Yesterday, Scott Blazek, Executive Vice President, Nevada Breakthru Beverage, led our 2022 Keynote session: Growth Opportunities for 2022 and Beyond. Event attendees poured into the room to hear panelists Mark Gray, Chief Operating Officer & President of Bottleneck Management Restaurant Group, Cami Lehmann, Director of Marketing, Brinker International, Inc., and Bruce Skala, Senior Vice-President, Marketing, Hooters of America, discuss the biggest opportunities and challenges facing independent food and beverage operators today. The standing-room only session addressed technology, supply chain, inflation, consumer expectations and staffing issues, offering operators actionable advice to advance their businesses in 2022 and beyond.
Here are a few key takeaways from their keynote session at Bar & Restaurant Expo 2022.
Supply Chain
- Lean on distributor and supplier partners, ask them to recommend alternative products
- Be transparent with your guests
- Be aware of the unique challenges of your market
- Use this as an opportunity to make new relationships
Inflation
- Using a QR code menu makes price adjustments easy
- Understand your guest sentiment and what they’re willing to pay for a product
- Find out how your guests feel about your current prices before you raise them, as it may be more effective to raise prices elsewhere
- Inflation means you have an 8-10% increase in product, and you can’t pass all of that along to your customer, because they’ll have sticker shock – find other ways to trim costs and keep your bottom line consistent
Labor
- We are hiring people who don’t have industry experience, and we need them to work immediately. You need to invest in training them, or your consumer experience will plummet
- Digitize your training platforms
- Dedicate time to train your existing and new staff to keep standards consistent
- Cross train your team so everyone knows the brand culture, and can quickly adapt to different roles as needed
- Take care of people and they will take care of you
Technology
- Utilize in-store messaging through television advertisements, smart QR codes and engaging offers
- Find a company that can help you update your tech stack and maximize your data
- Data and fact-based decision making is the future of the industry
- Make your tech stack as simple as possible, and invest in systems that work together
- Test any new technology before you buy it
- Listen to employees to know what is and isn’t working
- Always prioritize things that will make working easier for your team
Data
- Measure the right sets of numbers and data, because otherwise you’re missing big issues
- Labor percentage pays bills, but doesn’t equal productivity
- Know your rate of sale: what’s selling, why, and what profit are you making? Have a spreadsheet of most profitable items, build a campaign around that data
- Let the consumer tell you what they want by looking at your data, don’t assume
Download the full event brochure here to access even more information about the show, and an exclusive promo code.
Bar & Restaurant Expo (formerly Nightclub & Bar Show) is a live, in-person event held March 21-23, 2022 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Early bird registration is open now. Click here get your tickets now!
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