Restaurants
The restaurant profitability equation
July 12, 2024
How to net profits despite rising food and labor costs
Chefs Lynn Hay and John Csukor of Entegra talked with Nation’s Restaurant News during the 2024 National Restaurant Association (NRA) Show about how foodservice operators can boost profitability through a blend of culinary creativity, cost controls and labor efficiencies.
Watch their NRA interview for their ideas on what’s working for successful restaurants.
Where should you start? Entegra’s chefs recommend creating a strong “package” of offerings that hit on the areas that consumers are looking for in a dining experience these days.
Additionally, Chefs Lynn and John suggest sticking to these fundamentals:
Controlling food costs is a strategy that needs to be finetuned over time. Does your organization explore product substitutions, SKU rationalization and limited-time-offers (LTOs) to cut costs?
If you don’t have the expertise on your team or access to comparable products, a Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) can help you quickly evaluate and select from hundreds of similar products within a category and help you select based on the combination of cost and quality.
Reining in labor costs can be implemented from the dining room to the kitchen. You can add robotic solutions to deliver drinks and carry heavy trays to your kitchen. And, in food prep, labor saving innovations can save the day, including high-speed ovens that can cut cooking time, occupy less space in your kitchen and deliver the quality you’re used to from conventional ovens. Entegra chefs also work with operators to implement speed-scratch methods in their recipe development. Explore Entegra Culinary Consulting.
Engineering your menu to maximize profitability through pricing, item placement, and cost analysis. Get Entegra’s guide to menu engineering to help you plan your way to higher profits from your foodservice.
Benefiting from technology lets your business operate more... businesslike. With tech including online ordering platforms, culinary operating systems and data and analytics tools, your business will add muscle to your kitchen and procurement teams, streamline your operations and improve decision-making.
Client spotlight: Salt + Smoke
When Tom Schmidt, Co-owner of the growing St. Louis, Mo., restaurant chain Salt + Smoke found himself needing better pricing and wider access to food and supplies, he turned to the world’s largest food group purchasing organization, Entegra.
Cooking up culinary creations and cost savings is Entegra’s specialty. The chefs in Entegra Culinary Consulting can help to improve your menu, streamline SKUs, choose the right products and get your operations aligned to revenue needs.
Contact us to start your journey to increased profitability.
Learn more with resources from Entegra:
July 12, 2024