Driving Kitchen Efficiency Further with Multiskilled Managers
A few weeks ago, I visited the Prince Regent in Marylebone, and the experience sparked a fresh focus on kitchen efficiency. I began chatting to the manager, who was perfectly suited to the pub, being a superbly energetic...
Grosvenor Pubs & Inns – Case Study
Case Study - Operational Excellence Grosvenor Pubs & Inns Grosvenor Pubs Overview In 2024, we partnered with Grosvenor Pubs and Inns, rolling out the S4labour system and Operational Excellence Programme across the...
Hospitality Sales in Decline in March, Wet Led Sites Slump
Data from S4labour has revealed that March saw an overall decrease in sales of 0.7% when compared to the same month last year. Sales show contrasting trends, with dry-led sites up by 2.1% and wet-led sites down 6.1%...
Small habits, big impact
Last year, I wrote an article on a few of the habits I wanted to embed in our two village Gastro pubs. I believe my focus at the time was on trying to implement three specific practices: hellos and goodbyes, never using the...
Top-down labour management and training
As we all know, hospitality is a people business and people have emotions, views and habits which they may be resistant to changing. This means decision-making can be an emotive subject, and labour costs and targets are...
Survey Reveals Half of Operators Do Not know Their Post-April Costs
As the National Living Wage hike looms on the horizon, a recent survey has unveiled that half of operators are not adequately prepared for the changes. The survey, conducted by labour management experts, S4labour, reveals...
February Sales Flatline Year-on-Year
The hospitality industry experienced relatively flat sales in February compared to the same month last year, with a modest increase of 0.3%, the latest sales data form S4labour reveals. London saw sales increasing by a...
Getting Ready for Labour Cost Increases in April
April’s wage increases will soon hit in full force, leaving operators in need of smarter operational strategies to offset costs and maintain profitability. It will be no easy feat, with labour costs expected to increase by...
The Benefits of Time and Attendance Systems in the UK Hospitality Sector
As one of the largest employers in the UK, managing labour effectively is no easy feat for the hospitality industry. Accurate time and attendance tracking is hugely important to reduce fraud, ensure fair pay and...
Hospitality Sales See Modest Growth in January
The latest data from S4labour shows a slight increase in overall sales for January, with a year-on-year growth of 1.9%. Sales in London experienced a significant rise, jumping by 8.6%, while non-London regions saw a...
Kitchen Efficiency – The key to better run restaurant kitchens
We’ve certainly had a tough journey in kitchens over the past five years. During lockdown, many of our chefs left the industry, with a significant number of them becoming delivery drivers. I even ended up in a taxi once,...
Setting off in January
I suspect we are entering January 2025 with a slightly different mindset than usual. The cost pressures we’re facing in April mean we need an approach that differs from the norm. We need to be braver, more determined and...
December sales remain level with last year, with only 0.1% increase, according to the latest data from S4labour.
Overall, like-for-like sales data show minimal difference when compared to the same month in 2023. In London, sales were up 5.5%, whereas areas outside of the capital saw a drop of 1.4%. Food-focused businesses fared...
Kitchen Planning to Increase Restaurant Productivity
We have recently had cause to plan a complete re-lay of one of our kitchens. For those who are interested, it all comes down to the extraction flow rates. We have some of the most crucial equipment, like the chargrill,...
Hospitality sales up 8.5% in November.
Inflation beating like-for-like sales growth for hospitality industry, but profit under pressure. The latest data from S4labour reveals that sales were up 8.5% in November 2024, compared to the same month last year. London...
October like-for-like sales show modest growth, driven by strong performance in London
Hospitality sales were up 1.7% in October compared to the same month last year, the latest report from S4labour reveals. In London, like-for-like sales rose by 7.4%. This growth was largely driven by a 12.6% year-on-year...
The True Cost of Stress in Hospitality
One of my team members recently asked for an article I wrote a few years ago on labour and sales growth. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find it, which means it’s time for a new—and hopefully better—version about the true...
9 Habits for Successful Hospitality Teams
I always believed it took just four weeks to change a habit, but it turns out I was wrong. A few weeks ago, we had a training session in our office on the "lies we tell ourselves”, otherwise known as personal bias, led by...
How to make hospitality teams more productive
Starting teams strong and ensuring they stay engaged is key to delivering the perfect shift. Productivity is boosted, team communication is improved, and most importantly, customers get a top-notch service day in, day out....
The Ops Manager Labour Process
One of the most frequent questions I get asked is, if you are an ops manager, how do you organise yourself to deliver on labour in the most effective way, and in the least amount of time? The flippant answer is that it...
Mastering September for Post-Summer Success
For many of us who benefit from increased trade through the summer months, the beginning of September is a tough time. The kids go back to school, the summer holidays are over, and trade takes a dip. I have been reading...
Coping
I’ve been thinking about the word ‘coping’ recently. It is a word I dislike because it is used far too often, without thinking about its actual implications. Whenever I have watched service in my own restaurants at times...
The Challenge of Youth
A few rather dangerous things seem to be coming together at the moment. Not long ago, I wrote about the challenges faced by the younger generation. As a result of Covid, educational attainment has fallen behind across the...
iPad Tills
We have recently introduced iPad tills into our pubs at long last. Many of you are probably, and rightly, laughing because you did this ages ago. In fact, I have many unhappy memories of trialling mobile tills fifteen years...
