» Hints and Tips

Quality of Food

David — Mon, 02 May 2011 07:27:52 +0000

One of the concerns that all enterprises have is the consistency of quality. How many times have you heard stories when people visit a restaurant regularly only to say on a particular evening ‘that meal was not as good as last time’.

On each of these occasions that particular restaurant runs the risk of losing that customer due to the poor quality of a single meal.

In most of those situations the poor quality of that particular meal was due to the fact that it was the Chef’s night off.

This is quite normal, after all the Chef, whether he be the owner or an employee cannot possibly work seven days a week for 52 weeks a year. We all need time off for holidays, sickness, or just to relax.

It is at those times, when the Chef is absent, that many businesses are vulnerable.

But that should not be the case.

If one creates a standard of recipes then this should protect a business against such eventualities.

KitMan makes this very simple. Each recipe details the amount of ingredients required and then lists the cooking methods and how the meal should be presented.

This can be reinforced by incorporating a photograph of how the dish should be served e.g. how the vegetables are served in side dishes, how food should be set on the customer’s plate.

In this way there is no reason why the quality of food should deteriorate when the Chef is away.

Menu Design

David — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 07:27:11 +0000

We have explored previously the purchase price of ingredients and how the cost of each item is merely a minor element of the true cost of each meal.
A more important factor is controlling the amount of waste for any food service. For what is the point of having the cheapest prices of products only to experience poor delivery or quality. More importantly during your normal activities you produce 3 or 4 meals that are no longer required at the end of the service and are wasted.
Regrettably it is inevitable that certain amounts of food will be produced only to find that insufficient number of customers do not attend. The wastage represents the whole cost of all of the ingredients (far in excess of the savings you have achieved for a single item.
Use of the KitMan System can help to keep your food wastage to a minimum; regrettably it is not possible to eradicate this completely.
Within the Menu design module you can produce different menus either A La Carte, Table d’hote, daily menu cycles etc. When these are initially established you can forecast the number of covers you expect to sell. At the end of the service you can record your actual sales of each dish. This will give you a good indication of production requirements for the next sitting based on the number of people expected.
This is valuable information that can mean the difference between profit and loss for each individual food service.

Purchasing

David — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 07:25:54 +0000

In an earlier message we have discussed the need to compare prices from different suppliers and to satisfy yourself that you are purchasing at competitive rates. Equally we have identified that price is not ‘the be all and end all’ of everything and is just one of many factors to consider within your food costs.
In many situations price is a minor consideration.
Within KitMan we can assist in many areas. If you have any concerns with any of your suppliers then we can help.
We do not wish to interfere with your present arrangements, however if you are having difficulties with any supplier then we can assist, as we have a network of suppliers throughout the UK.
This network covers all types of supply and consists of a number of local and regional suppliers that covers each geographical area. Each supplier offers preferential rates to users of KitMan and complies with all health & Safety aspects including traceability of product..
As an added feature for you, we work very closely with all of these suppliers and will ensure that all of their amended prices are updated within your system automatically; of course you have the opportunity to reject these. This ensures that you are working with up to date prices for all situations and that you are not caught unawares by any unexpected events.
This facility is worth your consideration as it could save valuable administration time.

Stocktaking

David — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:25:38 +0000

Whether a business takes stock or not is always a contentious subject. Accountants are always advising that you should take stock on a regular basis, how else can you calculate your profits.
We take a different view, firstly consider what the value of your stock holding is. In most case this is a nominal amount as most fresh produce is used as it is received. Equally how easy is it to monitor any stock movement particularly when you buy items in bulk and then break it down into smaller quantities.
Here, within KitMan, we take a different viewpoint. Certainly it is important to monitor the movement of stock to protect your business. However, most companies old a small amount of stock relative to their sales value which remains fairly static, apart from major functions.
We believe it is more effective to monitor the movement of the top 50 items. In this way you are controlling the movement of your major expenditure easily without expending a great deal of energy.
If you have any concerns with pilferage this will be quickly identified as the reports will highlight any shortages, and after all these are the same items that will be vulnerable.
Comparisons of the gross profit report on a daily basis will have already highlighted you to any concerns, which in turn points in the areas to examine.

Getting Started with the Monitoring of Purchases

Support — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 09:59:17 +0000

In an earlier feature we said that the purchase price of ingredients was low down on the priority of listing of things to do in order to create a successful business. We realise that this opinion may be contentious but is something we believe in from our experience with other customers. These customers were very organised and believed that they ran a professional multi million pound organisation.
Despite this and without changing any of their purchasing arrangements we jointly achieved an improvement of gross profit of 4 percent.
What would this mean for your company? If your annual sales were £100,000 per annum this would mean £4,000 extra profit per annum. If your sales were £200,000 this would represent £8,000 extra profit per annum. Not a trivial amount.
Most organisations think of their sales revenues but do not consider their cost e.g. purchases and salaries.
In KitMan we combine both sales and purchase analysis.
We analyse sales activities and then monitor purchases so that results can be compared against any forecast and comparisons with previous years.
These comparisons will produce results of the current gross profit levels daily and provide an automatic comparisons against the current forecasts. This highlights any deficiencies so that corrective action can be taken immediately advising menu changes etc. At all stages the customer is in control of what changes to make, if any.
For more information on the KitMan Financial Modules

Getting Started with Purchasing

Support — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 09:57:49 +0000

Clearly the cost of purchasing is an important feature of whether a company makes a profit or a loss. However, the cost of purchasing is only a small element of the whole process of calculating profits and the success of a company.
Whilst it is important that one is paying the commercial rate, the purchase price is only a small element of the factors that constitute the profitability of a business. If by aggressive purchase negotiations one is able to reduce the ingredient cost of a dish by 10p or 20p is this “the be all and end all” of everything. What is the point of negotiating the cheapest price if you cannot get delivery of the products when you want them or that only half of the goods are of the required delivery.
We consider that a more major factor of success is quality of product, quality of service, reduction of waste. In fact surveys throughout different industries have put purchase price into 6th position – should we expect that the catering industry is any different; we think not!
We believe that a balanced approach is needed to purchasing to ensure that you receive the goods when you want them and that they are of an acceptable standard.
If you have any concerns about purchasing then please contact us. We have a network of suppliers throughout the UK and Ireland who provide quality products complete with traceability, they are used to delivering to tight delivery schedules and offer competitive prices to users of KitMan.
For more information on the Catering Procurement

Getting Started with Menu Design

Support — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 09:56:19 +0000

We have discussed in earlier features the importance of creating a menu bank and having detailed costs and multiple selling prices for each dish.
From this it is able to consolidate these dishes into a complete menu, whether this be A La Carte, Table d’ Hote, a Function or any other event.
This can be a time consuming process as one has to incorporate dishes and then to include or swap dishes with suitable costs or profits.
There is a specialist Menu Module in KitMan that assists operations to create as many menus as they wish.
For some companies this may be the types of recipes as described above in which case one is able to create different section headings e.g. Starters, Soups, Main Course, Desserts. They then search menus to provide dishes within each sector below a given purchase price.
This then creates a menu detailed into different sections providing an analysis of costs, sales prices, profits.
The uniqueness of this system enables recipes and expected sales volumes to be included so that the menu can be created in an order to maximise both the sales values and profit margins.
For other establishments it maybe a daily menu or an organisation that is working to a menu cycle. In this way it will provide detailed costing and profitability based on an expected production. By having up to date costs it will quickly highlight if costs are exceeding budgets.
For more details check the KitMan menu modules and see worked examples.
For more information on Menu Design