Cost-saving solutions any foodservice pro can adopt
Rents, ingredients and staff all have one common denominator for restaurant owners: they are constantly increasing. Restaurants are feeling the pinch, and are more under pressure than ever in London’s competitive landscape.
Here at Collectiv Food we work with restaurants across London to help them build resilience and source directly from our network of farms. Restaurants save by cutting out the middleman and get fresher and better quality produce. Here are a few **replicable** examples of how our customers have improved their bottom line since partnering with us.
Case study 1 — removing the middle man
Crussh, the grab-and-go operator, offers food that is “healthier, tastier, and easier” across 35 outlets in London. Its Operations Director, Nick, is in charge of everything that has to do with the product, from sourcing ingredients and recipe creation to ensuring smooth processes across all Crussh outlets. He manages a shopping cart at £5 million and cost control is top of his key responsibilities.
Nick switched from buying his bulk proteins from a food wholesaler to Collectiv Food when he saw the savings he could make by cutting out the middleman.
The first line he switched over was cooked chicken and now has moved his ham and eggs orders too.
He saves £50,000 on his overall shopping basket, a gain he is very pleased with. “I would not have found that saving opportunity if I had stayed on my previous route to market”, he says. He now plans to increase this saving to £70,000-£100,000 by adding 10 or more product lines to the Collectiv Food sourcing platform.
He even visited the producer farm that supplies his ham and chicken: “Nothing beats knowing where your ingredients come from, seeing where the processing and packaging happen and working with your supplier to achieve the consistency we need”.
Case study 2 — finding your right match
Romain Bourrillon, founder and chef of Cocotte, has brought the healthy rotisserie concept to London. First established in Notting Hill in 2016, it has a clean-yet-hearty food concept that is easily replicable. It has recently opened a Roo Edition kitchen in Battersea and a Hoxton restaurant.
Romain knew from the start that quality and traceability would be central to his concept. He was determined to not take the easy option of buying from a butcher but to source directly from a farm instead. He contacted and sampled 20 to 30 farms but was just not satisfied with the quality he got back.
He also found out that UK chickens are sold at a higher weight than what he was used to back in France, bad news for his menu cost calculations.
He then turned to Collectiv Food as sourcing partner. After screening dozens of potential producers Collectiv Food found the right offer in a French cooperative of poultry farms. They even negotiated a standardised calibration on behalf of Romain, which was key to cost management.
Romain ticked both boxes of quality and cost-cutting. He serves superior quality free-range chicken and saves 10% on costs compared to other free-range options. This saving is directly passed on to the customers — ultimately increasing footfall.
Traceability and direct sourcing have not only brought savings but also made Cocotte’s brand stronger, and, as Romain puts it, only restaurants who have modern and genuine concepts will survive on the high street competition.
Case study 3 — cutting down prep time
Juliet Kennedy is the creative director at Ninety One Living Room, the jazz club inside Truman Brewery on Brick Lane. She is in charge of putting together a rich programme of music and art events and running a monthly pop up bar.
Because her time is stretched on so many tasks, suppliers walking through the door will have a hard time catching her attention in any of her busy days. Still, Collectiv Food cut through the noise thanks to a cost-saving solution that ticked her boxes.
Juliet says: “The best way to make me discover new products is by leaving me samples. Collectiv Food had a great solution for kegged cocktails — I was surprised to taste them as I never thought they could be of such quality.”
Adopting kegged cocktails has had a substantial impact on the bottom line: they sell them with a GP% at 70% which they are happy with, but most importantly, Juliet says, “we are now able to cut our prep time, which is great”. With labour costs targets between 20% to 30%, solutions to help staff get on with their jobs quickly and efficiently are welcome.
Restaurants and other catering businesses are graded as high risk by loan institutions — and every penny counts in the eyes of the investors. Collectiv Food helps restaurants find creative ways to manage costs whilst improving food quality.
Collectiv Food also pays its producers upfront so restaurants can say they are part of a fairer supply chain, whilst they receive an aggregated monthly invoice.
What can Collectiv Food do for you?
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