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What markup to do on dishes in a cafe. About the profit of the restaurant: mountains of gold or miserable crumbs ...

As a result, the restaurant business looks extremely profitable, especially for a beginner. And only then, having already invested a more or less significant amount in the creation of his offspring and expecting mountains of gold, the newly minted restaurateur begins to get nervous. With the rhetorical question “where is the profit?” there are various convulsive movements, from exposure of thieving staff to an indiscriminate advertising campaign. But this does not bring the expected profit, because it simply cannot be in this institution during this period in such quantity.

Restaurant financial model

In simple terms, profit is the difference between income and expenditure. There are many sources of income for a restaurant (cafe, bar, canteen, etc.):

This is primarily the sale of dishes and drinks in the hall;

Selling them takeaway, in special packaging;

Delivery of food and drinks;

Holding banquets, receptions, both in their own halls and outside;

Obtaining marketing budgets of sponsors, mainly suppliers of bar products;

The vast majority of restaurateurs earn their income primarily from on-site food and beverage sales. If your own delivery service is organized, and the product of this delivery is in sufficient demand, you can receive an additional 10-15% of the proceeds from sales in the hall. The revenue from banquets and receptions in certain months (October-December, February-April) can be 15-20% in addition to daily sales if the establishment has at least some kind of banquet hall.

If you calculate the sales (revenue) of the restaurant as 100%, the distribution of expenses may look like this:

Sales

100%

Total cost

Product cost

Cost of drinks

Operating costs

Controlled costs

Salary

Public utilities

Electricity

Communication services

Stationery

Transport

Costs

Minor repairs

State Nutrition

Total controllable costs

uncontrollable costs

Licenses/permits

Total Uncontrollable Costs

Total operating costs

Net profit

This picture is typical for many establishments that have been operating for more than a month and are quite successful for their segment. The first months of operation of any restaurant are always unprofitable, some profit, even a few hryvnias, can be obtained at best in the third month, in some formats - six months after the start of work.

Individual figures in this table may differ slightly in a real operating institution. Some types of specific types of expenses are not indicated here, for example, hospitality (food for the owner and his friends), donations to various authorities (many of them for a restaurateur's head), packaging expenses, Internet, television, loan payments, staff motivation, etc. - The list can go on and on. However, there are general "markers" that allow you to understand whether the costs are adequate in general. The main items of expenditure in any restaurant are rent (if the premises are rented), salaries and food and drinks.

So, if any of these main items of expenditure turns out to be significantly higher than the indicated figures, the restaurant will not have long to live. Of course, everything has its own nuances: the first months of operation, fast food establishments, regional peculiarities, and so on.

Cost of food and drinks

In a restaurant of an average price category, the trade margin for cuisine dishes is 250-300% on the raw cost of a dish, the markup for bar products is an average of 400%. In restaurants of the elite price segment, the mark-up for dishes is 300-400%, for a bar - 400-600%. In enterprises of the lower segment, the mark-up for cuisine dishes can be similar to a restaurant one - 250-300%, especially if portions are sold in 100 grams, but basically it is still small: 100-200%.

This value of the trade margin compared, for example, with a grocery store, looks very rosy. But as you can see from the table, purchasing products in a restaurant is only a small part of the cost iceberg. In general, purchase costs for a waiter service should not exceed 25% of revenue, ideally 18-20%. If this figure is significantly higher, then either the prices on the menu are too low, or food and drinks are purchased at inflated prices.

The trading margin is a very flexible thing, there are no mandatory coefficients for specific establishments. The best option is to focus on competitors in your segment, in your city or district in selling prices. If establishments of the type like yours sell, for example, a vegetable salad for 30 UAH, do not put the price of 50 UAH on the menu. This will scare away the guests more than the rats in the hall. And vice versa, menu prices that are lower than competitors are acceptable at the initial stage of work, when guests need to be “lured” with attractive prices.

Purchases are the so-called variable costs, which directly depend on the institution's revenue - the higher it is, the higher the volume of purchased products.

Rent

Most food establishments in Ukraine operate on rented premises. On the one hand, a restaurateur does not spend money on buying premises at insane Ukrainian prices, but immediately invests in a restaurant and pays for it faster. The payback period of the institution, taking into account the purchase of premises, is 7-10 years, excluding the purchase, but with the lease - 2-3 years. But here in a spoonful of honey there is a barrel of tar. The tenant-restaurateur is completely dependent on the landlord. The latter can sell the premises, change the rental rate (naturally, upwards), or simply expel the tenant after the end of the lease agreement, leaving at his disposal everything integral to the premises, made by the restaurateur at his own expense - ventilation, communications, repairs, etc. From such Santa Barbara with rent, unfortunately, no one is safe. Therefore, it is very important for the restaurateur to recoup their establishment and make a profit after the return on investment during the term of the lease. This can be done if the rental rate was initially adequate, allowing you to make a profit. You can understand this even at the stage of negotiations with a potential landlord. As practice shows, if the rent is more than 20% of the revenue, the institution will have a hard time. If this figure is more than 30%, then the establishment has either already died or exists at the expense of some other sources, for example, other enterprises of the same network or the same owner.

Salary

The restaurant is not an employment center, its task is to make a profit, and not to provide jobs for staff. Salaries in the restaurant business in Ukraine are quite low. While this suits everyone, even employees. Only institutions above the average level can afford high-level specialists. If an average-minus cafe suddenly wants to hire a specialist with high demands, he will need to put up with a loss in profits. In this case, chain restaurants are in a winning position, which may contain an “expensive” manager, chef or financial director for the entire chain.

In general, personnel costs, as well as purchases, should not exceed 25% of revenue. The challenge for the owner or manager is to strike a balance between the establishment's fluctuating income and staff costs. If revenue changes, especially due to seasonality, you can always shorten the working day, or send someone on vacation, or temporarily suspend work - there are many ways to reduce payroll costs without loss of service.

