Most businesses review expenses on a regular basis.  Serv-U reviews expenses annually, quarterly and monthly.  One of the reoccurring topics at our annual meeting is evaluating the cost and benefits of outsourcing services.  Most small to medium businesses tend to remove as many outside services as possible and manage them within the organization.  Here are a few outside services that may be cost effective to bring in-house for a foodservice operation.

      Cleaning your own establishment may be cost effective and requires little training or up front cost.  If you have extensive cleaning requirements that you are outsourcing, you may be able to reduce the level of service from your janitorial service company and bring easier tasks in house.  General cleaning, such as floors, surfaces and bathrooms require minimal training, labor and equipment costs.  Mopping equipment is a little over $100 for mops, a bucket, chemicals, and signage. The initial cost of a commercial vacuum is between $200 - $300.  Bathroom supplies, pails, towels and chemicals are all inexpensive.  If more extensive services are to be outsourced, floor buffers, traffic mats, anti-fatigue mats, and kitchen apparel can all be cleaned in house.  Bringing janitorial services in-house was on Serv-U’s list two years ago when we purchased a 65,000 square foot distribution center.  We now do all of our janitorial services in-house resulting in increased quality of cleaning, reduced costs by over $2,000 per year, and reduced building access and security risks.

      In recent years, over 50% of our local market has used knife sharpening services despite the high costs and low quality knives.  Many of those establishments use the services because they need sharp knives, but don’t have the time to sharpen the knives on a regular basis.  I have many customers switching back to in-house knife sharpening to reduce expenses.  Most respond with positive results, specifically discussing how easy it actually is with better knife sharpening technology and the benefits of having better quality knives.  The knife sharpener costs range from $200 - $400.  Knife prices have a large range of costs depending on steel quality and grips.  Please review the link below from Edlund for an actual case study.  The EDLZ-0401 was used in the study and features an accurate knife guidance system for easier usage.

      Beer line cleaning is a must to ensure food safety and beer quality.  Beer line cleaning pumps cost $350 - $450 depending on the length of beer lines.  Beer line cleaner is less than $10 per bottle.  Pumps transfer beer line clear in and out of the lines and come complete with quick disconnect hoses.  Most bars can clean their lines in about an hour and save on cleaning services.

    Finding ways to reduce outside services not only reduces cots, but allows you control of the quality of services being performed.  Many of these services can be replaced with low equipment costs, minimal training and low cost labor requirements.  If you have any tips or if you have tried any of the above ideas successfully, email your stories to us at servusales@servu-online.com and we will add them to this blog.  Thank you for your patronage.

Sincerely,

Chad Hemming

Vice President of Marketing


Additional Links:

Edlund: Knife Sharpeners vs Knife Sharpening Services

(Also be sure to read Part 1 in our "Improve Your Bottom Line" series: Reduce Waste.)

    Reducing your use of paper and plastic disposables is not only environmentally friendly, but cost effective.  I have three suggestions to reduce your weekly purchase of disposable products.  Replace paper towels with hand dryers, replace paper or plastic disposable cups with reusable plastic cups and replace paper baskets with plastic baskets. 

    Replacing paper towels with hand dryers is cost effective, sanitary, and environmentally friendly.  Hand dryers’ initial cost is relatively low at $160 - $300, and they recoup their cost in less than a year.  Most hand dryers are available in either 115V or 208/230V so they are easy to install.  Touchless hand dryers are more sanitary than paper towels and can be used in both the bathrooms and at hand washing stations.  In the “Additional Links” section below is a report on the benefits of hand dryers, including environmental and economic impacts.

    Many restaurants rely heavily on disposable products because of convenience.  Disposables can be a life saver during peak times, but they are very expensive compared to reusable products. Replacing disposable plastic cups and trays with reusable plastics has a relatively low up-front cost and requires little additional labor expense.

Restaurants that use plastic, paper, or foam cups can replace those expensive products with reusable plastics.  Quality disposable cups can cost in excess of $50 per case compared to about $10- $20 per dozen for reusable plastic drinkware.  Since most plastic drinkware is dishwasher safe, the additional labor expense is minimal.  Customers will appreciate the increase in quality and improved environmental impact.

    Replace your paper food baskets with polypropylene baskets and add profit back to your bottom line.  Quality microwave-, heat lamp-, and dishwasher-safe baskets cost about $10 per dozen.  You will still want to use a basket liner, but they are a fraction of the $30 per case paper basket price.  Customers also like the plastic basket’s more rigid structure over a flimsy paper basket.  Most baskets are available in several color options to improve the presentation of the food.

