MENU MADE EASY

With consumer’s eating out mindsets changing in the new world, McCain-commissioned insight from Egg Soldiers Food Consultants reveals how to re-engineer your menu and simplify operations to be successful!

A 2 x 2 grid is a simple way of plotting your dishes to find out how well they’re doing – it works alongside your scorecard to give you a fully informed visual idea of your menu performance. You can change the axis to give you the answers you need – from quality, to operational simplicity, to popularity, margin or sales. You could even create several 2 x 2 grids to help you build a great menu analysis model.

MORE POPULAR

More popular but lower GP dishes.

Can you value re-engineer the dish? Is there an opportunity to add more value to the dish and claim a higher price?

Dishes in this box are popular and have a good GP.

Don’t forget to keep improving these dishes so they don’t stagnate! They are your blockbusters.

Less popular and lower GP dishes.

Here is an opportunity to swap out dishes and try something new. Or simply remove the dishes and reduce the menu size.

Less popular but higher GP dishes.

What can you do to make these dishes more appealing? Look at how they compare to trends. Look at menu wording – could it be off putting or unfamiliar? Is the price point right –does it give good value?

HIGHER GP

TACTICS FOR SUCCESS

Our list of tactics and tips will guide you on the areas you should be thinking through – during the process of making these decisions, ensure you focus on your main business goals.

1. ENGINEER YOUR MENU. When it comes to menu re-engineering, be realistic – your menu should be designed around the expectation of changes to consumer behaviour:

Great quality
Value for money
Consistency is key

2. OFFER INDULGENCE. People still want to treat themselves to experiences and to small indulgences, even during economic downturns, so make sure you offer new and indulgent dishes to keep them engaged.

3. DELIVERY IS THE FUTURE. A great delivery menu will follow the same core tactics as your eat-in menu, but also requires careful additional planning as you will need to make sure products travel brilliantly.

4. ADD-ONS’. Upselling is vital, this is a great tool to drive sales, while keeping the operation simple. What easy-toprepare, healthy-margin sides, add-ons or bundle deals can you introduce?

5. CROSS-UTILIZATION IS KEY. Making your ingredients and dishes work harder will be vital and will help reduce waste also. Set yourself a target that an ingredient or dish component needs to be used in 2-3 dishes minimum, otherwise it doesn’t make the cut.

6. TRUST THE EXPERTS. Source pre-made base items to reduce labour costs and add your own simple touches to make it ownable. Select the best frozen food available, and balance this with freshly prepared ingredients across your menu.