Other costs

The rest of the restaurant's costs compared to rent, salaries and purchases are, at first glance, trifles. But if you carefully calculate, these "little things" can accumulate up to 20%, that is, about the same as for the main "basic" costs. You can’t do without them, but you can “squeeze” in something without losses for the institution.

What can be the revenue of the restaurant

In the restaurant business, there is a so-called “electric train effect”. It is expressed in the fact that the distribution of guests over time occurs in waves: sometimes densely, sometimes empty. There was just no one in the hall - and suddenly a full hall ran up, the waiters knocked off their feet, the kitchen was "in steam". And accordingly, the restaurant's revenue also comes in waves. In the morning, it can be quite minimal, a little more at lunchtime, and maximum in the evening (this is typical for most establishments with waiter service). Therefore, it is impossible to calculate the revenue by simply multiplying the average check by the number of seats and the turnover of the hall - you will get unrealistically large numbers that are simply impossible to obtain.

Price segment

Average revenue per day, UAH

3000-7000 UAH

6000-18000 UAH

25000 – 60000 UAH

The fork in numbers concerns not only institutions with varying degrees of success, but also the same institution in different periods. Traditionally, the most "trading" for a city institution located in the center are Thursday and Friday, when its revenue is maximum. In January and July-August, city restaurants and cafes experience a shortage of guests and revenue, respectively. But you still can't jump above your head. A small cafe will never make as much money as a high-end restaurant.

So profit

Net profit comes to the owner only after the full payback of his offspring. If, however, we consider profit as a monthly difference between the expenditure and income part, the figure of about 20% is optimal for payback. During the crisis, a profitability of 10% began to be considered normal, especially if the establishment is located on rented premises. Few people manage to achieve a profitability of 30%, mostly these are very successful enterprises that have been operating for several years.

Price segment

Average profit per month, UAH

Cafe for 50 seats, lower price segment

10 000 - 35 000 UAH

Cafe for 100 seats, middle price segment

18 000 – 90 000 UAH

Above average restaurant with 100 seats

75 000 - 300 000 UAH

These are the mountains of gold. But not for everyone and not immediately.

The restaurant business seems simple. You buy groceries, you cook, you sell at a premium. But it only seems. The profit of a newly opened establishment, in addition to the quality of the cuisine, depends on many factors: good location, quality, selection of waiters, beauty of decorations, comfort of furniture, cleanliness and atmosphere of the dining room, and dozens of other little things. But still, the revenue is provided by the dishes and drinks presented in the menu.

They can vary greatly in price, and most importantly - in cost. The higher the price and the lower the cost, the higher product margin. It is high-margin dishes that provide profit to catering establishments at good times and allow them to stay afloat in crises. What dishes and drinks are the most marginal?

In preparing this material, journalists I.Q. Review did their "homework" and looked for the answer to this question in open sources. Surprisingly, there is almost nothing on the Internet on this topic, there was only one article slightly touching on the topic. Basically, all the materials on the topic of restaurant margins go back to economic factor analysis and are written for hired economists and restaurant consulting specialists working for the network, and not for start-up food service entrepreneurs.

The answer to a simple question from a newbie in the restaurant business who needs to form the concept of his establishment before opening and hiring chefs, " what dishes are more profitable to sell so as not to burn out ” you can only find in paid specialized business literature (for example, a good analysis of the economics of catering is given in Dmitry Denisov’s book Super Profitable Fast Food), but not on the Internet. Therefore, for novice restaurateurs, we have prepared this free material that will help you correctly form the menu of your future cafe or restaurant.

Pizza Company interior

How many different types of ready-made food outlets can you remember, if you don’t take ethnic restaurants? There are not many well-established and popular options for catering establishments. Here is a rough list of what comes to mind in a minute: a pizzeria, a sushi bar, a hot dog stand, a pancake shop, an ice cream parlor, a shawarma stand, a burger shop, a coffee shop, a candy store, a mini-bakery, a sandwich bar, a steakhouse . We strain our memory a little more, remember salad bars, fresh bars and newfangled soup bars.

We will not take a buffet in this article, this is a special sales model that is disassembled in. Also, let's not talk about purely alcoholic bars, there is no food there. However, the topic of alcohol will be touched upon.

So, we have collected a certain pool of establishments that have proven their right to a place in the sun and have established armies of fans. Today, people do not open restaurants and cafes, where the menu is crammed with "whatever". A customer looks askance at sushi made in a shawarma tent. The menu should reflect a certain established concept or be a reflection of a specific national cuisine. What unites all these concepts? The answer is simple: they are formed around the anchor product .

Anchor Products

Let's go straight down the list:

  • pizza;
  • sushi and rolls;
  • hot dogs;
  • pancakes;
  • ice cream;
  • shawarma;
  • burgers;
  • coffee;
  • cakes and pastries;
  • bakery;
  • sandwiches;
  • steaks;
  • juices;
  • soups.

What unites these names? Consider the main characteristics, due to the manipulation of which make up a full-fledged menu around one dish restaurants.

  1. variability. You can order 20 different types of ice cream, an absolute darkness of different confectionery and pastries, pizza with a dozen different toppings, and even shawarma in cheese pita or regular.
  2. Possibility to change the portion size. Everything is clear here, any portions of anything can differ in weight, number of pieces or volume.
  3. Complementarity. You probably won't eat cucumber milk soup. However, a cup of coffee is well complemented by a croissant; to complete the pathos, you should definitely order wine to complement the elite marbled beef steak, and while you are waiting for the soup, an aperitif in the form of a toast will be useful.
  4. Compliance with the type of institution. All the same example with shawarma in a sushi bar. Well, or trying to sell a steak to hurrying customers of a patty shop near the railway station will not be very appropriate.

In general, from this short lecture, it should be clear to you that around the anchor product of different variations and sizes, a menu of suitable additional stages is formed. It is formed in such a way as to maximize the average check: the lower cost of a larger portion relative to its weight, the selection of tempting aperitifs, the ability to add individual ingredients for a fee - you can’t list everything, this is a topic for a book on restaurant marketing, not a narrow article.

