Restaurant365, which offers all-in-one restaurant enterprise management software, reported that demand remained strong for restaurants in the second quarter of 2022, citing a 12 percent increase in its customers' sales from Q1 to Q2, despite the challenges of inflation and rising food costs.
In fact, it seems that inflation has not diminished customer demand. A Q1 2022 study of 1,000 U.S. consumers found that 29 percent of consumers said that it’s cheaper to order from restaurants than buy all the items needed to cook a meal; 27 said it costs roughly the same without all the work.
Despite the positive outlook, Restaurant365 noted that restaurants that implement the technologies and strategies to drive topline sales, better manage revenue, and drive more efficient labor costs and cost of goods sold, will actually remain poised for future growth regardless of uncertain markets.
“As economists discuss a potential economic slowdown, restaurants may not yet feel impacted because their sales continue to grow,” said Tony Smith, CEO and co-founder of Restaurant365. “A decline is still a very real possibility, so now is the best time for restaurants to take action and be prepared.
Smith noted that there are some key ways that owners and operators can best prepare, and one of the most influential they saw during the pandemic was data analytics.
“Operators that are using sales, food cost and labor data to clearly understand their business are best positioned to stay profitable during uncertain times,” Smith said.
Operator Recoups a $1.1 Million Prime Cost Gap with Analytics
While remaining profitable during uncertain times is certainly difficult, prepared operators prove that it can be done. Eli's Restaurant Group, a Restaurant365 customer, for example, was able to recoup a $1.1 million prime cost gap during the pandemic by investing in technology tools to help control costs and boost margins.
“We estimated that between food, labor and supply costs, Eli's was leaving approximately $1.5 million worth of profit on the table, just by not having the data in our hands to know whether we were really doing well or not,” said Eric Steinbach, chief operating officer at Eli's Restaurant Group.
Steinbach said they were able to recover nearly 75 percent of that gap during the significantly tough business environment caused by the pandemic. “Over the past year, the inflationary and workforce challenges have proven to be arguably more difficult to navigate than the first year of the pandemic, further highlighting the need for accurate and timely data to make sound business decisions,” he said.
Restaurant365’s all-in-one, cloud-based accounting, inventory, scheduling, payroll and HR solution – developed specifically for restaurants – simplifies day-to-day management for restaurant operators, allowing them to control food costs and optimize labor costs.
Integrations and open APIs also enable Restaurant365 to connect with other systems, including POS providers, vendors and banks. The result is accurate, timely reporting that provides a clear and complete view of an operator’s business.
To learn more about Restaurant365, visit Restaurant365.com.
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