Equipment and Productivity
Consultant Mark Godward of SRE shares his experienced-based insights and expertise to leverage equipment to drive labor productivity, maximize sales throughput, deliver quality food and improve profitability.
Restaurants Hurting? Not Quite
The numbers are telling us that restaurants are hurting, but I just got back from dropping my daughter off at college in Boston, and we couldn’t get in the door wherever we tried to eat! The industry stats appear to not be telling the whole story. Clearly a lot of concepts are still doing well by offering the perfect blend of wonderful ingredients and flavors at a price that guests gladly p ...... Read More
Comments (2)Operational Considerations for Menu Changes
More thoughts generated from my trip to Buenos Aires. Many Argentinean restaurants have endless menus. They put The Cheesecake Factory to shame. And their kitchens are very, very small consisting mostly of a range, fryer and some pots and pans. These operators can successfully execute menus of this size and scope because they most likely have highly experienced kitchens and waitstaffs, and the two ...... Read More
Comments (3)International Concepts Push Foodservice Culture – For Better or Worse
As a native Argentinean, my family goes back for an extended visit each summer. While I wish I could stay with them for their entire stay, I usually only manage a week or so before the real world demands I get back to the office. This year, a lone Starbucks unit in Buenos Aires was big news. With traditional café bars on every corner selling coffee at a fraction of Starbucks’ price, th ...... Read More
Comments (2)When It Comes to Design: Size Matters
At the NRA show, there was a panel discussion about kitchen design. When asked how big a kitchen should be, Rick Tramonto, the culinary director of Cenitare Restaurants in Chicago, quipped, “as large as possible.” In a subsequent Chain Leader write-up on the panel, Dave Farkas mentioned that the kitchen for Tru, one of the kitchens that Rick designed, is 50 percent of the restaurant ...... Read More
Comments (4)A Bad Economy Is No Excuse To Give Up
I just returned from a conference in New York, where I had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues with restaurant executives, as well as listen to the perspectives of Jim Cramer of MSNBC’s “Mad Money” (who, by the way, has earned his “Madman” moniker). While there is a lot of excitement about the opportunities in Asia and Russia, the general mood among ...... Read More
Comments (9)Are You Sitting Down?
Unfortunately, the slowing economy is the topic of discussion. We are clearly seeing the trend toward remodel and retrofit vs. new build, and a heightened focus on tightening up unit-level economics by re-engineering work processes and better labor deployment. Maybe brands can’t expand right now, but they can still innovate! Operators are busy developing new ways to "change the game" and di ...... Read More
Comments (1)Observations on Russian Foodservice
I recently returned from spending a week in Moscow, as part of work that we are doing with Rosinter, a large multi-unit operator in Russia. Rosinter is collaborating with a multi-national restaurant brand, as well as developing some of their own concepts. The majority of Moscow’s restaurants are small mom-and-pop places, or restaurants that cater to the new super wealthy. However chains are ...... Read More
Comments (1)Improving Foodservice Performance Part III
Improving the performance of foodservice will be critical to maintaining financial performance in the years to come. Foodservice operators from every segment continue to feel the pressures brought about by growing menu price inflation, rising labor costs and other operational factors that affect their ability to deliver a final product to their customers. That’s why today I present the thir ...... Read More
Comments (0)Improving Foodservice Performance Part II
Here’s the second installment of the considerations restaurants and other foodservice establishments should weigh when trying to increase overall operational efficiencies in 2008. Remember, true efficiencies and meaningful results come about as a result of the direct collaboration between operators and their suppliers. With that in mind, here are a few more points to ponder: Are the manager ...... Read More
Comments (0)Improving Foodservice Performance in 2008
At the start of the New Year most of us think about improvements for 2008. On the personal side, many people’s intent is to trim their waistlines. In contrast, many businesses look to expand their bottom lines, so to speak. Given that I am not a health expert, I will steer clear of offering suggestions about how to reduce one’s waistline. What I would like to do, though, is pose a fe ...... Read More
Comments (0)Enhancing Productivity through Front-of-House Applications
Introducing technology in the front of the house is tricky, as we should consider more than cost and efficiency factors. Guest reaction to these changes is a key component in their success or failure. When we change a grill or a fryer in the back of the house, guests are not even aware of the changes. But if you change the methods of ordering, you directly impact the guest’s experience. My ...... Read More
Comments (0)Investing Wisely to Improve Productivity in Lean Economic Times
In releasing its October Restaurant Performance Index, the National Restaurant Association predicts softening restaurant sales in the months ahead. This was due, mostly, to the fact that participating operators do not have particularly positive expectations for the coming period. Despite the glum outlook, though, operators appear to be in the right frame of mind, as evidenced by the fact that 54 p ...... Read More
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