The main idea that follows from the entire preface is what makes restaurants exist - these are the above anchor dishes that form the menu.

Approximate figures for dishes: cost price, menu price and margin


Sushi Set

Let's try to "estimate" the margin figures. The exact cost of each dish will vary greatly depending on the fixed costs (rent, salary, some taxes, etc.) and the cost of restaurant equipment. Let's sort it out "on the fingers", using only food prices, variable costs and average "hospital" prices on the menu.

Pizza

What is pizza? This is a bun, some cheese, a bit of vegetables and some meat. The whole thing weighs 400 grams. We buy it for 600 rubles. Even if there are very high-quality products, its preparation is unlikely to cost more than 100 rubles. Markup - 500%.

Rolls

Japanese cuisine is a gold mine. Under one important condition: you have high turnover. After all, sushi is just rice that costs nothing and a tiny piece of fish. You take a fillet of red fish for, say, 700 rubles per kilo and sell a set of 6 rolls for 350 rubles, "beating off" almost half of the cost of food. Another thing is if you bought in bulk 10 kg of fish of five types, sold 10 sets, and the rest is rotten. At high speeds, the cost of one set is 50 rubles, the markup is 600%.

hot dogs

We found out the cost of hot dogs sold by the market leader Stardogs brand. The cost of products (bun and sausage) is indicated there, which is about 40% of the final price of a hot dog (the data was taken a long time ago, there may be a slight deviation). That is, if the price of a hot dog is 120 rubles, you will give 50 rubles for a sausage with a bun to the supplier. There is one major "but" here. Markon, the brand owner and franchisor, places a restriction on franchisees to purchase products only from their suppliers. And, therefore, in addition to royalties, it also has a decent share of raw materials. If you open your own hot dog shop, then you are not bound by any obligations and can take sausages cheaper. In order not to poison people and discourage the desire of the buyer to return, sausages at 200 rubles per kilo or so will do, which makes the cost of a hot dog about 30 rubles. Markup - 300%.

Pancakes

Teremok is the leader in the Russian market. He rightfully earns excellent money, because his product is excellent! Pancakes, excluding equipment depreciation, cost almost nothing, maybe 20 rubles for dough with filling for one piece. The average price of a pancake in Teremka is about a hundred rubles. Markup - 400%.

ice cream cup

The most expensive thing in the production of ice cream is ... electricity. One serving of ice cream has a real cost of 8 rubles or even lower, but they sell it for 20 and more. But, of course, in a decent institution of the Swensen’s level, the ice cream is cooler and the prices are higher. A set of 3 balls with beautiful and delicious toppings can be sold for 250 rubles at a cost of 50. Margin - 400%.

Shawarma

According to Kommersant-Money, from one kilogram of meat, 7 portions of shawarma come out after frying. Lavash and greens cost 10 rubles. To have a larger margin, it is better to take chicken. The cost of a serving of shawarma products is approximately 30 rubles. Commodity margin is “only” 200 percent.

Burgers

Pretty monopolized topic. You will not make good quality burgers cheaper than McDonald's for the simple reason that you will not have enough turnover to get good prices for raw materials - after all, in Russia 90% of burgers are sold by Mac, and people simply do not want to try new things! Almost all burgers in Russia are represented by networks or franchises of American diners. The only more or less well-known independent outlet in Moscow is Rusburger on the Arbat. A huge establishment with a very pleasant cuisine, Burger King prices and its own style is always empty. However, they opened a second point recently, so they are earning something. But this is an isolated case when people invested very powerfully and seriously approached the matter.

If we take the segment of low-quality market burgers, then they will cost as much as shawarma, but no one will buy them with a bunch of understandable alternatives in the same price range. Do not meddle in this topic, there is no money here, there is no economic sense to give a markup.

Confectionery

According to Womanwiki, the cost of a cake is about 200 rubles. And you can sell it for 600. Markup 200%. It should be noted that cakes spoil very quickly, and buyers are very picky and are ready to take only today's cake, despite the official shelf life of a regular cake of 5 days. Money is made on cakes. There are few costs, the weight is small, and the average price is 80 rubles. The margin can be estimated at 250-300%. There is definitely money in the subject, some confectioners manage to sell cakes for 300 rubles and more. But the business is complex, you need to have an approach to customers. We do not recommend climbing into the confectionery topic without experience and knowledge.

Fresh bakery

A canonical example is the Paul Bakery franchise. If anyone suddenly does not know, this is a company that successfully sells bread for 130 rubles, just adding figs or nuts to it. People come there because there are no analogues in the supermarket and the store from the local bakery. The cost of bread is 10-15 rubles. To be fair, not all the bread there is that expensive. They successfully combine the sale of pastries with the sale of cakes. We estimate the margin from 500% minimum.

Sandwiches

In large cities of Russia, the niche is occupied by Subway. In small ones, his franchise of a gnawed sandwich is not worth it, because the brand is not familiar to anyone. And they sell a bun with herbs and a piece of meat for a very solid 200-300 rubles. The cost price is like shawarma, maybe a little higher due to the variety of meat. The markup is from 500%, the question is, will they buy a sandwich from you for 300 rubles in a city with 15 thousand?

Steaks

How much does a good steak cost in Moscow? Better not to know!

250 grams of meat for 2000 rubles? Why not - welcome to the steakhouse!

Already counting the millions earned in your mind? It's not so simple, it's an Australian marbled beef steak, which costs about 100 bucks per kg in retail. Can you imagine if such a party goes bad for you? An ordinary good steak sells for 500 rubles, which is also not bad, but will not make you an instant millionaire. Markup 400%.

But the Russian reader would not be a Russian reader if his inquisitive mind did not immediately give out a plan to sell Russian beef under the guise of elite marble. The plan is good, there is only one but. Among your wealthy clients there will be respected gourmets from Chechnya and Dagestan, who may not understand the idea and put such a restaurateur on the meat.

