A restaurant business is a little hard to keep up with due to the increasing cost which is becoming hard to control in the metro cities. Restaurant owners find a lot of difficulties in setting up their own space. From looking for an ideal place to managing the cost to make good money to sustain in the competitive market, a restaurateur faces all the menaces to achieve a highly profitable restaurant in Mumbai.
Moreover, a restaurateur should be able to work on the identified issues with the restaurant food cost for making sales better. Though you can’t do much for the rentals and other factors involved in investing for a restaurant, you need to be able to pick up the tricks at your restaurant to reduce the food cost.
Top Rules to Control Food Costs in Mumbai
As per statistical data, Mumbai has 4.53% higher cost of living index than Bangalore. Though the city is pretty expensive to sustain in but makes enough space for job opportunities especially in the restaurant space. There are many people who tend to spend a good amount of money on dining and experiencing luxurious restaurant. This is one of the reasons that people would like to dine out. Also, the restaurants need to overcome challenges including food cost in Mumbai for a successful growth.
Here are a few ways that can help to reduce the food cost and thereby make huge profits for restaurants in Mumbai.
1. Purchasing Raw Material on Credit
Investing on raw materials is a risk-taking business as you’re not aware of the kind of profit you can make in a city like Mumbai. For a successful restaurateur, you need to be able to provide answers to yourself on the days when you’re able to recover the investment and break the points of making profits.
After working on all the analysis, the restaurant business in Mumbai is a bit tough to crack. This is why you should consider buying the raw material on credit. Reducing the cash transactions to get some time to pay off the credit from the money you earn is a good decision for a budding restaurateur.
On the contrary, if you’re established restaurateur and want to make more profits then you should consider purchasing raw materials on credit. This is because you might be buying raw material in huge amount giving rise to more risks.
Another option is to control the cash transactions and take minimal risks by joining purchase groups which can lower down your purchase costs abruptly. Due to the sheer number of buyers in a purchasing group, the suppliers often reduce the prices. You can also try an annual contract with the vendors to get consistent benefits with raw materials and get them at a reasonable price.
2. Tracking Inventory
Many restaurateurs want to keep more food in their inventory than their actual requirement. This result into inventory levels overflow which increases the food costs as well the wastage too. Keeping track of the inventory and analyzing the consumer trends can help to make an estimate about the current trends which enables to make wise decisions about the next purchase.
Restaurant management software becomes helpful in this case. With the help of technology, handling inventory to manage it well can be possible enabling to make smart decisions. Apart from the raw materials usage and consumption, it is important to maintain a good relationship with the vendors. There are some ways by which inventory management software can help to reduce food costs at a restaurant in Mumbai.
- Standardizing the amount of raw material by keeping track of the consumption pattern can help lower the food costs. This therefore cause minimal wastage as the number of raw materials is pre-set.
- Keeping up a healthy relationship with the vendors can help you to ask for minimal prices of raw material. Your inventory management software keeps track of the purchase order to provide you the information about requirement of the raw material.
- Also, inventory management software helps to keep a record of the variances which ensures that the variance is minimized.
Food cost control is not only related to food wastage but also having a detail outlook for both yield and stock. Keeping the track ensures to use the raw materials wisely. This is why investing in an ideal inventory management software becomes a necessity.
3. Recipe management to Reduce Food Costs
Along with inventory management, standardizing the recipe also helps in reducing the food costs. In a city like Mumbai, you can be sure of your consumers that would come back to your restaurant for the specialty dishes and the consistency in food. Thus, you need to have a standard recipe for all your dishes to cater the taste of customers and reduce food costs.
With right technology at your restaurant, you can keep a check on your restaurant inventory. Investing in restaurant management software helps you to keep track of daily consumption which helps to predict the consumption of raw materials.
4. Planning Menu
After taking care of the inventory and stock, the important thing to be taken into consideration is the menu. A good menu can attract many customers which therefore increases your brand value too. People get attracted to your food outlet just because of your menu.
To make a great menu, you need to analyze your bestselling dishes keeping your menu on the top. You can also try tab ordering so that the customers can order through digital menu for a great dining experience.
5. Reduce Food Waste and Maintain Portion Sizes
As per the reports, nearly 73 percent of the entire garbage of Mumbai comprises of food, vegetables, and fruit waste. It is also proposed by the experts that recycling the waste can reduce the amount of garbage to be transported.
This is a serious concern which needs to be addressed by all the restaurateurs of Mumbai which will help to reduce food costs. Here are some tips that work to reduce waste in a restaurant in Mumbai saving the food cost.
Reuse the Reusable: Change should be done at a basic level to reflect it at the upper level. You need to make sure to reuse wastes generated at your restaurant.
Standardize Kitchen Operations: No need to be sorry about the wastage once you standardize the kitchen processes. Using restaurant management software ensures that the kitchen operations work in a synchronized manner.
Rework Your Portion Sizes: Control portion size by estimating the food served and waste. Check the customer’s plates and their leftovers before changing the size of your plate. You need to have strong observation skills to know the right portion to be served.
Also, following the right restaurant technology ensure that the staff follows your restaurant SOPs related to wastage and reusability of food. You can evaluate your staff on how they handle food wastes by minimizing wastage of food, checking the right plate size and understanding the right portion of the food to serve the customers.
6. Keep Check of Thefts and Pilferage
Another reason why restaurants can’t control the food costs is the hidden or unknown theft happening at the restaurant. It is difficult to keep a check on all the staff members and this is where technology helps.
A restaurant POS helps monitor your staff’s activities and keep track of the transactions and bills sanctioned. Many times customers don’t ask for bills or are given duplicate bills which provide the staff the opportunity to steal from your restaurant. Make sure to update restaurant POS with appropriate features like anti-theft, staff reporting, or Bluetooth printing of the bills.
Food costs issues are one of the most common challenges that restaurateurs face in Mumbai. Keeping track of the food wastage and pace with the growing competition, the restaurant industry in Mumbai is going to become a tougher nut to crack. Taking care of these measures can help you to control food costs, and eventually increase profits.
