Take-away sales during lockdown 2

Analysis from S4labour shows that just 25% of sites have stayed open after lockdown, with 75% closing during the first week of lockdown. There is little variation between rural and urban sites, nor between geographical regions across the U.K.

Of those sites who have remained open, sales are on average 24% of pre-lockdown for the first week of trading, with food being 27% and drink being 23%, which shows a significant adjustment of the industry to the new environment. A glance at site specific data shows that venues offering pizza and other more typically take-away food are vastly up on other sites.

Alastair Scott, CEO of S4labour and Managing Director of Malvern Inns commented: “I am really impressed with how fast operators have adjusted their business to cope with the new environment, particularly as the rules were changing right up to the last minute.

At Malvern inns we are using this time to build things for the future that we may want to maintain as part of our new long term operations. This includes a takeaway offer; an off-licence and a village shop, as well as getting ahead and preparing for Christmas and even valentines day. But if we break-even during the lockdown we will be over the moon.”

10pm curfew drops sales by 12.9%. Analysis from S4labour shows that sales over Thursday to Sunday when comparing the week prior to the curfew with last week show a 10.9% decrease in food sales and a 14.7% decrease in drinks sales.

The impact of the latest challenge is another stark reminder of the effect that Coronavirus is having on our industry. EOTHO is becoming a distant memory and the requirement to think of news ways to drive businesses forward is evermore important. Sam Wignell, Chief Customer Officer at S4labour, commented “I have never spoken to so many customers who are having to look at new innovations to drive sales and keep their businesses compliant. It will be interesting to see how consumer behaviours change as we become accustomed to the new regulations.”

Click here https://lnkd.in/eqseJ2V to view more industry analysis from S4labour

This data only includes sites that were open for August.

As published in BII 

New normal, same old same old

2020 has brought a wave of challenges, some expected (April’s minimum wage increase), others less so; who could have foreseen the COVID-19 pandemic?

This unpredictability has made controlling our labour spend equally challenging.

Whilst the global context of a pandemic means we are adjusting to a new normal, much of what we should have been implementing as best practice for controlling labour cost remains the same.

Although initiatives like “Eat Out To Help Out” and Rishi’s VAT cut have all helped to stimulate public appetite for returning to hospitality venues post-lockdown, the benefit has been offset to a certain extent as operators labour costs have increased, particularly on training on new hygiene measures and enhanced cleaning processes.

Plan, plan, plan

The discipline of planning your rota is more important than ever. The US and Europe traditionally have had a stronger weekday dining out culture, in contrast to the UK, whose culture is more akin to a weekend binge. EOTHO has proved that consumers are open to adapting their behaviour and are happy, and for now able, to afford to dine out during the week. As operators we too have had to adapt but it is also opening up a wider opportunity. It is much easier to manage a business that doesn’t have such highly defined peaks and troughs throughout the week – as long as you plan.

The business can work much more efficiently as the kitchen is not being slammed with high demand at weekends. Similarly, stock rotation is quicker and there is less waste. Food is also fresher and therefore food quality improved, generating a knock-on effect of happier repeat-business customers.

Brief the shift

Looking ahead, when the furlough scheme comes to an end in October, disposable incomes are likely to shrink as the unemployment rate rises and dining out becomes more of a luxury. There may be less opportunity to upsell your desserts, your coffees and the like. Ensuring you deliver a clear shift briefing at the start of every shift means you can maximise those upsell opportunities now. Also make sure all team members have slack tasks allocated to ensure those extra cleaning tasks are covered off. Manage the workload on every shift effectively across your team so that everyone is stressed or slack equally and are still motivated to provide great service.

If these new consumer habits become engrained the “new normal” of regular weekday dining might even mean that January and February don’t have to be the dry spells of old.

Tom Marshall is a former Brakspear GM and M&B lead general manager. He is our in house productivty guru with over 12 years expereince managing high profile venues.

Last month we spoke to Brian Hannon from Super 8 restaurants about how he transformed an outdoor space into Brat, in just a few weeks…

Eat out to help out sees sales increase by 70.9% over the first three days of the week. Sales numbers taken from S4labour have shown that the Eat Out to Help Out scheme has proved hugely successful and a welcome boost to the industry. Food sales have more than doubled with a 114.3% increase, with drink, understandably, not as high at 29.8%. Richard Hartley, Chief Product Officer, commented “It’s been a great initiative at a crucial time for the industry and we hope that this will give consumers the vital confidence we need them to have to return enjoy the great hospitality our customers provide. We have seen confidence gradually increasing since the reopening of the industry at the start of July, however this level of support is the catalyst consumers needed on the journey back to normality.”