Soups

So what is soup? This is water with vegetables, infused on a piece of meat. Selling water for 300 rubles per plate - how can it be unprofitable? Maybe if you sell tom yum with king prawns, for example. It consists entirely of rare imported ingredients obtained through air delivery. However, you can find delicious and inexpensive recipes for soups and successfully work with a margin of 500%. Soup bars are a very promising topic if your chef is really good. And chicken soup can be eaten at home.

Please note that all markups do not include fixed costs. If you factor in equipment depreciation and break down actual fixed costs by actual sales volume, the actual profitability of dishes can be very low or negative (at low turnover). The material indicates “spherical marginality in a vacuum” so that you have something to build on in your own research.

This is all great, a large margin, good prospects for opening your own cafe, but still I wonder where the biggest margin is hidden? Let's find out!

margin kings

What needs to be done in order to earn maximum money from one kilogram of the product?

You already know the answer if you read our material "". Recall that Denis brought out a useful household rule: avoid food, the cost of which per kilogram is above 300 rubles. The answer is simple: you need to understand the price. And so that the crazy price is not so noticeable, you need to inflate the volume by reducing the weight. What kind of raw material allows you to make such a product? Any person knows and tried at least 90% of the list, but in everyday life we ​​never think about the cost.

Rating of the most marginal positions in public catering

7. Fresh and smoothies

The fresh juice business is a fantastic investment with low competition and low start-up capital requirements. Provided that you can get a rental at the entrance point. A kilo of oranges costs 60 rubles in bulk. 400 grams of juice is obtained from it. A glass of this volume is sold for 250 rubles. Expensive for pure orange juice. The problem of how to take more money from a client for juice was solved by the market leader - the international company Zumo. Usually several types of juice interfere, they call it a hipster name - and now the buyer does not feel sorry for 300 rubles per glass!

But what is a 400 percent margin on juices, the guys thought, and went on. Smoothies are the same juice diluted with yogurt and ice. More ice, of course, because ice is worth nothing, and margin is obtained from 1000%. Hipsters are cheering and begging for more!

Zumo sells its franchise for crazy money, although in reality, a citrus juicer, a water dispenser, a freezer and a blender are enough to open such a business.

6. Alcoholic cocktails and alcohol on tap

Have you ever tried to "push" a bottle of Baltika beer for 600 rubles? And don't try. They won't buy. Quite another matter - alcoholic cocktails. Alcohol - for 30-50 rubles, the rest - water and flavorings. It is sold for 500 rubles only for the journey and feeds all the owners of clubs and bars in Russia. The same is the sale of strong alcohol by the glass. Markup - about 1000 percent. Feeds, clothes, buys sports cars - a fairy tale, not a product.

5. Salads

We take a bunch of greens and vegetables for 10 rubles, cut them, put them on a plate, fill them with dressing, and sell them for 250 rubles. Brilliant? Brilliant! All classic restaurants make money on salads. Markup - from 1500%. Of the equipment - only a knife.

4. Popcorn

Product specific. Traditionally, popcorn is sold successfully in cinemas and parks, in other places the trade is doomed to failure. The device is cheap, about 30 thousand rubles. In fact, this is corn heated in oil in hot air, which explodes and creates volume. The cost of a kilogram of the product, together with oil, is below 100 rubles. One kilogram makes 30 cups of popcorn. At a price of 200 rubles per glass, like in a cinema, it is unlikely that you will be able to sell it if you are not the owner of a cinema. But for 80 rubles really. Total - markup of approximately 2300%.

TOP 3 highest margin products

3. Belgian waffles

For cooking, you need a penny waffle iron (up to 4 thousand rubles), dough and jam. The cost price is 10 rubles. In restaurants it costs 250 rubles apiece, for elite food. Markup - 2400%.

2. Coffee

A cup of coffee in Moscow costs from 70 to 350 rubles. A kilogram of coffee beans costs from 600 rubles and pays off with two cups. The coffee machine is capable of brewing 160 cups of coffee from one kilogram of coffee beans. In general, the whole problem here is only the cost of the coffee machine itself. Normal ones cost about 200 thousand rubles. If you do not take into account the depreciation of equipment, then markup - 9300 percent.

1. Cotton Candy Is Margin Queen

SUMMARY

Trying to cover a sufficiently large amount of information in one article, we gave a superficial assessment, without focusing on the high accuracy of the numbers. In practice, marketing research for a single category of catering costs from 40 thousand rubles and takes 30 pages of printed text.

Prices and data were taken from open sources as of 2015. These figures should not be taken as the ultimate truth, they were calculated en masse with a sufficiently large error for visibility. At the moment, there are no analogues of such systematized information on the restaurant business in Runet, we hope that this study will be useful for you to start your own more detailed research in a particular restaurant industry and successfully start your business in catering.

Knowing the theory is a necessary, but far from determining factor for business success. In fact, starting your own catering business is hard work, whether it's a chic restaurant or a democratic canteen. Only those who tried to become a restaurateur can tell the truth about the practical side of the issue. If you are looking at a catering business, we recommend reading the real one.

Waiter salary video

If you do not take into account the depreciation of equipment, then the markup is 9300 percent.1. Cotton Candy - Margin Queen

Everyone was in the zoo in childhood, everyone ate airy cotton candy. It takes 20 grams of sugar to produce it. A portion costs up to 150 rubles. The device for the production of cotton candy is inexpensive, about 30 thousand rubles. Wholesale sugar costs from 40 rubles per kg. The markup is up to 18,750 percent. Read our business plan for selling cotton candy.

SUMMARY

Trying to cover a sufficiently large amount of information in one article, we gave a superficial assessment, without focusing on the high accuracy of the numbers. In practice, marketing research for a single category of catering costs from 40 thousand rubles and takes 30 pages of printed text.

Prices and data were taken from open sources as of 2015.

