Introducing the advantages and disadvantages of restaurant expansions! The key to success is the deep freezer

When running a restaurant, some people may be considering expanding into multiple locations.

While there are various benefits such as increased sales and cost reductions from managing one restaurant to expanding to multiple locations, there are also disadvantages, and the key points in management are different.

Therefore, in this article, we will explain the advantages and disadvantages of opening multiple restaurants, as well as the key points for success in opening multiple restaurants.

It also mentions recommended equipment that is beneficial to restaurant owners, so please refer to it if you want to succeed in opening multiple restaurants.

Advantages of opening multiple restaurants

Opening multiple restaurants has the following advantages:

• Can diversify risk
• Increased awareness
• An increase in sales is expected
• You can reduce costs by reducing purchasing unit prices.

Can diversify risk

When operating a single store, there is a risk of bankruptcy or bankruptcy if the business conditions of that store deteriorate.

It is no exaggeration to say that operating a single store is always fraught with risks, as external factors such as changes in the business area or the emergence of competitors can push you into the red.

If you have multiple stores, you can diversify the risk by covering the decline in sales at one store with other stores. Increasing the number of stores will also increase the number of employees, so it will be easier to provide help to other stores.

Increased awareness

Increasing the number of stores increases the number of opportunities for people to see your restaurant, which leads to increased recognition of your restaurant. As awareness increases, more people will become interested in your store through word of mouth, which will lead to the acquisition of new customers.

Compared to slowly raising awareness by operating a single store, this can lead to a positive image, such as ``the store is popular enough to open multiple stores.''

An increase in sales is expected

There are limits to the number of seats and business hours per store, and accordingly, there are limits to the sales of each store. By opening multiple stores, it is possible to increase total sales.

In addition, opening multiple stores in business areas with different locations and customer groups will lead to the acquisition of new customer groups and improve customer attraction efficiency. By encouraging people to visit multiple stores, you can increase the total number of customers and aim to further increase sales.

You can reduce costs by reducing purchasing unit prices.

In the case of restaurants, the number of ingredients and equipment required will increase as the number of stores increases.

In general, purchasing ingredients and equipment from wholesalers in large lots at a time will reduce the unit purchase price. Therefore, by opening multiple stores, it is possible to reduce costs and lower the cost of sales ratio.

Another advantage of having multiple stores is that as the amount of purchases increases and the credibility of the supplier increases, it becomes easier to negotiate for lower prices.

Can optimize staffing

By rotating people between stores, you can optimize staffing and work more efficiently.

If your store is expected to be busy due to the opening of a new store or store-only events, you can temporarily dispatch employees from other stores to help. By effectively distributing employees across multiple stores, it is possible to even out peak and slow seasons and reduce unnecessary labor costs.

Increased employee motivation

When opening multiple stores, it is necessary to increase the number of management positions such as store managers and managers depending on the number of stores.

Employees will have more options for career advancement, and it will be easier to envision a specific career path, which will increase their motivation to work for a long time.

In addition, if the sales that have increased through multi-store expansion can be returned to the salaries and benefits of employees, it can be expected to improve employee satisfaction and further increase motivation.

Disadvantages of having multiple restaurants

There are not only advantages but also disadvantages to opening multiple restaurants, and you cannot avoid this risk when managing multiple restaurants.

The following are some of the disadvantages that you should be aware of when opening multiple restaurants:

• The expense burden is large
• Business management becomes more complex
• Difficult to manage human resources

The expense burden is large

Opening a new store requires opening costs (such as acquiring property and arranging equipment and equipment), operating costs (such as rent and personnel costs after opening), and reserve funds until business gets back on track. Therefore, it is necessary to manage funds more thoroughly than just managing a single store.

In order to overcome the expected expense burden of opening multiple stores, it is important to analyze the current situation and develop a business plan based on a reproducible strategy before opening a new store.

Business management becomes more complex

When you open multiple stores, the burden of administrative work and business management that used to be carried out at one store increases by the number of stores. Expenses such as taxes and personnel costs are managed on an entire business basis rather than on a store-by-store basis, so they tend to become complicated and may require a review of the management system itself.

In addition, because service quality tends to vary between stores, tasks that were not available when operating a single store, such as introducing a manual to stabilize service quality, are required.

In addition to reviewing the management system, an effective way to reduce the burden of increasingly complex business management is to introduce equipment and tools that make the work as simple as possible.

Difficult to manage human resources

As the number of stores increases, the number of employees also increases, making human resource development and shift management difficult.

In particular, it may be difficult to predict sales for a while after opening, and there may be a shortage of manpower. Depending on the region, the response to job openings may be poor, and there may be cases in which it is not possible to secure human resources as planned.

When employees from different stores make up for labor shortages, there are concerns about operational errors due to lack of communication between employees and increased transportation costs.

