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Across the country, restaurants are adapting to a new normal. It’s impossible to say whether this ‘norm’ will be temporary or lead into a longer-term way of things. Regardless, restaurants are making changes to their food procurement and operational processes to keep operations running and profitable.

Food Procurement Approach

For some, this means operating as take-out only. For others, this means constructing new seating arrangements to meet local or state guidelines. Many restaurants are even adjusting their food procurement strategies and working with experts to maximize cost saving opportunities.

Regardless of how your restaurant is adjusting operations to serve customers, one of the biggest areas you should focus on is your menu offerings.

While the decision may be tough, adjusting your restaurant’s menu during COVID-19 can help ensure you make efficient food procurement decisions and generate profit.

Not sure where to start?

Our team of food procurement experts created some tips and strategies you can follow to help adjust your menu.

Keep reading to hear from our food procurement experts and learn about a few ways your restaurant can approach your COVID-19 food procurement and menu strategy.

Revise and Limit Your Offerings

While it may seem like reducing your menu offerings could hurt your operation when reopening, revising and limiting your menu is key.

Diners understand what is going on and are ready to encounter limited menus as places continue reopening. Removing some less popular dishes will not impact their dining experience but could save you big.

Our food procurement experts recommend looking at your sales report and identify your slow-moving items. Or, use the matrix below to help guide your decision making. This could be a great opportunity to remove those high cost, low profit dishes from your menu.

At the end of the day, if a dish is costing you more to have on the menu than you are making by selling it, consider removing it.

Rationalize Your SKUs

Now more than ever, it’s critical to ensure your ingredients are cross utilized. Not only will this help drive profitability, but it will also help streamline font line operations.

Our food procurement experts recommend spending time looking at your menu item performance and food cost metrics. Your high profitability, high popularity items may justify requiring a few unique ingredients to them. However, dishes that are less popular or profitable may require you to re-think the SKUs required.

If you do have some items that are profitable but less popular, it’s important that you make sure each ingredient used is also being leveraged in one or two other dishes.

By focusing on SKU rationalization, you can help ensure that your restaurant chain is maximizing on profitability while also avoiding potential risk of spoilage.

Balance Scratch vs Prepared Items

In the restaurant industry, labor and cost savings are key. To help achieve that, our food procurement experts recommend you consider balancing some prepared items into your menu.

Many restaurant professionals prefer creating items from scratch. However, current times require that you seriously consider what value scratch items are truly adding to the dish.

The foodservice industry offers a lot of high quality and cost-efficient solutions that you can utilize in your restaurant to help you save on time, labor, and inventory. Things like soup bases, sauce mixes, and dehydrated potatoes are a great option to help you minimize SKUs while maximizing taste and profit.

Ask your distributor reps and brokers to introduce you to value-added products and make sure that they fit your restaurant chain and menu application. Or, connect with us for personalized consultation (it’s free!)

Hear From Our Food Procurement Experts

This article only scratches the surface on ways you can approach menu engineering during COVID-19 to focus on profitability.

To learn more, we sat down with one of our food procurement experts to dive deeper into ways restaurants can approach menu engineering during COVID-19. Click the video below to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0m7_zZvBVXnGttw8IsMRGmQKNoanTEmO

It’s impossible to predict how long we will be feeling the effects from COVID-19. For that reason, it is critical restaurant reassess their food procurement and menu engineering process to maximize profitability.

By following these tips from our food procurement experts, your restaurant can save on costs and ultimately reduce expenses. In this time of uncertainty, that’s crucial. The decisions may be tough to make, but they could be necessary for the success of your operation.

For additional help, the food procurement experts at Consolidated Concepts created tools and resources to help restaurants learn more. These resources provide additional information on menu engineering as you adapt your restaurant to current times. You can download the entire reopening guide, or access an easy-to-follow menu planning checklist.

Contact us!

Do you have additional questions on menu engineering? Or, are you interested in learning about other ways Consolidated Concepts can help your operation find cost saving opportunities? If so, contact us!

