So if you’re looking for a little inspiration for ideas, we tasked our expert teams across Bidfood to share effective ways to remap your thinking and find revenue opportunities.
Starting with….
Find opportunities to improve your margin
Sometimes the old sayings tell it best: a little goes a long way. Well, it certainly does in the kitchen!
You can still offer customers quality dishes, but in a sustainable way, by strategically thinking where you can cut back.
For example, if you want to offer up a pasta dish with a hearty protein, use streaky bacon instead of a more expensive cut. That way you’re still providing the same quality to the customers, but cutting back your costs.
For a veggie option, don’t complicate things – just remove the streaky bacon and voila! A tasty vegetarian dish. Don’t forget, you can also offer up extra customer-favourite veggie toppings at an additional cost which is fantastic for creeping up customer spend.
If time is an issue, read up on 5 ways to reduce cooking time in your kitchen here.
Another simple way to increase your profit margin is to make use of your leftovers. Remember, throwing food in the bin also means you’re throwing away your profits! Batter your vegetable peelings for a tasty burger side, transform leftover roast potatoes into hash browns – the possibilities are endless. Reducing food waste is good for your sustainability credentials and for your profit. It’s a no brainer!
Struggling for more ideas? Check out this dish from Chef Martin using common leftovers in the kitchen!
@bidfooduk Waste not want not! Chef Martin has created a tasty zero waste whipped carrot and feta dip, perfect for utilising those leftovers in the kitchen. #foodwaste #recipe #lowwasterecipe #foodwastesolution #zerowaste #fyp ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim
And for further support on food waste, check out our 5 ways to reduce food waste blog for quick tips!
Reduce expensive food items
Gone are the days of meat and two veg.
Solution? Add smaller amounts of the protein to larger quantities of cheaper carbohydrates.
Take a look at Chef Damon’s advice on the simple swaps you can make to reduce expensive food items, but still keep customers happy.
Don’t forget that the cost of labour also comes into play here. Even if you’re using cheaper cuts, if your dishes need increased labour, skill and energy this can impact your profit levels too!
Have a look at how your dishes can be simplified to reduce the added labour cost. For example, use ready to use sauces rather than of buying all the ingredients separately and making it yourself. This improves the consistency, simplifies your recipes and cuts labour.
We have a wide range of time-saving, simple serve products, explore our Menu Solutions here or if you’re looking for simplified recipe ideas, we have a bank of quick fixes here.
Premiumise your menu
Add quality sounding ingredients to your dishes, but use them sparingly.
Have a wild mushroom risotto on the menu, which mixes wild mushrooms in with the button ones. Or how about adding a dash of black truffle oil to your tagliatelle dish?
Chef Adam’s truffle mac n cheese recipe is a great example of this and how to increase the profitability of your menu!
It’s all in the marketing here! When you have a dish served with garlic bread, elevate it on your menu with a description like ‘fresh rustic garlic sourdough’. Much more appealing, hey?
Customisation is a big driver for consumers these days and providing options for add-ons for an additional cost is an effective way of increasing spend on low cost ingredients. This means you can serve customers exactly what they want and you get a bit more profit out of the dish too!
Use own branded products
Our offering includes a vast amount of own branded products at different price points, so you can pick the right fit for you.
Choosing cheaper alternatives to branded products is a clever way to provide your customers with a very similar yet cost saving dish, which doesn’t compromise on quality.
At Bidfood, our own brand range offers significant savings when compared to branded equivalents. We benchmark our own brand against the leading brands as well as our competitors from a quality perspective to ensure you’re always getting the products you need.
Why not put it to the test by reaching out to your Account Manager about organising some benchmarking?
Make more margin on your meat
The cost of your meats is probably one of the areas where you’ve seen the biggest increase, so addressing this is where you have to get a little bit creative!
Luckily, our fresh meat experts are on hand to offer up their best tips on how to do just that.
Watch how to get the most out of our fresh meat cuts in the video below and check out our previous blog on 5 ways to maximise the margin from your fresh meat to learn more.
For more support and ideas on how to increase the profitability of your menu, see our Unlock Your Menu support hub. This hub is all about supporting you through the various challenges the industry faces with ideas and solutions focussed on reducing costs, kitchen efficiencies and menu engineering
Discover more tips for driving profitability the profitability of your menu here.
