Six engagements across concepts and unit counts. What the operation looked like, and what we did about it.
The group had built a Michelin-recognized brand with deep customer loyalty. But behind the scenes, the operation was bleeding money. Food cost was running at 26.2% well above the 22-24% target for their concept, and trending the wrong direction.
The complexity was real: tandoor operations, specialty spice blends, seasonal produce, and labor-intensive prep. Standardization would be hard. But the math demanded action, every 1% of food cost was $260K/year.
Part 1: Purchasing Intelligence. Audited the top 30 items by spend. The group was overpaying on 8 of the top 15 items by an average of 4.2% approximately $284K/year in unnecessary spend. Renegotiated with existing suppliers (didn't switch, loyalty matters) using market data as leverage. Within 3 weeks, locked in better pricing on most items.
Part 2: Portion Standardization. Created visual portion guides for every menu item, photo plus weight. Trained all 20+ kitchen staff. Implemented weekly spot-checks: random plates weighed against standard. Initial variance was ±1.2 oz on tandoori chicken; reduced to ±0.4 oz in 4 weeks.
Part 3: Waste Elimination. Moved produce delivery from 2x/week to 4x/week (reduced spoilage from 8% to 3% of produce). Standardized trimming procedures. Analyzed returned dishes and found seasoning inconsistencies, implemented spice blend standards.
Food cost landed at 22.1% after 90 days. Portion variance held under half an ounce. Produce spoilage dropped to 3%. The team owns the standards now.
The group had 5 locations with very different demand patterns, but everyone was scheduling the same way: by feel. Managers built schedules based on "what worked last week" instead of demand data. The result was overstaffing on slow days, understaffing on busy days, and chronic overtime.
We pulled 12 weeks of POS data by location and found that Locations had distinctly different patterns. Downtown peaked Thursday-Friday; suburban locations had more even traffic; one had heavy weekend volume. Built location-specific demand forecasts and staffing matrices.
Scheduling was tied directly to forecasted covers. Schedules locked 10 days in advance. Manager bonuses were tied to hitting labor targets within ±2%. The result wasn't fewer hours, it was hours redeployed to where they actually mattered. Slow shifts got cut. Busy shifts got proper staffing. Overtime evaporated.
Payroll came in at 29.8% within 12 weeks. Overtime dropped to under 4 hours a week across all 5 units. Turnover halved to 32%. Schedules now publish 10 days out on their own.
The franchisee had capital and ambition but was stuck. Three units running at 4% profit. No systems. Couldn't open a 4th because they didn't have the operational confidence that a 4th unit wouldn't sink the operation.
We benchmarked their best unit (Unit 1, 7% profit) and documented everything that manager was doing. Created standardized playbooks: opening, closing, scheduling, ordering, training. Deployed those playbooks across Units 2 and 3 with onsite coaching.
By month 6, all three units were on system. That's when expansion became possible. Each new unit (4, 5, 6, 7) ramped to profit faster than the last because the playbook was proven.
Grew from 3 to 7 units in 18 months. Profitability on the mature units landed at 8.4%. Turnover dropped from 72% to 41%. New units now ramp to profit in under 90 days.
Working through a scaling problem like this?
Reach out →The food was excellent. The operation was not. Inconsistent opening procedures meant some nights service started smoothly, others were chaos. Head chef ordered ad hoc, no PO system. Staff turnover at 45%. Quality varied night to night despite excellent ingredients.
Brought systems to fine dining. Implemented 90-minute opening protocol (mise en place verification, ambiance check, briefing). Created PO system head chef could work within (initial pushback, then full embrace, it freed creativity from logistics). Reduced waste from 5.2% to 3.1% through better ordering and trim training.
The biggest unlock: with stable systems, training became reproducible. New staff onboarded faster. Turnover dropped because expectations were clear and the kitchen ran like a kitchen, not a circus.
Profitability doubled to 12.5% by month 4. Food cost held at 27%. Waste dropped to 3.1%. Turnover halved to 22%. The chef stayed and is still running it.
The owner suspected operational issues but couldn't pinpoint them. Average profitability of 6% masked huge variance: Unit 7 (airport location) hit 11%, Unit 12 (new) was losing money. The owner was running 12 units like 12 different businesses.
Used Unit 7 (best performer at 11% profit) as the benchmark. Documented everything: ordering discipline, portion control, scheduling rigor, weekly P&L review process, manager development practices. Created the "Unit 7 Playbook."
Deployed across all 12 units with onsite coaching from Unit 7's manager. Worst performers (Units 3, 12) got 2-week intensive coaching engagements. Within 12 months, every unit was running on system.
Average profitability lifted to 9.7% across all 12 units. The worst performer moved from -1% to 6%. Variance across the system tightened to under 3 points. New units now ramp in weeks, not months.
Some franchisees were doing $1.2M/year; others were stuck at $500K despite the same brand and concept. Average profitability was 5.2%. Franchisees were frustrated. Brand reputation suffered from inconsistent quality. The franchisor needed to intervene without overstepping franchisee autonomy.
Diagnostic audit across all 45 units. Identified four performance tiers. Met with top quartile franchisees and asked: "What are you doing differently?" Common themes: opening/closing procedures, data-driven scheduling, ordering discipline, weekly metrics tracking.
Built a full Operations Playbook from these insights. Piloted with 8 franchisees from second/third quartile. Results validated the approach. Then rolled out system-wide with regional coaches and peer learning groups.
Average franchisee profitability moved from 5.2% to 8.1% within 18 months. Bottom-quartile AUV climbed from $520K to $780K. The playbook now onboards new franchisees in 60 days.
Reach out to talk about fit.