Case Study
Spur Steak & Grill Restaurants
Trinity Leisure - franchisees of the South African Spur Steak Ranches chain were struggling with an operating model imported from the parent company that caused labour costs to be well above the restaurant industry average. Spur Steak & Grill is a family restaurant positioned within the mid market/ casual dining market. The menu includes a range of starters, an extensive range of Steaks and burgers and a tex mex section. All the food is freshly prepared and cooked to order in an open cooking area including a char grill.
As a result of developing and implementing the Balanced Service Score™ labour productivity model in the Spur Steak &Grill restaurants in the UK and Ireland average wage costs as a percentage of net sales have reduced to 23.5%.
At Arapaho Spur in Staines, despite minimum wage increases of 25% since 2002, labour costs have reduced by 11% through a reduction in labour hours of 36%. The use of BSS™ has resulted in an improvement in labour productivity of 20% and more effective restaurant manager time focused on trading hours.
The Avisors labour productivity model has been developed in close consultation with the restaurant managers to ensure that it is an easy to learn and simple to use system that creates real and visible results.
Initially the restaurant managers were concerned that applying BSS™ would put additional pressure on their workloads. To counteract the concern over the possible impact on customer service standards Trinity Leisure intensified their mystery shopping programme to a conduct at least of one visit per week.
In fact, the opposite turned out to be the case. As labour productivity improved, staff motivation increased, customer service standards improved and spend per head increased – all this resulted in a cost reduction in wage costs and a growth in sales.
“Gathering the data couldn’t be easier – we simply enter the data into an app on my iPhone”, said Eve Banks, Restaurant Manager, Arapaho Spur. “The system produces all the labour productivity analysis for me – leaving me to focus on the smooth–running of the restaurant”. Eve has consistently delivered a 22.5% wage cost as a percentage of sales with a like for like sales performance averaging +4% over the last 18 months.
