by Abby Henson | 12 Apr, 2017 | Blog, Press & News
This week, a survey by the Morning Advertiser revealed that a huge 64% of British families visited a pub or restaurant on last month’s Mothers’ Day.
A 2015 study by bighospitality.co.uk reported that three-quarters of families are now eating out more regularly than they were five years ago. With figures like this, it’s easy to see why savvy hospitality operators are keen to exploit the potential for maximising profits that tapping into this market can bring.
Operators in the casual dining sector often lead the way in making families feel valued and welcome, although we speak to many pub managers who are quickly catching on. Strategies like giving out crayons or colouring books on arrival can quickly bring favour with not just the kids, but parents who are likely to appreciate the relaxation and repose that will likely result from having their children entertained.
Small outlays in staff training on best practice for serving families can also lead to big rewards. Simply advising your employees to seat families close to television screens and bathrooms can make a big difference to the atmosphere in your site, encouraging customers, families or otherwise, to linger and spend more cash.
For operators whose goal is happy families, it’s also a great idea to spend some time carefully considering your food offer. Depending on the size and nature of kitchen facilities and trading style, special children’s menus may be the perfect way to broaden your appeal. Alternatively, if a specific style of food is your stock in trade, creating smaller versions of main menu dishes can satisfy parents and children alike. Inventive ways of introducing healthier options to kids’ menus will also earn plaudits from parents. It’s also wise to consider speed of service. Can your children’s options be turned around quick enough to satisfy hungry young stomachs? If not, could you offer extras like breadsticks or other nibbles to keep children happy while they wait for their meal?
However, especially for operators in the pub sector, going all out on embracing families can mean you risk alienating more traditional adult clientele. The Good Pub Guide recently reported “unruly children” as the most likely cause of negative experiences in licensed premises, and with family-led trade inherently centred on weekends and school holidays, the value of customers seeking a traditional adult-focused atmosphere should not be forgotten.
Compromise can be the best solution. Some operators choose to limit children’s access to their sites after certain times, while we speak to many more who designate certain areas, typically bars, as adults only. Strategies like these can allow the big majority of family-driven sales opportunities to be exploited, but still allow a site to retain large elements of a relaxing, adult atmosphere that may be key to optimising drink sales.
Restricting children’s access to certain areas and times is a common strategy
In our food-led pub-restaurants, the open plan layouts lend themselves to an offer that is enjoyed by all. Children can be kept away from the bar and seated at tables with easy access to bathrooms and outside areas, reducing the chance of disturbances. As such, refurbishments are not just a chance to brighten up your site, but also to think hard about how your layout can work for you and maximise the potential of your space.
Ultimately, today’s children are tomorrow’s potential best customers, so keeping them and their families happy can create valuable brand loyalty. With careful consideration, this can be done in a way that will open tomorrow’s doors without shutting windows today, maximising profits both in the short and long term and ensuring a bright future.
by Abby Henson | 12 Apr, 2017 | Blog, Press & News
With Britain basking in spring sunshine this week, it’s easy to believe summer is just around the corner. Here are our top five tips for how to make summer 2017 efficient and profitable.
Restructure the bar
The summer season brings a prime opportunity to restructure your product offer behind the bar to optimise efficiency. We speak to many operators who give disproportionate fridge space to bottled beers, but swapping the grain for grape, especially refreshing whites and roses, can be an easy summer winner. Dedicating extra space to the products you know will sell well will also reduce the need to make trips to the cellar, allowing staff more time to focus on sales and service.
Efficient summer stocking doesn’t end behind the bar. Canny operators will be ensuring their cellars and spirit cabinets are prepared for any eventuality, and with most products having a shelf life well beyond next week’s delivery, it is always better to be overstocked than left short.
Balance the menu
Getting your food offer right is often just as critical to summer season success. Light meals like salads will always sell in warm weather, but to broaden your menu’s appeal should be offset by heartier offerings. Grilled meats, pizzas, and burgers are likely bestsellers whatever the weather. Summer’s customer upsurge will be a blessing for many in our industry, but to maximise potential profits kitchens must be able to cope with demand. Creating a menu around dishes that can be prepared at speed will keep service brisk, chefs smiling, and customers coming back.