At Consolidated Concepts, our team of food procurement experts are dedicated to helping your business thrive. Plus, did we mention it’s free to join?

Now more than ever, proper hand hygiene is no longer an option – it is a responsibility.

Recent world events have magnified the importance of restaurants enforcing proper hand hygiene at their locations. With so many touchpoints throughout an operation, following the correct hygiene procedures can help ensure the health and safety of both your patrons and your staff.

Additionally, hygiene and cleanliness in food service operations can shape patron perceptions ¹.

A recent study revealed that customers will continue to be concerned about hygiene following the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in areas like restrooms and back of house ¹.

While using the right soaps and hand products are a big part of the hygiene process, it’s equally as important to focus on the steps you follow after washing. The proper hand drying products helps maximize sanitation while helping to reduce the risk of spreading germs.

Air Dryers vs Paper Towels

Two of the most popular hand-drying solutions for restaurants include traditional restroom paper towels and bathroom air dryers. While both products can be effective for drying, paper towels have the upper hand regarding sanitation and efficiency.

Still not convinced?

Here are 5 reasons why you should switch to restroom paper towels from bathroom air dryers.

Hygiene

From a hygiene viewpoint, paper towels are superior to electric air dryers and paper towels can dry hands efficiently, remove bacteria effectively and cause less contamination of the washroom environment.

Use of paper towels is especially important in facilities where hygiene is most critical, such as hospitals and health clinics ². But really, anywhere people need to turn off faucets or dry their hands after washing them, paper towels are preferred ³.

Consumer Preference

This one’s easy! Consumers prefer automated paper towel systems over air dryers 2.5 to 1 ³. Can’t beat those stats!

Efficiency

Air dryers may be less practical because of the longer time needed to achieve dry hands, with a possible negative impact on hand hygiene compliance.

Because it takes longer for people to achieve dry hands from an air dryer, many may dry their hands ineffectively when using them. This could lead to a possible negative impact on hand hygiene compliance ⁴.

Noise

One thing that goes without question – bathroom air dryers are noisy.

Many hand dryers operate at levels far louder than their manufacturers claim and at levels that are clearly dangerous to children’s hearing ⁵.

Restroom paper towels are a great option to alleviate the excess noise.

Spreading Germs

Air dryers spread germs.

Jet dryers disperse 20 times more virus than warm air dryers and over 190 times more virus than paper towels.

Studies Show Paper Towels Have the Upper Hand on Drying

So, when it comes to drying hands, it’s easy to see why restroom paper towels are the “clean” winner.

Manufacturers like GP PRO (Georgia-Pacific) provide several great options of touchless paper towel dispensers. Products like the enMotion® Paper Towel System and the Pacific Blue Ultra™ Paper Towel System offer operators convenience and hygienic benefits for their restaurants. Both are easy to use and easy to maintain while helping to minimize waste.

Best of all? Consolidated Concepts clients can access these and more products from Georgia-Pacific at competitive pricing!

Contact Us!

Interested in learning more? Contact us today to add Georgia-Pacific paper towel dispensers to your operation, or to learn more about ways Consolidated Concepts can help your operation.

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References

1. GP Topline Trends PDF
2. Huang, C., Ma, W. and Stack, S. (2012) “The hygienic efficacy of different hand-drying methods: A review of the evidence”. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Vol. 87 No. 8, pp. 791-798
3. GP PRO Proprietary Research: CPT-18-1829
4. World Health Organization Guidelines for Hand Hygiene in Healthcare (2009) (Section 11.1.5, pg 31)
5. Nora Louise Keegan, Children who say hand dryers ‘hurt my ears’ are correct: A real-world study examining the loudness of automated hand dryers in public places, Paediatrics & Child Health, pxz046, https://doi.org/10.1093/pch/pxz046
6. Kimmitt, p. T. And Redway, K. F., “evaluation of the potential for virus dispersal during hand drying: a comparison of three methods.” National center for biotechnology information (NCBI), U.S. National Library of Medicine. Journal of Applied Microbiology, February 2016, volume 120, issue 2, 478-486

