4 ways restaurant operators are effectively controlling costs
Restaurant operators are facing many of the same challenges in the first part of 2019 as they did in 2018. Rising rents & rates, increase in food prices, changing consumer habits and the uncertainty brought about by Brexit. All these factors are hitting operators bottom line hard.
While you can’t tackle the increase in food prices directly, operators can become savvier about how they control their costs and provide a service that will keep their customers coming back for more. In a recent survey commissioned by Access Hospitality, in conjunction with The Caterer, over half of respondents stated bringing in measures to better control their costs gave them the greatest ROI, and 62% saw improving overall profitability as the biggest priority moving forward in the next 12 months.
We explore the steps restaurant operators can make to attract consumers, protect their profits and cut unnecessary costs to make your business more profitable.
1. Take control of your menus
For an instant impact, you can take a look at your menu and analyse what are your top sellers and which have the best profit margins. Keep on top of the trends and changing consumer habits by identifying what is the highest performing lines and what dishes are not selling and need to be removed from the menu.
This can be time-consuming to work through manually but there are systems at hand such as our Flash Reporting which integrates with your EPoS to analyse dish sales and calculate your menu theoretical margins based on real-time sales! Not only will this calculate your actual margin, but also your future margins based on forecasted revenues. A sure-fire way to achieve your desired gross profit!
2. Tackle food waste
Kitchens up and down the country are wasting as much as they are banking in profits by throwing food straight into the bin. The Guardian reported that in the UK, restaurants and cafes throw away around 900,000 freshly prepared edible meals a day, which means more than 320 million are thrown away each day, which is incomprehensible.
Giving your kitchen the tools to track what is being wasted and how to better control it can see a reduction in waste by as much as 25%. The seamless transfer of data from the Access Procure Wizard waste module directly into the core food and beverage control system provides a 360° kitchen management solution for your chefs.
3. Moving from a manual to a digital purchase to pay system
Manually ordering supplies is not only time consuming but can lead to a string of errors. It doesn’t take much for something to be missed and a crucial ingredient not to be ordered, or an invoice not to be paid. Making the switch from a manual to digital purchase to pay system will make your business more efficient as it will not only reduce the time spent keying information into spreadsheets, shuffling paper invoices around the business and placing orders by telephone or email, but give greater visibility over purchasing and tighter budget control.
4. Right place, right time
One of the largest costs of any organisation is labour. It is crucial to optimise your staff, ensuring you have the right amount of people working at the right time to complete tasks at hand. Finding the balance between having the right number of staff and being overstaffed, while still delivering the customer service that is expected, is a challenge.
To make sure you’re on top of this:
- Look at year by year sales report to identify peak business trends
- Be aware of upcoming events e.g. if Scotland are playing England at Murrayfield and your restaurant is near the stadium be prepared – have enough staff on to cope with demand and maximise profits
- Pay attention to the weather forecast – if it’s going to be hot and sunny you have an outdoor terrace – you’re going to want maximum staff on that day!
Reacting to this analysis enables operators to schedule the right number of staff at the right time; protecting sales, service and reputation. A hospitality staff scheduling solution coupled with labour optimisation and accurately report on your wages against forecasted sales, ensuring you maximise wage cost efficiency.
