Every time food spoils in your fridge or too large a portion of a side dish is prepped, you're not just throwing away products – you're throwing away potential profit.
The average restaurant sees a significant chunk of its revenue disappear due to food waste. In fact, a staggering 21% of that waste comes directly from spoilage, while another 45% results from preparation inefficiencies, as reported by WRAP. These are areas where smart inventory management can make a massive difference.
It's something we hear a lot at Access as a familiar challenge for many businesses in the hospitality industry. With the right tools and strategies, restaurants can streamline their inventory, gain control over waste, and unlock hidden profits, which is what we will focus on in this article.
- Topic:
- Hospitality
The dream of a bustling restaurant that fuels many aspiring restaurateurs usually consists of happy customers, delicious food, and a thriving business. Yet, focusing solely on the big picture can lead to overlooking essential components, such as a well-designed menu, efficient inventory systems, staff training, and a well-managed kitchen.
Restaurant kitchens are notoriously demanding, and a recent study found that 25% of UK chefs cite poor kitchen management as a major contributor to burnout and high turnover. Since the industry is already plagued with staff shortages, operators must focus on keeping and hiring skilled kitchen managers to ensure the well-being of their staff and the success of their business.
At Access, we've spent more than thirty years helping hospitality businesses improve their workflows and achieve their full potential and we understand that effective management is a core pillar of success.
Kitchen management is a skill that can be learned and mastered, and in this article, we'll dive into the essential strategies to optimise your kitchen and achieve your business goals.
- Topic:
- Hospitality
If you spend much time reading news reports and opinion pieces on how the cost of living is impacting hospitality, you might be growing tired of seeing the word ‘resilience’.
After several challenging years, hospitality owners and operators are looking for signs that the time is coming when they aren’t just stubbornly surviving. But is recovery and growth possible in a world where the cost of living continues to rise, customers are more conscious than ever about how they spend their money, and retaining quality staff is becoming increasingly challenging?
In this article, we’ll tell you why we’re confident that the answer to that question is ‘yes’, and we’ll share practical guidance on the measures you can take to protect your hospitality brand from the challenges imposed by the rising cost of living in 2024.
- Topic:
- Hospitality
Staff onboarding can be a complex process, and in hospitality, it presents an unique set of challenges with many legislative areas that need specific areas of training – such as serving alcohol, allergens, and food safety as well as the majority of hospitality workers being in deskless roles. Add to that the fact that staff turnover in the hospitality industry stands at double the UK average (30%), and it’s clear to see why proper onboarding is something that hospitality operators should focus on.
Here at Access, we’re familiar with the onboarding process. Through our accessible LMS we are delivering hospitality training courses to thousands of new hospitality employees daily, and we have helped companies such as Namco BNAE to develop and implement custom induction programmes to help get their new starters onboarded. It’s fair to say that we’ve picked up a few tips and tricks along the way.
So, why is an effective and consistent staff onboarding process critical for hospitality businesses, and what happens when you don’t have one in place? In this article, we’ll examine the importance of getting it right, share our top tips, and look at some of the common mistakes to avoid.
- Topic:
- Hospitality
Running a restaurant business in 2024 isn’t easy – rising costs of food and energy, staff shortages, supply chain issues, the cost-of-living driving customers to tighten their belts, and unpredictable economic factors throw curveballs at businesses of all sizes. To thrive in this environment, savvy marketing is no longer a luxury, but a survival tactic. Now, more than ever, your restaurant marketing strategy is the key to attracting customers and staying afloat.
But where do busy restaurateurs start? In a competitive market, how do restaurants make themselves stand out from the crowd? How do new restaurants get noticed? And how do the little guys level the playing field when competing against the big brands?
Here at Access, we frequently talk to our customers who are passionate about their restaurants but unsure how to navigate the complexities of marketing. That's why we've compiled the most effective and up-to-date restaurant marketing strategies adaptable to businesses of all sizes and budgets. At the end of this article, you'll be well-equipped with the knowledge and tools to create a restaurant marketing plan that drives results.
But first things first, let’s look at the basics and understand why marketing is so important to your restaurant.
- Topic:
- Hospitality
No-shows are the bane of every pub and restaurant owner's life, accounting for anywhere between 5% and 20% of bookings. At best, no-shows can mean a re-organisation of tables right in the middle of a busy service. And at worst, they can cause a serious dent in a business's bottom line.
- Topic:
- Hospitality
Do you know the best-performing items on your menus right now? If you said no – that’s where menu engineering could help you.
Here at Access, we hear about the challenges operators are facing when it comes to creating a robust sales mix that can withstand the fluctuations in the market when it comes to rising food and beverage costs and matching customer demand. The answer? It’s likely sitting in your sales data.
- Topic:
- Hospitality
Pull out all the stops and increase bookings to your venue with our Mother’s Day marketing ideas for restaurant operators.
Mother’s Day falls on the 10th of March in 2024, so there’s still plenty of time to let your customers know what you have planned at your venue. Since over a third of Brits participate in food-related activities on Mother’s Day, the holiday represents a huge opportunity to boost revenue.
- Topic:
- Hospitality
Maximise revenue this Valentine’s Day by optimising your booking process, creating more space, and delivering a silky-smooth customer experience.
Valentine’s Day offers a lucrative opportunity for restaurant and bar operators who plan ahead. As dining remains one of the top V-day activities, restaurant and bar operators have an opportunity to generate a boost in bookings around the holiday if they know who, how and when to target their audience in the run up.
So, what can operators do to get a slice of the Valentine’s pie this year? As hospitality software providers, the Access team have dug through the data to deliver our top tips to make this Valentine’s Day a profitable one.
- Topic:
- Hospitality
If you’re feeling frustrated by no-shows and last minute cancellations, you’re not alone. This is an issue that has always been a problem in hospitality, but with rising costs in all areas squeezing profits ever tighter, lost revenue due to casual reservations can have a devastating effect on your business.
If this is something you are having trouble with, it may be time to consider implementing a restaurant deposit policy.
- Topic:
- Hospitality