Dinner for five
I recently had the most marvellous dinner debate with a few senior restaurant owners. There were five of us at the table, which allowed for a single, engaging conversation that covered a vast array of topics. We started...
Kitchens and tech
In my view, the future of hospitality hinges on how we evolve our kitchens. As ready meals get better, and delivery from dark kitchens improves, we need to make sure the food from our kitchen team is up to scratch. For...
How have the Euros impacted June’s sales?
Like for like sales were pushed up 3.3% in June, the latest sales data from S4labour reveals. The data showed an upswing of 6% year-on-year in London, whilst sites outside the capital were up 2.7%, marking a minimal...
Set it and forget it: How template rotas make labour management effortless
One of the most frustrating elements of management in hospitality is the drift in labour cost. After a huge amount of effort working with the team to get to the right cost for a week, including NI and holiday, holding to...
Gen Z and Hospitality: A call to action for leaders
A recent topic that seems to come up often when I talk to industry colleagues is the appalling damage covid has done to Gen Z. For a while there has been much talk of the academic damage done, but less energy is focused on...
Boosting your people management game with S4labour and Talent Funnel
Effective people management is key to keeping operations running smoothly and staff delivering a service that matches demand and keeps customers coming back. From hiring to staying on top of labour laws and regulations,...
May sees LFL sales up 6.6%
The latest data from S4labour reveals an increase in like-for-like hospitality sales in May, with an overall rise of 6.6% compared to the same month last year. In London, sales were up 9.7% year-on-year and non-London...
Engagement and fairness: improving retention in hospitality
When we talk about labour management, our minds tend to run straight to the cost of labour in terms of weekly P&L. With the cost of staff wages increasing, we are right to be thinking about how much we are spending each...
RFI documents- Help or Hindrance?
As a business, we often have the onus put on us to fill in an RFI document for our software. For those of you lucky enough never to have encountered this task, it is a document built by a company to ensure they get the...
How single sites can be their best
As I journey around the industry, I am fascinated by who is successful and who is not. In particular, I love to see the success that single sites can have. My sister and her husband run a very successful single site near...
Bestway Retail partners with S4labour
Leading rota, people and payroll supplier, S4labour has announced its partnership with Bestway Retail Limited. S4labour are now the preferred supplier to Bestway, which is comprised of over 3000 stores across the U.K....
April sales fall 12.9% year-on-year
Like-for-like sales were down 12.9% in April compared to the same month last year, the latest data from S4labour reveals. Outside of London, sites saw a drop of 15.9%, whilst the capital saw a very slight uplift of 0.7%...
Labour Training
I read an article in Propel recently on the lack of training in the hospitality sector. Research from the Economics Foundation suggests that spending on training has reduced by 35%, and that this is leading to a reduction...
Plus One Management
I love doing consultancy work. I find that the debate with other people really forces me to think, analyse and invent. And occasionally, it sparks a moment that I need to write down. Last week was one of those. ...
The Beautiful Pubs Collective
Case Study The Beautiful Pubs Collective Beautiful Pubs Overview The Beautiful Pubs Collective partnered with S4labour towards the end of 2023. The Leicester-based business operates three sites: Knight & Garter, The...
Mother’s Day
Over the last ten years, we have been trying to get Mother’s Day right, and I am still not sure we have. In terms of covers, Mother’s Day is our biggest day of the year. At our busiest pub, we had 753 booked this year....
Lowest common denominator management
In our pub business we have recently been recruiting for a Deputy General Manager. During our interviewing, it has been fascinating to learn why so many staff want to leave the largest companies in the sector and come and...
March’s extra weekend helps boost hospitality sales
The latest sales data from S4labour has revealed that hospitality sales were up 11.6% overall in March, compared to the same month last year. Outside of London, sales saw an increase of 13.4% year-on-year, ahead of the...
Gardner garages
Gardner Garages joined S4labour almost a year ago. The forecourt business own and operate 6 petrol stations (Texaco and BP fuel) and one town centre convenience store, all with Londis and Budgens fascia.
Labour management excellence
As a bit of a labour management nut, I often find myself frustrated by the people-approach of many operators across our industry, bemoaning the fact that we are amateurs when we should be professionals. I worry that the...
February brings 3.5% uplift to sales
The latest sales data from S4labour has revealed that hospitality sales were up 3.5% overall in February, compared to the same month last year. This uplift was driven by sales in London, which saw an increase of 8.5%...
ACS Survey reports on retailers’ holiday management confidence
In November last year, the results of the national ACS were announced, revealing that 71.5% of retailers reported that they feel “very confident” when it comes to managing their employees’ holiday. The survey, comprised...
Overstaffing is the biggest enemy
There is a myth in our industry that being understaffed is the biggest challenge to sales growth, and that is the missed opportunity. But the truth is that, while we all want to have the right number of staff, the bigger...
Importance of navigating cost management in the retail Industry
In April, the NLW (National Living Wage) will increase by 9.8% with an actual increase of around 11.5% to retailer’s annual labour spend when the increases to younger worker’s pay are taken into account. Without effective...
What is the right differential for minimum wage between ages?
The planned increase to minimum wage has made a substantial change to the differentials between young people. From April next year, over 21s will see a minimum wage of £11.44, whilst under-18s will receive £6.40. There is...
Like-for-Like Hospitality sales experience decline in January
Data from S4labour has revealed that year-on-year sales were down 2.6% in January across the hospitality sector, compared to the same month last year. Sales saw a decline of 1.3% in London and a slightly bigger drop of...