You thought that 2022 would finally be the year of return to normal?
After 2 long years of deprivation, false starts and hopes linked to the Covid epidemic, the return of inflation is now in the news and darkens the morale of the French. And this phenomenon, which particularly affects the restaurant sector, could well last for a while longer...
The season had started well. The end of the vaccination pass, the return of the sun, summer temperatures and the reopening of the borders were all signs that the season was going to be a good one.
But at a time when the price of raw materials (oil, coffee, wheat, flour...) and energy (gas, petrol) are increasing, how can you preserve your restaurant's margins?
Discover our advice to get through this difficult period without losing profitability!
1. Increase your menu prices: the ultimate solution to protect your restaurant margin?
This is surely the most logical and easiest solution to implement to preserve your margins in the restaurant business. If the cost of your raw materials increases, your average margin will automatically decrease unless you pass on this increase directly to your menu prices.
Unfortunately, this practice is risky. Whether your clientele is regulars or just passing through, they are all subject, on a personal basis, to the rising cost of living...
Our opinion: this solution, probably not the best, should be taken with a pinch of salt and handled with great care. In the best case, your customers will be understanding, in the worst case, they will go elsewhere. You have to find the right balance in order not to scare anyone away and remain competitive.
Fortunately, other less risky solutions exist.
The proof is below!
2. Adapt your menus according to the season and the price of raw materials
Adapting your menus does not mean increasing your prices.
Here are some ideas for preserving your restaurant's menu margins:
Highlight your high-profit dishes
Get out a paper, a pencil, a calculator and rank your dishes according to the following grid:
- profitable and popular,
- not profitable and popular,
- profitable but not popular,
- not profitable and not popular.
Conclusion: if you haven't already done so, it's time to highlight your profitable and popular dishes and remove your unprofitable and unpopular dishes. It has to appeal to your customers but also to your banker!
For profitable and not popular dishes, it is a question of finding the best way to make them attractive. Presentation on the menu to be reviewed, recommendation at the time of the order, dish of the day?
Find alternatives to the most expensive products
This solution requires a little imagination. Again, it involves carefully studying your menus and replacing the most expensive or least profitable ingredients with more affordable alternatives.
Not only do you save money, but you also get to see a revamped menu with new flavors. Everyone wins!
Create digital menus available with a QR code
With prices constantly fluctuating, it is impossible to update your paper menus regularly. If you had hesitated to keep your menus available via QR code, inherited from Covid, inflation will convince you to keep them permanently.
On the one hand, most customers have become accustomed to this format following the Covid and appreciate it. On the other hand, a dematerialized menu allows you to easily update your menu in a few clicks without having to reprint your menus as soon as the prices increase.
The traditional paper menu is in trouble...
3. Anticipate and stock up
Unless one had a crystal ball or divinatory gifts, it was difficult to predict with certainty the sudden return of inflation.
That said, some restaurant owners have had the foresight to stock certain foods whose prices have since skyrocketed. This is indeed a solution. When you know that inflation is set to last, buying a foodstuff today that may cost 10% more next month is a good way to preserve your restaurant's margin.
Nevertheless, this alternative to price increases poses some problems: what to store, how much to store, where to store, how much cash to devote to this "investment"?
Wouldn't the question to be asked be: how to better manage your stocks?
Fortunately, there are now digital solutions that are easy to use to manage the activity of your restaurant and to follow your stocks on line. Useful for making the right decisions at the right time!
4. Promote short circuits and enhance the circular economy
It is no longer a fashion effect reserved for the bobos!
Our territories are full of local producers whose prices are becoming more and more attractive as the cost of gas increases. Indeed, with the increase in the cost of energy, it becomes more and more expensive to buy food produced far from one's restaurant or imported from abroad.
Your customers will undoubtedly appreciate the freshness of your products at a time when "made in France", organic and local products are in vogue. Favoring the short circuit also means boosting the French economic fabric and reducing your ecological footprint: everyone wins.
5. Build customer loyalty with the right program
With increasingly expensive bills, the risk of seeing your customers desert your restaurant is real.
To avoid the worst, why not rely on a loyalty program for your restaurant?
A loyalty program is a must for :
- reward your regular customers,
- turn your one-time customers into loyal customers,
- increase your business,
- create a community of ambassadors around your restaurant.
And against all odds, creating a loyalty program has become a breeze. 100% online solutions like Innovorder offer turnkey solutions that are easy to set up.
Returning customers mean controlled profitability for sure.
6. Adopt online ordering to attract new customers
Pokés, sushi, kebabs, pizzerias, gourmet restaurants or large fast food chains: all have switched to online ordering and would not go back for anything in the world.
With the rise of home delivery platforms such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo or Just Eat, and Click and Collect, ordering directly from one's smartphone has become part of the French consumer habits.
Being present on one of these platforms means opening your restaurant to a community of thousands of potential customers who do not yet know your brand.
In short, the online ordering generates more visibility, activity and therefore revenue.
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According to theINSEEthe restaurant industry's margin rate is one of the lowest in the French economy. This is why safeguarding the profitability of your restaurant is a daily challenge for the entire profession.
Like the 6 tips proposed in the article, many concrete actions can be easily implemented to increase your margin. With or without inflation.
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You want to optimize the management of your restaurant but you don't know where to start? Would you like to benefit from free expert advice? Contact an Innovorder consultant!