Trade margin = planned markup percentage / (100+N)

  • Taking into account the range involved in the turnover. If an enterprise offers the population goods with different trade margins, but takes into account and controls the amount of revenue for product groups with the same margin.

    • Revenue = revenue of item 1 × estimated markup of item 1 + revenue of item 2 × estimated markup of item 2 + … + revenue of item n × estimated markup of item n

  • For the product range in the balance - if an inventory of products is carried out at the end of the reporting period.

    • Revenue \u003d opening balance, which is recorded on account 42 + credit turnover on account 42 - debit turnover on account 42 - balance determined at the end of the reporting period

  • An option for calculating the average percentage is if the markup for all goods is different.

    • Recall that Denis brought out a useful household rule: avoid food, the cost of which per kilogram is above 300 rubles. The answer is simple: you need to understand the price. And so that the crazy price is not so noticeable, you need to inflate the volume by reducing the weight. What kind of raw material allows you to make such a product? Any person knows and tried at least 90% of the list, but in everyday life we ​​never think about the cost.

    Rating of the most marginal positions in public catering


    Fresh and smoothies

    The fresh juice business is a fantastic investment with low competition and low start-up capital requirements. Provided that you can get a rental at the entrance point. A kilo of oranges costs 60 rubles in bulk. 400 grams of juice is obtained from it.
    A glass of this volume is sold for 250 rubles. Expensive for pure orange juice.

    What markup should be in a cafe in 2018

    This model is questionable, as the margin may be too high or, conversely, low. However, it is good when planning the operation of the restaurant, as it gives an idea of ​​​​what the markup threshold should be in the establishment in order for it to operate at a profit (you can also analyze whether your consumer is ready for the established prices).

    • Perceived price

    This model is focused on the expectations of the guest. If you know that the tiramisu in your coffee shop will be bought the way you would like, at the price of X, then most likely you will try to put this price.
    After all, it is important for you not only to maximize the price, but also to make sure that you do not have write-offs and the turnover allows you to order a certain amount of raw materials.

    What markup can be made on a product according to the law

    As we noted above, there are no restrictions on the size of the trade markup for most products, services and product groups in Russia. It is determined by the business entities themselves, taking into account the realities of the market situation. But there are specific socially significant product groups for which the state sets the maximum size of trade allowances.

    These include:

    • medical products;
    • pharmaceuticals;
    • baby food;
    • dishes and products of public catering facilities located in educational institutions;
    • products that are delivered to the regions of the Far North and equated to them.

    Surcharges for medical devices and pharmaceuticals, as well as their list, are regulated by the Russian Government.

    And the agricultural producer just says that their large retail chains are choking - they pay for entrance, for a shelf, but they don’t pay for air, ”said Yermakova.

    If you want to sell - pay. Such an unspoken law has been working between product manufacturers and the management of retail chains since the 90s. Suppliers, in general, do not mind paying a “fee” for entry, favorable placement of their goods on shelves or additional marketing services from the network, but everything should be within reasonable limits, David Yakobashvili, chairman of the board of directors of Wimm-Bill-Dann, is sure.

    “There are some things that are quite objective.


    You can pay a bonus for this. What happened two years ago? There were 27 positions that were imposed by trading networks. Suppose the supplier must provide the network with a profit no less than such and such a size.

    These figures should not be taken as the ultimate truth, they were calculated en masse with a sufficiently large error for visibility. At the moment, there are no analogues of such systematized information on the restaurant business in Runet, we hope that this study will be useful for you to start your own more detailed research in a particular restaurant industry and successfully start your business in catering.

    Knowing the theory is a necessary, but far from determining factor for business success. In fact, starting your own catering business is hard work, whether it's a chic restaurant or a democratic canteen.
    Only those who tried to become a restaurateur can tell the truth about the practical side of the issue.

    That is, you can get 20,000 rubles of profit both by increasing the margin to 60%, and by doubling the turnover.

    However, it should be remembered that price reduction does not always lead to an increase in turnover. For branded seasonal goods, the margin in the first "hot" months (weeks) of sales can reach 400-500% or even more. Therefore, out of season, sellers set discounts up to 70% and still make a profit.

    Do all items need to be priced the same?

    If an entrepreneur sells a limited range of products, then he sets individual margins for each item and can respond flexibly to fluctuations in demand.

    Markup - 400%.

    Shawarma

    According to Kommersant-Money, from one kilogram of meat, 7 portions of shawarma come out after frying. Lavash and greens cost 10 rubles. To have a larger margin, it is better to take chicken. The cost of a serving of shawarma products is approximately 30 rubles. The commodity margin is “only” 200 percent.

    Burgers

    Pretty monopolized topic. You will not make good quality burgers cheaper than McDonald's for the simple reason that you will not have enough turnover to get good prices for raw materials - after all, in Russia 90% of burgers are sold by Mac, and people simply do not want to try new things! Almost all burgers in Russia are represented by networks or franchises of American diners. The only more or less well-known independent outlet in Moscow is Rusburger on the Arbat.

    Can you imagine if such a party goes bad for you? An ordinary good steak sells for 500 rubles, which is also not bad, but will not make you an instant millionaire. Markup 400%.

    But the Russian reader would not be a Russian reader if his inquisitive mind did not immediately give out a plan to sell Russian beef under the guise of elite marble. The plan is good, there is only one but. Among your wealthy clients there will be respected gourmets from Chechnya and Dagestan, who may not understand the idea and put such a restaurateur on the meat.

    Soups

    So what is soup? This is water with vegetables, infused on a piece of meat.
    Selling water for 300 rubles per plate - how can it be unprofitable? Maybe if you sell tom yum with king prawns, for example. It consists entirely of rare imported ingredients obtained through air delivery.

    At the same time, you need to understand who exactly your guest is, since everyone has different expectations, and the most important thing for you is that the price matches these expectations.