As restaurants re-open their doors to welcome guests back into their dining rooms, many are struggling with idea of generating profit amid the challenges of low sales volume and an increase in expenses.  Restaurants are suddenly being asked to do more with less as city and state regulations necessitate an increase in spending on cleaning supplies, single-use menus, portion-sized condiments, disposable cutlery and personal protective equipment (PPE).  Additionally, the sudden increase in demand for off-premises meals means rising spending on disposables and carry-out materials as well as decreasing margins as operators pay 3^rd party delivery service fees.  So… just how is an operator expected to turn a profit all while reducing restaurant costs during COVID?

One key factor will be how well the operator gets creative about reducing and offsetting their costs.  One of the simplest things that restaurants can do maximize their cost savings potential is join a Group Purchasing Organization or, if they are already a GPO member, optimize their use of GPO savings that are available to them.  GPOs like Consolidated Concepts offer optimization services that can compare a restaurant’s purchases to their GPO contracts to find new products on which to save and earn rebates.  Easily-swappable, non-emotional items such as garbage can liners, gloves, frozen chicken breasts, and pepper can be subbed out and help operators earn additional rebates, which equate to cash back to the restaurant’s bottom line.  Additionally, many manufacturers are currently offering special pricing to GPO members on items that are in high-demand, such as disposables, portion control packs, and grab-and-go items.

GPO savings don’t begin and end in the kitchen.  Consolidated Concepts’s “Beyond Broadline” programs offer a wide variety of savings opportunities on non-food expenses such as uniforms from Chefworks, DirecTV packages, Skechers footwear, equipment suppliers, paint retailers and technologies like credit card processing, 3^rd party order consolidation, and telephone services.  All of these programs carry exclusive pricing for GPO members that restaurants would not otherwise have access to and are crucial expenses to trim back in order to offset the costs of other materials and services.

Labor utilization is also a key factor in controlling restaurant costs.  Given the nature of Paycheck Protection Program loans, it makes sense for operators to think about their employees and hires as ‘full time staff members’ as opposed to individual positions such as ‘line cook’ or ‘server’.  Restaurant staff should be expected to serve multiple functions: line cooks may also perform expediting duties and help sanitize areas of the restaurant, servers may also help stock the walk-in and take phone orders, and managers may perform duties such as washing dishes and helping to re-paint parts of the restaurant space.  These expectations should be clearly communicated to employees and should even be signed-off on so that staff members understand that for a certain period of time, their duties will extend beyond the confines of ‘normal’ restaurant roles. 

Cross-utilization certainly applies to ingredients as well as team members.  Successful restaurants will take the opportunity to re-tool their menus to focus on the biggest revenue-generating items and remove those that are adding unnecessary costs.  Menu items that utilize a lot of ingredients whose sole use is for that one dish should be carefully considered as food costs should be kept to an absolute minimum and food waste must be essentially eliminated in order to focus on profitability. 

Lastly, if there is one thing that restaurants should be investing in, it is technology.  This is the perfect time for restaurants to spend some of their loan money upfront to improve their processes for ordering food, tracking recipe costs and inventory, integrating with POS systems and managing cashless payments – all of which will result in better cost controls down the line.

There is now doubt that 2020 is going to be a tough year for every restaurant in the industry, but it is also a year for restaurants to focus on being smart, agile and lean. Those operators who keep their focus on their bottom lines – controlling costs and maximizing profits and reducing restaurant costs during COVID – are going to be the ones that not only survive, but capitalize on the available market share from those that ultimately wind up closing down. Questions or concerns? Contact us today.

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In recent weeks, restaurants have spent a lot of time focusing on ways to keep their operations running during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many shifted to third-party delivery platforms, reduced staff, and scaled down menu offerings to help minimize labor and cost. It was the necessary steps needed for operations to survive in a world without dine-in services.

