Busy is not the same as profitable
Three numbers that show whether a full dining room is actually making money.
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What you’ll learn
- What average spend per cover tells you
- How table turnover shapes a service
- What gross profit margin measures
- Why being busy and being profitable are two different things
About this lesson
Your restaurant is busy.
Tables are full.
The team is working flat out.
Sales look healthy.
So why doesn't the money seem to be there?
Because being busy and being profitable are two very different things.
In this episode, Ali Solak, founder of Epicurean Digital Consultants, breaks down three numbers every hospitality operator should understand:
- Average spend per cover
- Table turnover
- Gross profit margin
And there's a bigger lesson here.
KPI.
SOP.
EBITDA.
These aren't just commercial buzzwords.
For example, a £2 increase in average spend across 200 covers is £400 of additional revenue in one service.
A 3 percentage-point improvement in gross profit on £40,000 monthly sales is another £1,200 of gross profit.
The numbers tell the story.
The question is whether you're actually looking at them.