Case Study: Tap & Run
We need some help with the margin...!
The Cat & Wickets Pub Co is owned by England and Nottinghamshire cricketers Harry Gurney and Stuart Broad.
Their first venture the Tap & Run is a country pub and kitchen situated in the picturesque Vale of Belvoir and won best casual dining venue 2019 in Leicestershire.
The duo plan to build a group of high-quality dining pubs with a nod to their sporting pedigrees!
“Profit Hound have opened my eyes to opportunities within our food business and helped to
deliver excellent savings and a more consistent margin that gives me confidence to scale up."
- Harry Gurney, MD of Cat & Wickets Pub Company
Key Challenges
Effective controls and consistent profit margins are essential to scaling a hospitality business and Harry
had developed an incredibly sophisticated weekly reporting pack covering food, beverage, and labour
but the food margin remained stubbornly inconsistent.
Harry had used “food buying groups” before but the reality was that product range was not like for like
and quality suffered, a red line that could never be crossed.
When Harry met Simon from Profit Hound, he was sceptical and very clear that quality, service, and price are equally important.
Several meetings later and Harry proclaimed:
“I think we need some help with the margin........!!”
So what happened next?
We set to work on the brief of using quality products and delivering a consistently good margin.
The Cat & Wickets Pub Company went for the Full Profit Package which delivered 3% points to the
GP line equal to a 10% savings in a rising cost market.
The financial benefit was the primary motivation, but in addition Simon introduced us to some fantastic businesses, here is a summary of the services delivered and benefit to date.
Like for Like Purchasing Benefit
Electronic spend data was used to price match the entire basket, with the following savings.
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Fruit & Veg + Dairy – 20% savings moving to a supplier introduced by Profit Hound
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Specialist – 16% savings by switching products to incumbent dry & frozen supplier
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Ice-Cream – 20% saving by renegotiating with the incumbent supplier
Additional Purchasing Benefit
The data was also used to assess opportunities for alternative products, a selection of the
opportunities presented and implemented are:
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Fish & Chips - £475/month saving engineering dish content, which improved the quality and taste of the dish
-
Sunday - £900/month saving moving from 4 roast joints to 3, engineering their specification and introducing “The Cricketers Roast” to retain menu coverage
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Condiments - £250/month saving replacing portioned products to high quality bulk dispensed products that increased quality.
Supplier Selection and Support
Profit Hound have No Supplier Payments or Nominated Suppliers for Ultimate Flexibility.
Simon has met with all our suppliers who have embraced this fresh approach, even managing to
get our fish supplier to change the price file format to suit our needs.
Suppliers understand that Profit Hound work solely for the benefit of Cat & Wickets and we have only actually changed one supplier as part of this process.
Additional Support from Profit Hound
Simon’s contacts have helped in more ways than just food profitability, with introductions to Jelly
which is free to use costing software that is now our company standard.
Elite Pic are a specialist recruitment and immigration agent introduced to support with the chef shortages.
Menu Development Support
Harry quickly realised Simon’s wealth of food knowledge and experience should be fully embraced to drive cost reduction and revenue growth and Profit Hound are now an integral part of the Cat & Wickets menu sign off and roll out process.
Monthly Purchasing Review
Electronic spend data and invoices are regularly reviewed for supplier overcharges, adherence to
buying lists and new purchasing opportunities meaning benefit is maximised.
Order Sheets
User-friendly, fully bespoke priced order guides were developed and are maintained monthly to
optimise best price purchasing.
The Results
"Simon’s sector knowledge, networks, communication, and people skills mean I have a valuable
business support that I consider to be an integral part of The Cat & Wickets Pub Company.
I would recommend Profit Hound to any hospitality business wanting to improve margins whilst
maintaining or improving quality”
- Harry Gurney, MD of Cat & Wickets Pub Company