Recently, parts of the country have started transitioning to life post-pandemic and began allowing restaurants to once again open their doors to dine-in guests at a limited capacity. Eventually this will extend to all states across the country and we will see restaurants everywhere welcoming patrons back.

With this new dawn approaching, it’s time for restaurants to shift their focus back to dine-in operations to ensure they are prepared to re-open. A big part of this focus needs to be on health, cleaning, and sanitation. Understandably, patrons may feel skeptical returning to physical operations due to lingering concerns around COVID-19 and other potential illnesses. However, there are some key steps restaurants can follow to help alleviate that concern.

Anticipate Needs and Concerns from Guests

There is a lot of uncertainty around how guests will adapt to dining in at restaurants again. What’s clear is that the public will have a heightened focus on cleanliness and sanitation and will be looking for a sense of safety upon their return¹.

One way to directly address this is to be proactive in sanitation efforts. Guests are uncomfortable using menus touched by other patrons? Replace them with single-use paper menus or encourage them to use their phones as the menu. Social distancing is a top concern? Utilize floor markers throughout restaurants to help maintain proper spacing between guests.

As restaurants start to re-open, there will likely be a slower volume of patrons coming in than before the pandemic. Being able to proactively anticipate and address the concerns of patrons will help create a sense of trust and allow guests to know that the restaurant is a safe place to begin reconvening life¹.

Follow Proper Cleaning Procedures

When it comes to re-opening locations in current times, cleaning and sanitizing must be top of mind for all operators. Most importantly, operating procedures must include the cleaning and sanitization of all-contact surfaces in both front and back of house². While it sounds like a simple task, there are several steps that need to be followed to ensure the spread of COVID-19 and other diseases are prevented.

1. Clean: remove physical dirt, dust, and debris from surfaces. This step does not kill germs and bacteria but impairs environments that harbor them ¹
2. Sanitize: reduces the occurrences and growth of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and pathogens on surfaces ¹
3. Disinfect: kills or destroys microscopic organisms and pathogens on surfaces. While it does not clean dirt or germs off the surface, it does prevent infection or disease transmissions by killing the pathogens

It may seem like a daunting task to ensure all steps are followed properly when cleaning the surfaces throughout a restaurant, but there are several tools available for operators. Organizations like the CDC have provided ample information on hygiene and sanitation for the food service industry. Additionally, Consolidated Concepts and Buyers Edge Platform have created a Sanitation Best Practices guide for operators to follow. Manufacturers like Unilever and Georgia-Pacific have also created checklists that restaurants can reference to ensure they properly clean their establishments to meet OSHA guidelines.

Communication is Key

Nearly as important as properly cleaning restaurants is communicating to patrons that cleaning measures are happening. This is a key step in the re-opening process. Whether beneficial or not, guest perception will quickly become a restaurant’s reality. If a patron questions the quality of an operation’s sanitation, it may impact their likelihood of returning.

Communication efforts should be focused on educating the guests of what proactive measures are being taken to keep a restaurant clean and help keep guests safe¹. It’s important to use visual and psychological cues to let guests know you are diligently following safe and effective cleaning and sanitation protocols.  Posting guidelines for social distancing by the entrances¹, hanging easy-to-follow hand hygiene guides in restrooms, and clearly identifying separate areas for pick-up or delivery are some ways to help proactively communicate efforts to patrons.

Additionally, it’s important to reinforce proper hand hygiene³ and cleaning procedures for staff throughout restaurants so guests can visually see the sanitation practices taking place. There are a number of products available from manufactures like Essity and Georgia-Pacific to help make this easy.

Prepare Personnel

Reinforcing proper hand hygiene and sanitation is a benefit for staff and patrons. There are additional steps available help ensure personnel is prepared to re-open the restaurant.

A big thing to consider when re-opening a restaurant is staffing. Due to ongoing concerns around COVID-19, restaurants should anticipate a potential lag in staffing in the early stages of re-opening. As a result, it’s important to be prepared to hire and onboard new personnel if needed¹.