    • Competitive price

    This model is focused on the price of the market and reflects a simple truth - with the quality of a dish comparable to competitors, you cannot set the price you want, you have to look around. An exception to this rule will be some exclusive positions and offers that only you have.

    • Quantity Discounts

    This model is used during promotions. It is often used in the promotion of alcohol.

    We continue the educational program. This is exactly an educational program aimed at those who are far from business and restaurant business.
    we found out that the real profitability of restaurant sales is about 10%. However, it is likely to be a little lower. That is, for a million rubles of net profit, there will be one hundred thousand rubles or less. Best case scenario. The market leader, Rosinter, shows an EBITDA margin (that is, before taxes and depreciation, roughly speaking) of about 11%. Net profit, accordingly, is even lower (moreover, lower by interest, not fractions of percent).
    Now let's see what the cost part consists of. I’ll make a reservation right away, I will give conditional numbers, sometimes based on someone else’s assessments, sometimes I’ll just take it from the ceiling. Because they are all different.

    One often hears indignation about expensive prices in cafes and restaurants. “Well, meat costs 200 rubles a kilogram, and you offer me a 200-gram cutlet, where not only meat, is offered to me for 300!” Apart from the misleading comparison of raw (or frozen meat) with a cooked patty, there is a complete misunderstanding of how a restaurant works.
    So, let's look at the restaurant economy in the context.

    Let's go in order.
    Foodcost . Literally - "the cost of food." In old Soviet - "cost". Because this sometimes confuses people with accounting and economic past/present, I'm using a newfangled buzzword. In the restaurant industry, the food cost typically ranges from 25 to 30-40 percent. In ultra-expensive restaurants, I suppose the food cost can drop to 15-20 percent. But I'm only guessing, because they also often use very expensive products. Although in my native Yekaterinburg, in many famous places I see dishes from recognizable frozen products from Metro.
    In the case of a restaurant, the food cost will be the only conditionally variable cost item . That is, these costs will change along with sales volumes. Other articles - conditionally permanent . Otherwise, with a change in sales volumes, they do not change or change insignificantly (you can not sell anything, the rent will remain the same, but chefs have to be paid).
    Rent . I read in some American book that if the rent of a restaurant is above 8%, then it is doomed to ruin. Then, in another source, I saw a figure of 12%, already in relation to Russia. I don’t know where the truth is, I put a bigger number, because rental rates in Russia sometimes make armpit hair straighten. I have already said that I somehow compared rental prices in the center of Prague and on Elmash (a sleeping area of ​​Yekaterinburg, to put it mildly, not rich). On Elmash they were a little higher.
    Most cafes and restaurants have this article, because buying real estate is expensive and inefficient (investments in real estate pay off in 6-15 years, and in a restaurant, if successful, in 2-5 years).
    FOT . It's a wage fund with taxes. The figure is taken from the ceiling.
    taxes . For small establishments, this is UTII and a little tax on transport, property and other small things. The simplistic people have a simplified version, the krupnyak has VAT and other muck. I also took taxes out of the blue. I draw your attention to the fact that payroll taxes and fees "sit" in the payroll.
    Other . This is any other restaurant "trifle". For simplicity, I included here the depreciation of equipment (and not only it), and interest on loans and leasing, in short, everything that was not included in the above articles. On this article, as a rule, novice restaurateurs "burn out". Every month I wonder where so many costs come from. You start digging - everything is needed. This includes packaging, printing, detergents, and various minor repairs, all sorts of payments for SES analyzes, state fees, sewer cleaning, sewing uniforms, a communal apartment (if you only knew how much electricity the cafe consumes!). And another, another, another. This is not an article - but a restaurateur's appendicitis. If you don't follow it, it will break through and ruin the whole business.
    Profit . Of course, profit is not a cost, it is a profit. But I decided to insert, for clarity.

    Now let's open an imaginary cafe. Suppose it survived and exists. Trades, let's say, for a million rubles a month. How much is paid where, calculate for yourself, it's easy.
    Come on, our cafe will sell kebabs and beer. Suppose a beer + kebab set costs 250 rubles (150 rubles for a kebab, 50 rubles for a mug of beer). We have a cafe in a remote province, so it can’t be more expensive, competition will devour it.
    Does this mean that in this "food package" we have 25 rubles profit? Nifiga. So far, we know only one thing - that 30% of this amount is occupied by products. That is, 75 rubles.
    Here comes the next important concept. Margin.
    Margin . It's simple: sales minus the food cost. In our case, when selling one set, it is 175 rubles. In the monthly report, the margin will be 1 million rubles. minus the food cost is 700 thousand rubles. The margin pays for fixed costs.
    There is such a thing as break even (how much to sell to cover costs).
    It is easy to calculate that only to cover conditionally fixed costs we need to sell 3429 sets .
    Is there some more target profitability point . That is, how much you need to sell in order to earn the desired profit.
    In order for us to receive a million rubles at the end of the month, we need to sell 4 000 our gentleman complexes. How many pieces you need to sell to pay rent, wages, etc., you can calculate yourself.
    4000 sets per month is 133 sets per day. With a 12-hour day - a little more than 10 sets per hour. At the same time, we will start earning profit on the evening of the 26th.

    A good person recently asked me a question: how can you give a 20% discount on products if the profit is 10%? Everything is simple. A 20% discount on products will reduce the cost of our set to 200 rubles. The margin will fall from 175 to 125 rubles. Food cost will grow to 37.5%.
    The economy of the enterprise with sales of a million rubles will look like this:

    As you can see, the profit instead of 10% has become 2.5%. Because profit is the only income statement item that easily changes downwards ;)
    It turns out that 20% discount reduced our profit by 4 times or 75% .
    In practice, when introducing a discount, they count on a significant increase in sales (they try to earn from turnover). This is a difficult business, any mistake leads to losses. Slightly mistaken with a discount - and went into the red.
    Well, actually, that's all. The restaurant cost tour is over.

    I hope this tutorial will be useful to someone.