One of our pizzas at the George at Backwell – a surefire summer winner
Perfect staffing levels
There is a delicate balance to be struck with summer staffing. Most sites will take on additional bodies to deal with increased customer numbers without sacrificing service, but going too far in the other direction can lead to uncontrolled labour spend or staff disgruntled with reduced hours. Analysing past years’ sales data to accurately predict the staffing levels needed will help you avoid these pitfalls.
Re-recruit seasonal staff
Training new employees takes time and money, so real efficiency savings can be gained by re-hiring seasonal employees. University students are an asset as they will become available just as the busy summer season begins and will be returning to their studies in the autumn when trade tails off. If you are not lucky enough to currently be able to re-hire past employees, recruiting people who are willing to return next year is a move you’ll be glad you made in twelve months’ time.
Get the routine change right early
Running an efficient site through the summer months is a different beast to the rest of the year. Factors like mobile tills, tidying gardens, and sunglasses for staff suddenly become pertinent, and without effective planning can leave you stung. It may only be April, but with the mercury already rising fast it is by no means too soon to start working on the processes that will maximise productivity through the season’s peak. Embedding these habits now and ironing out any issues will allow you to focus on maximising your summer offer when the season starts in earnest.
by Abby Henson | 15 Mar, 2017 | Blog, Press & News
It’s a stretch to say that summer is just around the corner, but the days are getting longer, the weather’s getting warmer, and spring’s first daffodils are here. In the hospitality industry, however, there is rarely time to stop and smell the flowers. Smart operators are already turning their attention to the challenges and opportunities that the season can bring in terms of staffing, site layout, and offer.
Staffing
Summer will bring an upsurge in custom for the vast majority of sites in the industry and therefore a wonderful chance to drive sales. To maximise this opportunity, it can be crucial to get staffing levels right. This will help deliver the quality service that keeps customers coming back all year round, as well as mitigate against the costly missed sales that can come from being understaffed.
Many managers will look to take on new employees to help them through the busy months ahead, but it can be difficult to attract quality staff in the short term. University students can be a great option. Often, they finish exams in May and will not return to their studies before well into September. This gives them time to be properly trained before the summer’s peak in July and August. Happily, at the end of the party when the weather starts to cool and trade starts to slow, they will return to university and release pressure on your wage budget. Employing students also has the likely benefit of the opportunity to re-hire the same people several years running, saving time and money on training.
Students can make ideal summer staff
Now is also a good time to think about the composition of your staff in terms of part and full time team members. Sites where business peaks significantly on weekends will reap the rewards of having primarily part time staff who are happy to work a couple of shifts a week. Locations like city centre pubs that are likely to have steady footfall, especially when the sun is out, may find that having a well-drilled corps of full-time workers will help them optimise both service and sales.
Offer
The seasons drive consumer trends, and customers will expect a very different food and drink offer in June and July than January and February. A challenge for operators is to match the demand for summer dishes without overburdening the kitchen. A radical menu change is rarely a good idea. A simple but effective food offering based around summer classics like salads, barbequed meat, and seafood is a likely winner. Additionally, the warm weather brings a golden opportunity to upsell deserts like ice cream, Eton Mess, and strawberries and cream.
Drinks tastes also change with the weather, and sites can benefit from serving easy-drinking golden ales, more white and rosé wines, and summer cocktails. However, to get the most out of their summer drinks offer, managers must be savvy enough to resist the temptation to stock products that might not sell in bulk. 2017 is tipped to be the year of tequila, and summer partying will bring a spike in sales. But if your business caters to a more traditional clientele, such trends may be best avoided. There’s no point buying in an expensive premium bottle if it’s going to spend the next year on your shelf gathering dust.