From there, it is important to ensure the health of staff before they return to work. Adding a temperature kiosk is an easy way to protect the safety of employees and guests by preventing entry from anyone with a temperature. It’s also important to encourage employees to stay home if they are not feeling well.

All staff will need to be trained on new cleaning and sanitation processes and encouraged to practice them regularly. Keep ample cleaning supplies and easy-to-reference protocols readily available to staff throughout the restaurant. Sanitation checklists from Consolidated Concepts, Georgia-Pacific, Tork, and Unilever can be a great tool here.

If restaurants are planning to re-open dine-in services soon, it’s important to think ahead and prepare accordingly for the re-open process. COVID-19 has left a big impact on the industry and heavily influenced the public’s mind as it relates to health and sanitation. Having the right plan in place to tackle sanitation concerns can ultimately help operations succeed in the re-open process and gain back the trust of patrons.

Consolidated Concepts is here to help. If you are interested in learning about sanitation and cleaning products available through our platform or other ways a GPO can help you in the re-opening process, contact us! We’d love to meet you.

 

References:
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3

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Kickfin can help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus and ensure the financial security of your employees with contactless tip outs. Because of this, we feel we have an ethical responsibility to make Kickfin available to new and existing customers free of charge through the months of April and May. Contact us to learn more.

Unemployment is one of the most painful byproducts of this unstable, uncertain market. It’s impacting every industry, of course, but hospitality has taken one of the biggest hits.

Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been cut — in fact, restaurants and bars account for 60% of the losses. While some are (hopefully) temporary, other jobs have been permanently lost, as many restaurants have little hope of weathering this storm.

It’s a cruel twist of fate: for years, hospitality employers have battled against one another in a highly competitive labor market. Now, though, there’s willing, able and experienced talent everywhere you look. 

Who’s hiring at a time like this? 

You’d be surprised. With off-premise sales spiking, delivery restaurants and chains are in need of extra hands. Pizza Hut, for example, indicated they’re hiring for 30,000 permanent positions. Other restaurants who have pivoted in this market are hiring in anticipation of the virus striking their team and taking out part of their workforce. 

If you’re in the hiring boat, you might be wondering: How should my recruiting practices change in light of this burgeoning labor market? (And how should they stay the same?) 

We’ve got 3 tips for restaurateurs who are hiring during this crazy time.

Don’t lower your standards.

If you’re in a bind and in need of help ASAP, you may be tempted to make a hasty decision, setting aside your typical hiring process. 

That’s understandable: in the current environment, survival depends on your ability to be nimble and move fast. But when it comes to bringing new people on board, moving too fast could backfire.

Right now, restaurant patrons are anxious. People need to eat, of course, and many genuinely wish to support the restaurants they love — but they’re worried about their safety, and rightfully so. Plus: federal, state and local guidelines for essential businesses are constantly evolving, and in general, health hazards are high.

Taking all of that into account: seek out employees who are reliable, experienced, and have a can-do attitude. Before you make new hires, ask yourself: will they be considerate of and accommodating toward anxious patrons? Will they follow new, extensive sanitation and safety guidelines? And can they adapt to a role that may include changing responsibilities, as your business shifts to respond to the market?

Pro tip: Don’t skip references. Now more than ever, it’s important to require references for candidates — and don’t neglect to actually reach out to those references. Aside from confirming previous employment, questions you may want to ask include:

• What were the candidate’s key responsibilities?
• Where did the candidate excel? What were his/her key strengths?
• Did you ever experience any performance issues with the candidate?
• Is there anything else I should know?

Broaden your horizons.

If you’ve just pivoted to curbside or delivery service, you may need to look for a different kind of background than you’re used to hiring for. Seek out people with skills or experience that are directly applicable to the roles you need to fill.

That may seem obvious — but many restaurateurs are used to only hiring either front-of-house and back-of-house staff. Now, they’re suddenly looking for drivers. While you shouldn’t lower your standards (see above), you may need to shift required qualifications and experience.

