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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 capital which saw a marginal uplift of 4.1%.
Across the country, sales in dry-led sites were up 12.4% and 10.2% in wet-led businesses.
Chief Growth Officer at S4labour, Richard Hartley, added: “This year, March was a five-weekend month and Easter was earlier, so March saw the trading of Good Friday and the rest of Easter weekend. As a result of the bank holiday and additional weekend, an increase was to be expected, albeit it is still a pleasant surprise to see them up by over 11%. The increase here, and in February (3.5%), are indicators of a promising start to 2024.”
Gardner garages
Case Study
How Gardner Garages manage labour cost using S4labour
Company Name: Gardner Garages
Business Type: Forecourt and convenience
Date: March 2024
About Gardner Garages
“The Gardner family have been fuelling the Gloucestershire motorist for over 50 years.”
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.
Emma the Managing Director of Gardner Garages Limited has ran the business for over 25 years. Emma oversees the operations of the company, ensuring that the businesses run efficiently and cost effectively while ensuring they get the most sales and profit from their sites as they can.
“We wanted something that made running the business proactive rather than reactive and can address any concerns with labour costs with Managers before they become an issue. Since we have started using S4labour we have far more day-to-day control over labour costs as we can see all seven sites on one dashboard and act accordingly.”
Escaping Spreadsheet Limitations
One of the major problems managers faced prior to using S4labour was that everything was done manually- rotas were produced on excel worksheets, printed out and displayed on the staff noticeboards. Payroll was manually processed using Sage, and was then imported into excel, which was then emailed across on payroll processing day. This made the process time consuming and often resulted in input errors.
Gardner Garages found communicating shifts confusing as they are subject to change, making it difficult to communicate over texts messages. Doing things manually and on spread sheets made it difficult to get real visibility over how much they were spending on labour. Since using S4labour the business can see fully costed rotas which includes holiday pay, NI etc and the system is the one version of the truth everyone can trust.
Empowering Engagement and Efficiency
With the introduction of S4labour, the team are more engaged with work as they can see their shifts on their phones at any time, there are no grey areas about start and finish times because time & attendance are automated. Employees can manage and requests on their phones when it is convenient, rather than during a shift. This makes tracking their actual hours worked a lot easier.
The holiday requests and management on the App has also been an extremely efficient and useful tool. This feature has helped with scheduling holidays and ensuring that the whole team can see holidays, which has resulted in a smoother operation of the business.
Most importantly this has helped the business avoid unexpected costs and ensures accurate payroll. Before S4labour Gardner Garages had never considered a system for payroll. An in-depth demonstration of the system helped them understand how it can the positive impact the overall working of the business.
Emma also commented “We talked to fellow retailers that had already implemented S4labour and who shared their positive experiences with us. The S4labour team were a great ambassador for the system and were excellent in supporting us in the early implementation stages”.
Results
Since making S4labour a part of their business, Gardner Garages has more time to prioritise customer satisfaction, as they have more time to focus on activities that generate profit rather than doing administrative work.
Emma further commented on how investing in S4labour has led to increased staff retention: “We have invested in our employees this year with the implementation of S4labour. The system has had a positive impact on our relationship with our employees as it has demonstrated greater engagement and efficiency for us all”.
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