Raw material costs for the restaurant
To have total control over all raw material costs improves the restaurant's economy.
Raw material costs are an important item in the budget for a restaurant. Finding the best suppliers with good prices is worth spending time on. But once it is done, there may be a whole range of situations that affect the cost of raw materials. Some you can not influence, that the general price. Weather and wind also affect the cost of raw materials, t ex. frost at the wrong time doing that harvests will be smaller and the prices go up. However, you can control the internal factors that affect your raw material costs.
Internal factors
Internal factors that affect the cost of raw material is, for example,. how to deal with food - how much is to be, how much is thrown away? The storage also affects the sustainability. A sad thing that may also affect commodity costs negatively, is if there is theft of food in the staff circuit. If profit margins fall, it can also be a sign that the cost of raw materials need to be reviewed. Below are eight possible reasons why the cost of raw materials may increase, and also suggestions for how to handle these worries.
1. Unbalanced menu: To keep a reasonable level of profit on your menu, you need to balance the budget and expensive ingredients together. Pasta and potatoes involves low raw material costs, seafood and fine cuts of beef and other meat types, pulls up commodity costs. Raw material costs should be at about 30-35 percent of the menu price. Do you pay 100 crowns for anything, you should take out some 350 crowns on the menu. The price of the final law will not only cover your raw material costs, You must also pay the person who prepares the food, on serving the customer, as the disks and the cleaning up. All, from payroll to the electric bill, to be covered by it, you get into the dishes on the menu and, as said, it should be enough for the profit margin also.
2. Thefts: This is not fun to talk about, but you should be aware that employees can steal from you. One way to try to curb this, is to establish a system where the raw materials can be tracked within your business, t ex. manual tallying with signature, from the time they are delivered until they are sold as finished dishes to a guest. Sure, it sounds complicated, but it may be a good way to discourage staff from picking to the commodities or stop itself expensive groceries. An eye on raw material costs also means that also true of the dining room and the kitchen counts. Do you have a POS system with Point of Sale (s k. POS-system) this is easy.
3. No proper eye on portion sizes: One reason that franchise restaurants often go well is that they have an eye on portion sizes. The same portion sizes applies regardless of where the restaurant is located. Knowing in advance what they are getting, enjoyed by guests. Keeping the same size for each serving, continuously, is a way to keep track of raw material costs and ensure profit margin. Even for a small, freestanding restaurant is serving size is an important factor in raw material costs. Use the same tool serving consistently, giving the same size, and use gram scales, preferably digital with the right setting for each commodity programmed, to always serve the same serving size.
4. Waste and food waste: Avoid food waste, both because of ignorance and overflowed laziness. To use as much of the raw material as possible can increase profits and minimum entry of raw material costs. For example, use. trimmings from nut- fläskfliéer and as an ingredient in skewers a la saté, and sell as a special entrance. Cook a delicious broth of chicken bones and vegetable scraps, instead of throwing them away. A good cook knows just how to use all parts of the ingredients, into the smallest stem, and thus have minimal food spillage.
5. Buy food for own household: As a restaurant owner you may be tempted to skip the purchases in regular grocery stores for your private use. It is so easy to use food from the restaurant kitchen, and cheaper, it is also. But remember - if you take home a bag of chicken breast instead of using them in the restaurant, it actually affects the account of raw material costs and hence profits, especially if you do it regularly. If you want to take advantage of discounted large purchases to restaurant, Always note that you are using private, and repay it to your business.
6. Poorly trained staff: If you have a cook who burns the food, or destroying materials otherwise, it will affect your performance in the long term. A drop here and there, it can not be seen directly but affects negatively in the form of increased raw material costs in the long run. The same applies if an employee does not take full responsibility for the correct portion size. Similarly, if staff are careless “first-in, first out”-principle in terms of both fresh- and pantry goods - the furthest out on a shelf must not be forgotten. Many drops make a notoriously large on - read higher raw material costs.
7. Poor track of accounts: Tuning is always incoming invoices for costs of raw materials from the supplier / s, so you pay for what you have got home and did not happen to be dubbelfakturerad, or to pay for something that was not ordered or not supplied by the ordered. Keep track of delivery notes which come with the goods, put them in a binder for each supplier, so you always know where they are. Always keep invoices and receipts for payments so you know you have your on dry land if it would be any conflict with a supplier. If you do not do this work, you must find a reliable employees who can help you.
8. Using only a supplier: Do not be afraid to select different providers. To build good relationships with several distributors, may affect the cost of raw materials positively. Even if you prefer a particular supplier, it does not hurt to find out what others charge and compare prices. Negotiate with your provider ago. If you do not ask, you get either no response…
Restauranggexperten Magnus Hellström