, and the pressure to find savings has become more urgent across restaurants, cafés, institutional catering and quick-service outlets. Labour remains the most visible challenge, but technology suppliers are increasingly framing automation and energy control as linked responses to margin pressure.
In that context, the products on show range from front-of-house coffee service to back-of-house cooking and utility management. The common theme is a shift away from variable manual processes towards systems designed to deliver consistent results.
Whether operators adopt such tools at scale will depend on cost, reliability and customer acceptance. For an industry under strain, the technology on display points to a more automated model of hospitality, with robots preparing meals, machines making coffee and software tracking power use in real time.