There’s no industry in the world that’s more competitive than the hospitality sector. There’s no doubt about it, the restaurant and bar business is an incredibly tough space to operate in, and the owners that work within it are highly passionate about what they do.
Unfortunately though, passion does not build a successful business on its own - particularly when you take into account there are now more than 1 million restaurant locations in the United States alone (National Restaurant Association).
To own and manage a truly successful restaurant or bar, it’s crucial that you combine passion with financial acumen.Cutting costs and developing high margin items is just as important for your company’s profits as creating high-quality products. That’s why the most successful restaurants all have beverage and food inventory management systems in place.
What is inventory management?
Inventory management is a process in which your business monitors all of its stock. This procedure will see your restaurant and bar monitor exactly what inventory you have and where it is being either used or wasted.
Food and beverage inventory management systems are often integrated with your restaurant or bar point-of-sale (POS), meaning you can track every aspect of your stock in real-time.
This increased visibility into your inventory means your business can see exactly where you are losing money through poor inventory control, and how you can rectify those issues to drive your profits up.
What benefits will you realize from successful inventory management?
Taking back control of your restaurant or bar inventory will bring your business a huge number of benefits. Here are just a few ways that an inventory management system will streamline your inventory processes and help you boost profits:
Significant cost savings
Poor inventory control is one of the leading causes of lost money for restaurants and bars around the world. The frustrating thing is that most restaurant and bar owners know they have high inventory costs, but simply do not understand where they are losing money.
With an inventory management system, your business will receive real-time analytics and financial reporting that shows exactly where you are losing inventory, why you are losing it and how you can prevent it from happening in the future. This saves your bar or restaurant huge amounts of money that can then be added to your bottom line.
Improved insight into expenditure and menu pricing
It’s easy for your restaurant or bar to fall into the trap of not adjusting your menu pricing. Unfortunately, many hospitality businesses are losing huge amounts of money by not updating their menu prices to reflect increased inventory costs.
A successful inventory management strategy will ensure that you are able to take a data-driven approach to your menu. You will be able to determine menu item profit margins by having clear insight into inventory cost, which you can use to either remove low-profit products or update prices.
Better ordering decisions
Having clear visibility and more control over your inventory leads to better ordering decisions for your restaurant or bar. No longer will you need to order stock from vendors “just in case” you might run out. You can optimize your inventory orders by building a plan that ensures you consistently have the right amount of stock in your kitchen and bar at all times.
You can read more about implementing this strategy in our recent blog - ‘What is PAR Level and Why is it Important in Restaurant Inventory Management?’
Complete automation of these processes
Manual inventory management processes leave room for human error, which in turn only worsens your company’s visibility into waste and shrinkage. Inventory management systems, however, automate these complicated backend processes.
By automating your inventory management and building a strategy in which inventory decisions are driven by data, you can focus on what matters - pleasing your guests and standing out from the competition. High-quality inventory management will give you the time and freedom to focus on creative endeavours that truly make your restaurant or bar stand out from the crowd.
How can Sculpture Hospitality help?
Are you looking to improve inventory management in your restaurant or bar? Sculpture Hospitality has developed innovative food and beverage inventory management systems that include features such as precise counts, just-in-time ordering, performance reports, in-depth analytics and much more.
Most importantly, our team of local restaurant and bar inventory specialists are located all over the world. No matter what city your business is located in, our team of experts can help you get set up with a solution that is specific to your unique needs.
To ensure we offer a program that’s right for the size of your business, the scope of your in-house resources and the speed of your restaurant or bar’s growth, we have created three service levels - Full Service, Shared Service and Self Service.
Full Service: In our Full service option your Sculpture consultant will execute a full in-premise audit process that includes; inventory, purchase processing, sales and spillage reconciliation, weekly order forecast, ordering and variance analysis.
Shared Service: Our shared service model will split the audit task up between in-house and outsourced tasks. Your bar or restaurant manager will perform an on-site inventory count that they then upload to the Sculpture server, and Sculpture Hospitality experts will complete the remaining aspects of the audit process.
Self Service: Our Self Service model gives bar and restaurant managers access to our industry-leading software and systems so that they can execute a full audit process themselves.
Want to improve your bar and restaurant profits and learn more about Sculpture Hospitality’s three service levels for inventory management? Contact our team of local inventory experts today. We would love to help.