Site Layout
This year’s late Easter will herald the start of the summer season in earnest, especially if the weather is kind. The four-day weekend is likely to see beer gardens and outside seating areas given their first serious use, so it’s crucial to have them all set and ready for business. This means grass should be neatly mowed and furniture clean and repaired after any winter damage, as well as laid out in a way that optimises access and maximises the number of outdoor covers. Well-placed outdoor advertising can also be a great way to keep customers informed and drive sales.
Whether big sporting events are a blessing or a curse for your business, with no major football tournament or Olympics, arranging the interior of your site to cater for sports fans is likely to be less of a priority this summer. However, the summer months are second only to Christmas in terms of the demand for high-cover social eating and drinking, so arranging your site to comfortably accommodate large groups is likely to be a shrewd move.
The living may not be easy this summer time, but with effective prior planning across all areas of your business, it can certainly be profitable.
Featured image created by Katemangostar – Freepik.com
by Abby Henson | 15 Mar, 2017 | Blog, Press & News
Mothers’ Day is almost upon us, and will be swiftly followed by Easter, May’s bank holidays, and the busy summer season. Making the most of these opportunities on an annual basis can be essential to the success of many hospitality businesses. Here are our top tips on how to do just that.
Scope out the year in advance
To ensure the best possible preparation for all the calendar’s biggest dates, proper prior planning is key. It’s a great idea to take some time to think ahead to the next twelve months and scope out all the significant events to come. This applies both in terms of days of national importance, such as Mothers’ Day and bank holidays, as well as more localised events. These could be festivals, local sporting occasions, or even big bookings for weddings you may have taken months in advance. Having a firm grasp on what is happening to affect your business and when it is happening is the first step towards driving bumper sales.
Summer bank holidays drive bumper sales
Dwell on the past
Every hospitality business is different, and an event that may cause a huge sales uplift in one may barely register at another. The best way to predict the impact an event may have on your trading, and therefore guide your staffing levels and offer, is to consider historic data. Sales patterns from the same or a similar occasion in previous years are likely to be repeated. S4Labour gives you crucial insight into historic trading, with reporting considering factors like the day of the week and weather to help managers accurately forecast sales.
S4Labour gives you crucial insight into historic trading, with reporting considering factors like the day of the week and weather to help managers accurately forecast sales.
The human factor
People are at the heart of hospitality. To maximise the potential benefits that special events can bring your business, it is important to get the human side right. Good communication between managers and employees, while always healthy, is even more valuable around key events. Publishing rotas well in advance and briefing both front and back of house teams on what’s expected of them will help the smooth running of the big day.
Happy holidays
There is always value in keeping a close eye on holidays in the context of event planning. There is little worse for a manager than finding themselves caught between the need to not be understaffed and an employee asking for time off that they have accrued and have a legal right to take. This is particularly pertinent for businesses running a January to December holiday year with a likely conflict between holiday requests and the busy festive season.
S4Labour allows you to quickly and easily manage your staff’s holiday allowance, accrual, requests, and payments. This saves you time and effort and keeping employees happy and motivated.
Make the occasion special
Though the potential for increased profits around special events is huge, boosted sales are never guaranteed. Consumers have a lot of choice so making your offering as attractive as possible is critical. Spend some time well ahead of the event to define your offer and invest time and energy in marketing it well. Think about practical factors like how many cover turns you can perform, and whether there may be value in rearranging furniture. The prime table arrangement for Valentine’s Night is likely to be very different to a big sporting event’s perfect layout. You can also release pressure on your busy kitchen team through effective planning of special menus. Dishes that will drive sales but are not labour intensive and can be part-prepared ahead of time are ideal.
Featured image by Nensuria – Freepik.com
by Abby Henson | 1 Mar, 2017 | Blog, Press & News
[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.cattonhospitality.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Comprehensive-Guide-to-User-Access-Levels-Customer-Facing-Version-1.pdf” title=”Comprehensive Guide to User Access Levels (Customer Facing Version)”]
by Abby Henson | 28 Feb, 2017 | Blog, Press & News
As the labour management solution of choice for many first rate operators, we are superbly positioned to provide unique insight into the challenges faced by the industry. Our research into the impact of living and minimum wage increases was recently featured in both Propel and The Morning Advertiser.
