When running a business, restaurants will forecast the coming years’
sales and costs. After that, they will do adjustments in front of the house and
back of the house accordingly. We will talk about how restaurant businesses do
their forecasting and food cost control process.
Forecasting
Restaurants will use system to do the forecasting based on their
past sales costs, and also some ratios (e.g. number of turns and average guest
check). The forecast will help projecting how much profits they will earn in
the coming years, and how much costs they will incur in the coming years. After
that, they can start designing a plan for the coming years to earn more. The calculation
of ‘number of turns’ and ‘average guest check’ will be shown as below:
Number of Turns:
Average Guest Check:
**Cover = a guest
Food
Cost Control Process
After doing the forecast, restaurants will run for a period of time.
Then controlling begins. They will first compare the forecasted sales and costs
with the actual sales and costs, calculating the difference between them. After
that, restaurants will make adjustments in the aspects that have difference
between the forecasted value and actual value, especially the one with the most
difference. The followings are some examples of how to control in the food
aspect.
Brand Management:
Restaurants can replace expensive brands’ ingredients such as
ketchup and vinegar to cheaper brands’ when preparing and making the dishes in
the back of the house. Besides, the sauces that serve in the front of the house
will remain the same, using the expensive brands’. In this way, costs can be
saved. It’s because customers will not know which brands’ products are used to
make the food. Customers may request more sauces, like ketchup. So, these
sauces that are served in the front of the house need to remain using the
expensive brands’. In this way, costs in purchasing sauces can be saved.
Menu and Size of Dishes Re-engineering:
In order to save cost, restaurants can cancel dishes that are the
least popular and generate the least profits. Also, the size of the dishes can
be smaller. There are some cases that the portion of the dishes is too large
that customers can’t even finish it all. So, restaurants can make a smaller
portion of dishes. In this way, costs can be saved. Not just the purchasing
costs, but also other costs like gas and wastage.
Shopping Around:
In order to save most of the costs in a restaurant, we can start
with the purchasing part. Restaurants can negotiation with the current suppliers
to give them a cheaper price. Otherwise, they can switch to other cheaper
suppliers to save the cost. According to National Restaurant Association, it
stated that many operators are searching for better prices. Nearly nine out of
10 fine-dining operators shopped around for other suppliers in 2014, as did a
majority of casual and family-dining operators. So, this is one of the ways to
save most of the costs in a restaurant business.
Evaluation:
In lectures, we briefly knew that restaurants businesses need to do forecasting and food control process. After researching on related issue, I found that food control process consist of many things, which all are related to modifying to minimize the costs and building a better reputation. Although those measures in the process are similar, it is difficult to think of a good way to do control. In my opinion, doing control process also involve marketing thing. So, content of those corrective measures is difficult to think of as you may want to add gimmick into it.
Evaluation:
In lectures, we briefly knew that restaurants businesses need to do forecasting and food control process. After researching on related issue, I found that food control process consist of many things, which all are related to modifying to minimize the costs and building a better reputation. Although those measures in the process are similar, it is difficult to think of a good way to do control. In my opinion, doing control process also involve marketing thing. So, content of those corrective measures is difficult to think of as you may want to add gimmick into it.
Sources:
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