A few key considerations if you’re hiring drivers:

• Do they have solid driving credentials?
• Will they be using a company car? If not, do they own or reliably have access to a vehicle?
• How will they be compensated? Will they make tips? Will they receive a stipend for gas and wear and tear on their car?
• Will they be an employee or an independent contractor? If it’s the latter, are you in compliance with state and federal labor laws?

Pro tip: If you’re hiring for a different kind of role than you’re used to, talk to other restaurateurs who have experience with this model to get an understanding of what kinds of qualities and qualifications you should focus on. 

Think long-term

We can all agree that this is a strange and difficult time. But good news: it’s not forever.

It may not be weeks or even months, but at some point, we’ll return to some semblance of normalcy. And while everyone in hospitality is trying to be nimble and pivot fast, savvy restaurateurs are making strategic shifts — not band-aid solutions. 

So wherever possible, think ahead: are the changes you’re making going to benefit your business now and in the long term? 

This is especially important when it comes to your people. Every employee you onboard right now is still going to require some level of ramp time, which means you should hire the right person for the role and the team, so you can ultimately minimize turnover. 

Pro tip: Don’t neglect your restaurant’s culture. Think about what new hires are going to bring to your team: how will they fit in? And will they want to stick around, even after things go back to a (new) normal?

Bottom line

If you’re hiring in hospitality right now, you’re in a fairly unique position. You have a wealth of talent at your fingertips that, just weeks ago, was next-to-impossible to find. And more importantly, you can help workers who have lost their livelihoods and are desperate for gainful employment. Remain committed to smart, strategic hiring practices, and your business, your employees and your new hires all stand to benefit.

Did you notice the fast pace with which food and beverage trends came and went in 2019? The rise and fall of consumer’s preferences and desires seemed to wane as quickly as a tropical afternoon rain shower that drenches an island one minute, only to bring intense sunshine the next. Blink, and you might miss it.

Avocado and kale may find some tough competition in the next decade with curious guests turning to unique and unusual produce. Let’s take a look at a few that are definitely not found at the corner grocery store.

Celtuce

Tyrant Farms describes celtuce as “the coolest veggie you’ve never heard of.” As the name implies, it’s a little like a celery-lettuce combo. The big, massive leaves, which are not it’s culinary prized possession, gives way to a thick, crunchy, juicy stem that Asians and others in the Mediterranean region have known about for over a thousand years.

The stem, after pealing the fibrous outer skin, is great raw or in stir fries, maintaining its crispy juiciness even after cooking!

According to the Forager Chef, Michel Bras, a world famous French chef, and his son, Sebastien, serve it at their 3-star Michelin restaurant, Bras. Of course, as their menu is an ongoing work of art, Celtuce may be a thing of yesteryear by the time you get to France and indulge in some of the region’s finest culinary creations. If you’re in search of this off-the-beaten path wonder, it’s best to look in your local Asian market. At least until we Americans catch on to its tasty offerings.

Komatsuna

This hardy green, also referred to as Japanese mustard spinach, is actually not a spinach but a member of the Brassica family, home to cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage as well as mustards. Asians use it for its tender leaves as well as the flowering stems. As the name implies, it is native to Japan where it is used in salads and stir-fries.

This health trend is high in vitamin C, calcium, beta carotene, and sulforaphane, a compound that has been shown to fight against cancer cells. Chef Tetsuo Takenaka, Kyoto’s leading specialist in the school of traditional Japanese kaiseki ryori, a cuisine that uses fresh ingredients distinctive to each season, recommends combining this green with fresh shitake mushrooms and dashi.

Mushrooms

I know, this edible wonder does not seem like it belongs on the up-and-coming list. But what is new for 2020 is the “superfood” aspect of mushrooms and that it fits in well with the plant-based alternative to meats. This nutrient dense, versatile meat-alternative can be found in main dishes as well as small plates in all its remarkable forms including Shitake, Maitake, and Chanterelle. The first two started out in Asia before finding their way to the U.S. They are high in several immune-boosting, anti-cancer compounds including polysaccharides and terpenoids.