Finding ways to reduce one time use products and replacing them with reusable products not only saves you money, but improves the quality of the product, reduces storage space requirements, and improves the environment.  If you have any tips or if you have tried any of the above ideas successfully, email your stories to us at servusales@servu-online.com and we will add them to this blog.  Thank you for your patronage.

Sincerely,

Chad Hemming

Vice President of Marketing

Additional Links:

World Dryer: Hand Dryers vs Paper Towels 

(Also be sure to read Part 2 in our "Improve Your Bottom Line" series: Reduce Disposables.)

I have read many articles over the last year that ranked foodservice operators’ concerns and “increased food cost” is always in the top two.  I have put together four ways to extend the life of product or to reduce food waste.

1)     Shortening has become one of the top food costs for many restaurants.  If you are frying foods, you should be filtering your oil.  Most operators that are filtering oil extend the oil life by 30-50% with no noticeable quality loss.  Most chains have been filtering for years and have made filtration a requirement in battery frying.  Purchasing a new fryer with a built in filtration system is the most convenient and effective way to filter oil, but also the most expensive. 

    Here are some ideas to filter an existing fryer at a fraction of the cost.  For safety reasons, we recommend using either a hand operated or electric filter machine.  Filter pots are available for under $175 but require handling dangerously hot oil and waiting for it to cool.  Hand operated filter machines range from $640 -$770 and are great for a couple of fryers.  Electric units range from $1000 - $2000 and require less labor.  If you have a floor fryer, most likely a drain valve will be conveniently located in the front and require a one way pump.  Countertop fryers and a few floor fryers do not have drain valves and require a two way pump.  Most portable filter machines are also used to safely transport discarded oil.  Oil treatment costs less than $1 per 30-50 lbs. filtration.  Use a fryer boil-out to remove carbon to keep fryers running efficiently.  This is particularly important on tube fryers because the carbon buildup around the tube acts as an insulator and reduces the fryer’s performance while significantly increasing energy usage.

2)     Portion control can be the difference between a profitable restaurant and an unprofitable restaurant.  A mechanical receiving scale or digital receiving scale should be used to verify your inventory is correct and you are receiving what you have paid for.  High cost food items such as proteins should be measured with a portion control scale.  The chart from Edlund (see links below) shows that over the period of a month, over-serving a $10/lb protein by just 1/8^th of an ounce 30 times a day costs over $50.  If you are weighing as you go, such as weighing each ingredient on a pizza, you need a zero/tare option.  The cost of digital scales has come down over the last five years and such scales are now available for $40 -$200.  When purchasing a scale, think about whether or not you want a digital display, how you are measuring product, and how you plan on cleaning and calibrating your scales.  Other inexpensive portion control devices are serving dishers, batter dispensers and portion control condiment pumps.

3)     If your sales have been fluctuating, your food storage probably has too.  To extend the life of your product, make sure you have properly sized food storage container and food rotation policy.  Use smaller containers and keep them full.  This will allow less air in the container, free up refrigerated space, and require the food to be out of the refrigerator less often.  Make sure the lids are still making a complete seal.  Use a food rotation policy to ensure “first in, first out.”  To make this easier, use a food rotation label with date.  Rapi-Kools will reduce the cool down time on large batch items and extend the life of a product.  Use a thermometer to keep all of your refrigerated space at the optimal temperature.

4)     Behind the bar, liquor is the most expensive food product and should be portion controlled.  Use a measured pourer to get improved accuracy.  This improves drink consistency and profits.  If your bartender is off 1/8 of an ounce per pour (or a fraction of a second free pouring) they gave away 3 drinks per 750ml bottle. Many bars use a system of color coded measured pourers to keep track of the liquor prices.  Pourers with a cover keep flies out and reduce the need to dump bad bottles.  Lined shot glasses are also useful, and are available with 7/8 oz lines so you can “overpour” and still serve 1 oz.  The life and freshness of drink condiments can be extended with iced condiment dispensers.

            In these economic times most restaurants cannot afford to mistakenly give away profits.  If you have any tips or if you have tried any of the above ideas successfully, email your stories to us at servusales@servu-online.com and we will add them to this blog.  Thank you for your patronage.

Sincerely,

Chad Hemming

Vice President of Marketing

Additional Links:

Frymaster & Dean: Benefits of Oil Filtration

Edlund: The Importance of Portion Control

Precision Pours: Don't Risk Overpouring