If it is not possible to allocate appropriate personnel to each store, operational errors may be more likely to occur when managers are absent.

In order to prevent these things, it is important to create an environment for human resource development, such as by making work as simple as possible to make it less likely that mistakes will occur, and by creating work manuals and conducting training.

Key points for success in opening multiple restaurants

In order to successfully open multiple restaurants, it is of course important to judge the timing of opening a restaurant and choose the location, but it is even more important to create a system that provides the same quality of service at each restaurant.

Specifically, it is important to build operations and create manuals tailored to your restaurant so that different employees can provide the same quality of food and service.

Below, we will explain important points to ensure that the quality of food and service is consistent across all stores.

Create a business manual for restaurants

It's not realistic for the owner to keep an eye on every restaurant, so create a business manual for customer service and cooking. Having a manual improves the efficiency of training new employees and makes it easier to maintain a constant level of service quality.

Especially when it comes to cooking, if a manual is not prepared, there is a risk of recipes being leaked or lost or food being wasted due to employees leaving the company.

It will be easier to operate if you create manuals for each job, such as kitchen, floor, and backyard.

(Example) Manual content for each job

Introducing a central kitchen system

The base where food is manufactured and processed to be served at multiple stores is called a central kitchen. Food is prepared and cooked in the central kitchen, then delivered to each store and served at each location to stabilize quality and improve efficiency.

Introducing a central kitchen in a multi-store restaurant business has the following benefits:

• The quality of food can be unified across all stores.
• Lower cost rates by purchasing ingredients in bulk
• Can be operated with a minimum number of cooking staff, reducing labor costs
• Easier food management and hygiene management
• Less risk of recipe leakage

However, if you want to convert it into a central kitchen, you will need to prepare equipment that is sized according to the ingredients you will be handling and the content of your cooking, and a large amount of initial costs will be required.

For this reason, many companies tend to start by using one store as both a store and a central kitchen.

This makes it possible to provide the functionality of a central kitchen while reducing investment costs.

Introduce useful tools and equipment

Opening multiple restaurants increases the amount of administrative work that was not required when operating a single restaurant, so it is also recommended to introduce tools and equipment that will improve operational efficiency.

The following tools and equipment are recommended for opening multiple restaurants:

・ rapid freezer

rapid freezer is a device that can freeze all types of food to high quality. rapid freezer can freeze not only uncooked ingredients but also cooked processed foods and dishes without sacrificing quality.

By rapid freezing ingredients prepared and cooked in stores and central kitchens, even part-time workers can easily provide high-quality food, making this equipment highly compatible with multi-store operations.

・POS register

A POS cash register is a cash register equipped with a POS (Point of Sales) function that can record, collect, and analyze accounting information. By introducing a POS register, you can integrate data from multiple stores, making it possible to centrally manage sales even if you have multiple stores.

・Self-order system

A self-ordering system is a system in which customers can place their own orders without the need for an employee to take orders. QR orders using QR codes support everything from self-ordering to self-payment.

With a self-ordering system, you can run the store with fewer people, making shift management easier and reducing labor costs.

[Multi-store expansion of restaurants] Improve operational efficiency with rapid freezer!

It is no exaggeration to say that the most important thing when operating a restaurant with multiple locations is to be able to provide the same quality of food and service at every location.

When opening a store, we especially recommend installing rapid freezer.

Advances in rapid freezing technology have made it possible to achieve a level of quality after thawing that was previously impossible to reproduce. Even Michelin-starred restaurants and famous restaurants that everyone knows are starting to use rapid freezing.

We have installed rapid freezer in stores and central kitchens to rapid freezing prepared and cooked food. You can provide products with the same quality as before by simply thawing them at the time of serving, or by doing the final cooking (simple cooking such as heating with a steamer and adding brown marks).

This makes it easier to ` `provide the same quality of food and service at every store,'' which is important when opening multiple stores. In addition, by increasing work efficiency, it is possible to reduce costs by eliminating the shortage of craftsmen and staff and reducing personnel costs.

Furthermore, by using rapid freezer, food can be stored for a long time while retaining its freshly-prepared taste, making it possible to increase sales through new sales channels such as boxed lunches and frozen foods.

Conclusion

Opening multiple restaurant locations has many benefits that cannot be obtained by operating a single restaurant, such as risk diversification, increased sales, and increased awareness.

On the other hand, increased expenses and administrative burdens are unavoidable disadvantages, so when considering expanding into multiple stores, it is important to develop a detailed business plan that will lead to success.

In addition, the use of rapid freezer is effective in achieving the goal of `` providing the same quality of food and service at every store,'' which is important when opening multiple stores.

We recommend that you consider this when considering expanding your restaurant chain to multiple locations.