Chanterelles are native to many parts of the world, including the forests of Wisconsin in the summer months. Bartolotta’s Lake Park Bistro, set in a park pavilion overlooking Lake Michigan, offers a Chanterelle Mushroom wine-pairing dinner that includes oysters in curry with chanterelles and slow-cooked American wagyu brisket with chanterelles and shallot. This mushroom, with a distinctive mild peppery flavor, is full of vitamins and minerals including a high concentration of B vitamins, a fair share of Vitamin D—a vitamin hard to find in food—and iron.

According to USA Today, searches for nutrient-packed mushrooms has increased by 46 percent on Pinterest, a social media site with more than 250 million users. But, wait, even more astonishing is that mushroom coffee has seen a 471 percent year-on-year spike in searches. Amazing. If you’re considering getting in on this dynamic trend, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with mushrooms such as chaga, lion’s mane, reishi, and cordyceps, medicinal mushrooms that have been used for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine.It looks like more and more health-conscious consumers will be trading in their morning latte for a mug of Lion’s Mane & Chaga.

Butterfly Pea Flower

Just when you thought edible flowers were entering the downside of their climb to fame, this beautiful, vibrant blue flower enters the scene. This, however, is not just any flower—it is the chameleon of the plant kingdom, changing colors when mixed with an acidic food. It is also rich in antioxidants, making it not only Instagram worthy, but a strong contender for those drawn to health-conscious cuisine. Butterfly pea flowers offer little in the way of taste but make up for it in their natural food and drink coloring properties. The tea has a mild woody taste, a little like green tea. Indigo tea, made from its petals, is a staple in Thailand.

Beans

Beans have been a staple around the world for thousands and thousands of years, an estimated 9.000 years, to be exact. So, what’s new about something so old? Knorr and World Wildlife Fund put together a report on the Future 50 Foods—foods that are healthier for both people and the planet.In addition to foods that fall into the algae and cacti categories, superfood beans made the list and include black turtle, bambara, and marama—a bean that, when roasted, is said to taste like cashews—Yum.

We definitely recommend checking out the Future 50 Foods report which offers a wealth of information about unique foods from around the world that are sure to be growing in popularity as the rise of the health conscious consumer continues to redefine the restaurant landscape.

Know Your Produce

Whether you opt for the curious and new or for the old-time favorites, it’s important to keep abreast of the market and what is happening to produce on a world scale.

Consolidated Concept’s Freshly Picked Market Report offers weekly reports that focus on updated pricing in the meat, poultry, beef, and seafood industries as well as produce, dairy, and grains. I was surprised to see in their Freshly Picked, December 19 report that pricing on chicken wings for the coming year may run below the elevated 2019 prices. Good news for those restaurants that are building their Superbowl menu!

This report is a great resource to have at your fingertips and one that will serve you well if followed on a weekly basis.

If you’re looking to redefine your menu in the coming year, Consolidated Concepts can also help you develop your menu and connect you with the local and national sources to help you succeed.

Consolidated Concepts & Georgia-Pacific have teamed up to help stop the flu this year. We’ve put together a special lineup of products for this winter season to ensure your operation survives this flu season completely germ free. Check out the video below to learn how to fight the flu this season.

Products Featured:

Georgia-Pacific SmartStock

Georgia-Pacific enMotion®

 

At the recent Restaurant Leadership Conference (RLC), leading industry experts discussed how they’ve increased their bottom line by adopting several cost-cutting techniques. One of these, in particular, stood out—dispatch delivery services.

Jason Morgan, CEO of two emerging fast casual concepts—Original Chop Shop and Bellagreen—shared what he saw as one of the greatest challenges facing restaurants—third-party delivery costs. In just the last two years, he’s seen third party delivery fees go up from 100 to 300 basis points.