    ", №4 2005

    One aspect of the restaurant business is the choice of pricing policy. With the help of this financial instrument, you can both create a queue at the front door, and hint to a few visitors who happen to be in the institution by chance that they should look for another place for a meal. Therefore, before deciding on a trade margin, restaurateurs need to take into account all the nuances of this art.

    Leveling by clients

    Long gone are the days when the owners of unpresentable restaurants with slow waiters, tobacco smoke in the hall and exorbitant prices on the menu, arrogantly looked at their rare guests without letting a cigarette out of their mouths. The era of countless pathos "Consuls", "Machiavelli" and "Acapulco" with an abundance of tinted "fives" at the entrance, indispensable billiards and light music in the bar has sunk into oblivion. Since visiting a restaurant has turned from an attribute of status into the most ordinary way to satisfy hunger, the very approach to restaurant business has changed. Previously, restaurateurs in relation to prices adhered to a single rule: "More expensive means better." And it was absolutely right, because it was believed that only rich people go to restaurants. The chronically insomniac director of the distillery, the shy official, and the recently released leader of the organized crime group rarely paid attention to the prices on the menu. Other citizens visited restaurants three times in their lives - on the day of graduation, wedding and retirement. Therefore, their opinion was not taken into account.

    Today, such logic is inappropriate, because a modern restaurant is primarily a catering establishment, that is, a place where customers can get quality cuisine combined with decent service. Of course, visitors come to restaurants not only for the sake of cuisine and service. Thus, in elite restaurants aimed at representatives of big business, politicians and other wealthy audiences, an important role is played by a luxurious interior, an eminent chef and the status of visitors relaxing at the next table. However, for restaurants belonging to the latter category, it is not empty pathos that is of paramount importance, but a high turnover of food and alcohol. As sad practice shows, with a different approach, even the most exclusive restaurant is doomed to failure, and in the shortest possible time. Therefore, the leaders of food establishments must adhere to the policy of the greatest profit with the maximum turnover of food and drinks. However, in practice, restaurateurs rarely bother to find the most effective pricing methodology.

    With rare exceptions, in most Moscow restaurants, the markup is about 300 percent, says Boris Yaroslavtsev, manager of the Bad Cafe. - The final price, as a rule, does not depend on the pricing policy chosen by the restaurant, but on the cost of products and ingredients. In inexpensive restaurants, cheap products are used, in expensive ones, with a higher cost, but the mark-up is the same there and there.

    According to many market representatives, small deviations from the traditional 300 percent are allowed, but the selective pricing policy, when the price of each dish is determined individually and correlated with the cost of other menu items, is not used in all Russian restaurants. One of the main reasons for this, perhaps, lies in the history of Russian restaurant business. Some fifteen years ago, when most food establishments belonged to the state, there was a clear gradation: canteens, restaurants of the second, first category and "luxury". The trade markup was determined according to the specified level: in canteens - 60 percent, in restaurants of the first category - 125, in "luxury" - 200. Now the markup is determined by restaurateurs, and not by the state. However, this does not change the picture much, and many entrepreneurs are still trying to "drive" into the template percentages laid down by the accountant-calculator, the cost of renting a room, salaries to employees, the cost of products and other expenses. At the same time, such a pricing policy not only significantly reduces profits, but can also be detrimental to the food establishment as a whole.

    Determining the final price of a dish by a constant margin is the wrong and dangerous way, - says Alexander Filin, chef of the restaurant "Red Square, House 1". - With such pricing, a situation inevitably arises when dishes with a low cost come out unreasonably cheap, and with a high cost - unnecessarily expensive. In my opinion, the margin should be determined individually.


    Cheaper or more expensive

    So, no matter how high the level of gastronomy and service a restaurant is, the standard trade margin can cause a reduction in its profit, turnover and the number of regular guests. How to choose the optimal pricing policy in each case? This is a rhetorical question, because, as the most successful restaurateurs admit, there is simply no single pricing method that can be applied simultaneously to all menu items.

    Determining the price of each menu item is a creative process that depends on many factors, including the direction of the restaurant's cuisine, its location, the size of the average check, the offer of the closest competitors, the time of year, etc., - Alexander Yudin, restaurant manager, shares his opinion "Sushi House". - The initial steps towards establishing the optimal margin are to determine the potential client: how much he is willing to part with when going to a given restaurant, what dishes and drinks he wants to see and at what yen. For example, our restaurant, due to its location, was immediately focused on employees who come to eat at lunchtime from offices located nearby. Therefore, in our case, it is unprofitable to set high yen, and we have relied on high throughput and high turnover.

    Obviously, each catering establishment has its own potential client, the average bill of the establishment depends on the preferences and financial capabilities of the establishment. First of all, the price level should correspond to the idea of ​​visitors about the price category of the restaurant. In this case, visitors do not differ much from the restaurateurs themselves, dividing all food establishments into several conditional categories: with low, medium, moderate and high prices. Simply put, a person who is going to visit a restaurant makes a choice according to the offer stated in the advertisement (on pillars, invitation cards, direct mail, banners, billboards, in magazines, the Internet, etc.), expecting to spend a certain amount and receive the appropriate assortment of dishes, quality of food and service. If, when visiting a restaurant, a client encounters prices that are noticeably different from the expected level, then next time he will simply choose another institution. In this sense, there is no fundamental difference at what time of the day or day of the week a person came to a restaurant. A client who left too much (in his opinion) amount for a business lunch will not come back just like a visitor who visited a restaurant on a festive evening and was faced with low prices and an insufficiently high level of gastronomy and service. Therefore, firstly, it is extremely important to create advertising messages with clear content that does not have ambiguous interpretations. And secondly, when determining the price level, one should not forget about one rule - the higher the cost of dishes, the more demanding the client.

