Speaking at Restaurant magazine’s annual R200 Business Seminar, which took place yesterday at the Corinthia Hotel in London, Scrimgeor was quick to point out that branded restaurants ‘definitely can’t get away with anything mediocre any more’, going on to give restaurateurs some valuable advice based on his experience with Côte.
“Seventy per cent of sales are food, so what goes on the plate is just about the most important decision you’ve got in terms of building your business profile,” he said. “It’s absolutely critical to the offer.
“Since the advent of the celebrity chef, general public food awareness has come on leaps and bounds. People are starting to understanding ingredients and what cooking is all about. As a result, food, in terms of quality alone, has moved on immeasurably over the past decade, particularly in the pub sector."
Côte placed 27th in the R200 list of the 200 largest restaurant and food-led pub groups in the UK,with 32 sites across the UK. With the concept having been founded five years ago, Scrimgeor went on to highlight some of the burgeoning issues and challenges that his, and other branded restaurant chains, now face.
“We are now competing with supermarkets, with the likes of the Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference and Tesco’s Dine in for Two ranges,” he added. “That’s taken a chunk out of the restaurant market. But the good news is that the market is growing and it continues to grow.
“What this does mean though, is that you’ve got to stay ahead of the curve; it’s absolutely critical that your food offering is competitive and essentially you need to punch above your weight in what your offering.”
10 top tips to make the most of your offering
- Menu development - “Too many cooks do spoil the broth in the branded restaurant sector. The fewer people that are involved in making decisions about the menu, the better. You can have conflicting interests in terms of supply or marketing.”
- Value for money – “You should first ask yourself the question: ‘What is value; what does it mean; does it mean cheap?’
“Today’s market is about ‘quality as price.’ People notice fantastic quality of ingredients and I think in these times of austerity you must be careful with your pricing.”
- GP sacrifice – “We all like to operate with certain GPs in mind, but I think sometimes you have to be realistic. You can’t have a fillet steak on your menu, or a bottle of Margot, or a lobster and expect to make the same 75 per cent GP that you might make on your best items - I see this mistake quite often.”
- Achievable recipes – “What’s really important is whether 32 restaurants can execute the same standard of dish. You really have to bear this in mind with menu development as well.”
- Keeping it fresh – “In today’s market, you can’t just change your menu two or three times a year. That used to be the modus operandi and I think now you have to challenge that. In Côte, we change our specials menu every two weeks, which is a complete nightmare and a real challenge, but we think that gives us a strong competitive edge.”
- Supply – This is such important thing. The cliché of ‘sourcing the best products’ is true. You notice the difference and I think there’s a delicate balance between having the very, very best and having value for money. In this sense, you have to buy as well as you possibly can, without sacrificing on quality.”
- The right people – “People can’t be underestimated. I was trained as a chef myself and I know it’s a tough old job. It’s very hard to find chefs in the open market.
At Côte we found that it’s particularly difficult to recruit chefs into the branded sector, which is mainly because salary expectations are an issue and chefs that want to go out and pick the lettuce in the morning and change the menu are not the type of chefs that will be attracted to us.”
With staff food,be generous with it and let your staff try everything you have on the menu. I think this is actually an area which is very often overlooked.”
- Listen to feedback – “It’s not always nice to listen to negative feedback, but it’s important to listen and react. At Côte, we have weekly flash reports which are sent from all of our restaurants.
“With website comments. It’s about how you react. Generally, what happens is that if you get one email about a problem or an issue, the chances are that it’s going on in half of your restaurants and only one person has actually taken the time to email in. “
- Have confidence – “When you’ve really established a food culture, then it’s important for your waiters to have confidence in discussing dishes with diners, rather than being timid and not really wanting to double-check that everything is up to standard.
- Always plan for the path ahead – “You can’t do things retrospectively. It’s much easier to get the foundations, and the people right, before any major growth.