It’s a service that is a growing in demand. In fact, digital ordering and delivery have grown 300 percent faster than dine-in traffic since 2014, with over 85 percent of restaurant customers using off-site delivery services on a monthly basis. By the end of 2020, it’s expected that the sales provided through third-party delivery providers will grow to about 9.7 percent of total restaurant sales.

Unfortunately, the restaurants using third-party delivery services often pay a hefty fee—up to 30 percent. In a survey conducted by Hospitality Tech, 82 percent of restaurant operators thought the fees for these services were too high and over 30 percent went so far as to say they weren’t worth it.

In order to combat these rising costs that were proving disadvantageous to the restaurant’s bottom line, Morgan began using dispatch programs, shifting their customers from the third-party delivery sites to the restaurant’s website or mobile app. Every order they get that comes through the restaurant instead of a delivery service such as GrubHub or DoorDash, saves the restaurant between 20 to 25 percent. In addition, they, instead of the service provider, now have the customers’ data.

What is a Dispatch Program?

Using a dispatch program may well be the answer to increasing customer delivery demands, particularly for those restaurants that do not want to develop an in-house program that requires the use of their own drivers. Going this route is especially challenging due to the continuing labor crunch. A delivery program allows customers to place a delivery order on a restaurant’s website or app. The order is sent to the restaurant and dispatched for delivery. In essence, orders are processed just like all other online orders, except a delivery courier makes the pickup instead of the customer. Customers, instead of restaurants, pay the delivery fee. Currently, Morgan is using Olo as their dispatch provider.

Olo

Olo, a digital ordering provider for restaurant brands, announced the addition of Dispatch in the fall of 2015. It offers a service that is fully integrated into a restaurant’s point-of-sale (POS) system. The service allows guests to track their delivery from the minute it’s ordered, to the pick-up by the courier, and the course the driver takes as they travel to the customer’s home—all from the restaurant’s digital ordering site or mobile app.

In order to accomplish this, Olo relies on a network of delivery service providers to obtain the best delivery fee. According to SmartBrief, they have also developed an index called the Delivery Search Score. This index counts the number of times an online search for a restaurant’s name plus the term “delivery” leads directly to a restaurant’s website. According to the data obtained, the top 300 restaurant brands are performing at less than 30 percent of their potential. In other words, 70 percent of the time these types of searches will take the customer to third-party sites instead of directly to a restaurant’s website.  

Noah Glass, CEO and founder of Olo, compared this to the rise of the third-party marketplace in the hospitality industry when sites such as Hotwire and Travelocity became the primary choices for customers looking to make reservations.

Olo is currently being used by brands such as Wingstop, Chipotle, and Five Guys.

Of course, not every restaurant is in a dispatch delivery zone. There are, however, some restauranteurs that are coming up with other creative solutions to this current pain point.

Food Trucks as Delivery Providers

Wayback Burgers is a growing fast-casual franchise concept that specializes in burgers and shakes. They currently have about 155 locations in the U.S. and several others around the world including Canada, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Morocco. The company plans to open another 275 restaurants in the U.S. within the next five years.

They are testing the use of mini food trucks, that run on electric and propane, as vehicles for delivering to-go orders placed via a proprietary app. The customer’s food is not cooked until the truck arrives at their home or business—say goodbye to soggy fries. They are hoping to license this idea to other brands as well—such as those that are having trouble with the high third-party delivery fees or the customer experience that is sometimes lacking in quality or timing. The branded truck also acts as a moving marketing billboard. While this mode of delivery is currently available to franchisees, it is not mandated.

With the demand for delivery expected to grow by over 50 percent by 2021, it’s clear that restaurants can no longer ignore this growing aspect of their business. According to Warren Solocheck, NPD Group’s senior vice president, “Delivery has become a need to have and no longer a nice to have in the restaurant industry…It has become a consumer expectation.” It’s also clear that restaurants are starting to look for alternatives to what was once considered an easy approach for integrating delivery services, third-party delivery companies. A dispatch program may very well hold some promise for those looking to develop or reorganize their existing delivery services.

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