    Low prices and acceptable quality of dishes are quite significant reasons for increasing turnover. The restaurant in a relatively short time will increase the number of visitors, which, moreover, will increase exponentially thanks to "word of mouth" - the transfer of information from visitors who have already visited the restaurant to their friends and acquaintances. With low prices on the menu, visitors are unlikely to pay attention to inexpensive serving, to the sluggishness of waiters, or to a bartender enthusiastically solving a crossword puzzle with a pencil in his teeth. But the higher the cost of dishes, the more attentive the attention of visitors will be. Guests, so to speak, will have the full moral right to study the worn or even torn shoes of waiters and managers, shabby plumbing in the toilet, and scratched furniture. You will not be forgiven for the lack of a good ventilation system and fresh flowers on the tables, and "connoisseurs of beauty" who appear out of nowhere will meticulously study the manufacturer's name on inexpensive serving items and shake their heads indignantly.


    Alignment with a neighbor

    In order to list all the factors that affect the size of the average bill and the price of a particular dish in a restaurant, there will not be enough imagination. However, among the paramount ones are the location, interior, atmosphere, the qualifications of the chef and sommelier, the cost of food and drinks. In other words, every aspect that makes a restaurant or a certain dish on its menu stand out from the offer on the market is a reason to increase the price. Of course, only if the visitors themselves are ready for the declared price and if competing restaurants have not had time to create such an offer.

    Difficult to prepare or an exotic dish can have very large margins, - says Alexander Filin. - In other words, if the cook has created a miracle, then he has every right to demand any money for him. In this case, it is only necessary to find the optimal price at which the offer will be in demand among restaurant visitors.

    There are enough cases when this most optimal price for dishes includes a margin that exceeds the "standard" 250-300 percent by several times. For example, the author's dish of the chef of the Oxford restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat Saisons, culinary specialist of the highest qualification Raymond Blanc (Raymond Blanc) - Florette Sea & Earth salad of black caviar, truffles, lobsters, lobsters and other delicacies costs 600 pounds (about $ 1000) for portion. A popular dish of elite restaurants in Asian countries, soup from the nests of South Chinese sea swallows (nests of a retinue of fry and fish eggs) has a price in the same range. Domestic restaurants also do not suffer from a lack of expensive author's dishes. Thus, the price of a dish popular among guests of Moscow Chinese restaurants - Peking duck - for the preparation of which only imported poultry grown according to a special technology is used, reaches $250.

    The uniqueness of the offer, a kind of monopoly on the presented dish, will allow setting prices limited only by the purchasing power of customers, - continues Boris Yaroslavtsev. - But the menu of a restaurant cannot consist exclusively of original and extravagant dishes, difficult to prepare, which will allow you to set exorbitant prices and, in spite of everything, will be popular with visitors. In practice, overpricing individual dishes, as well as increasing the average check, is unlikely to increase profits, but rather serve the opposite purpose - to make em an institution uncompetitive. As a rule, adequate restaurateurs try to solve the inverse problem - to find ways to reduce the yen, and without losing the quality of the offer.


    Cheaper nowhere

    Of course, each dish has a cost, below which no restaurant can fall. With all the desire to stand out due to low prices, a restaurateur cannot make an extra charge on dishes, for example, by 50 or 100 percent. This restaurant will simply go bankrupt. In addition, do not forget that the presence of low prices or discounts is not in all cases a clear competitive advantage. Most regular restaurant patrons are well aware of the average level of prices for food, drinks and products. Announcing discounts on all menus, "dish of the day" or "special menu" for many visitors is tantamount to a statement that the restaurant has serious problems and management is ready to go to great lengths to attract customers. Paradoxical as it may seem, but in practice many Russian gourmets are convinced that such "marketing" hides only a reduction in the weight of dishes and a decrease in their quality due to switching to less expensive products or due to "overloading" the staff. At the same time, not all people who have the opportunity to constantly visit restaurants are ready to sacrifice quality for the sake of even significant savings.

    An economically sound policy of low prices or discounts is not tantamount to a situation where a restaurant with initially inflated prices decides to lower them after some time due to the above-mentioned reduction in the weight of dishes, lowering the cost of ingredients and reducing the number of chefs. In order for discounts to give a positive result due to a significant increase in turnover, the flow of visitors must increase. And not for an abstract number of visitors, but exactly as much as it was planned long before the discounts were announced. Otherwise, low prices will be equivalent to voluntary
    nomu and senseless rejection of profits. And this is one of the main disadvantages of the restaurant "dumping". With the wrong pricing policy, price cuts lead to only a short burst of demand, while it is associated with serious barriers to business development in the form of reduced profits and the subsequent need to increase prices.

    Many establishments, when determining the optimal price of a dish, are guided primarily by the menu of neighboring restaurants, - points out Alexander Yudin. - But with this approach, the restaurant runs the risk of significantly reducing profits, because competing establishments always try to underestimate prices. As a rule, prices are not reduced for all menus, but only for some items. They are sold below cost in the expectation that diners will order more expensive dishes in addition to them, and in the future will come back for lower prices. In practice, customers order only dishes with a lower margin, and this can cause significant losses. Therefore, the best way out is not to try to lower prices lower than in all neighboring restaurants, but to create a competitive offer for prices and assortment, based on the strengths and weaknesses of competitors.


    Up game

    Various methods can be used to determine a competitive price for a dish. Here is one of them.

    After determining the price segment in which the restaurant will be competitive, you can proceed to compiling the menu and calculating the cost of all dishes, - Alexander Filin builds the algorithm. - In the perception of visitors, the value of a dish consists of three components - quality, quantity and price. Therefore, the size of the trade margin is determined based on the competitiveness of the price: the lower price limit depends on the weight and cost of products, ingredients, rental costs, salaries, chefs, etc., and the upper limit depends on how much this dish can be sold in restaurant. There is a category of dishes, the margin for which should be minimal. For example, business lunches, some dishes from products with a high cost, the turnover of which should be higher. And there is a category of dishes with a maximum margin, which compensate for all costs. And above all, these are menu items with an initially low cost and dishes that are most popular with restaurant visitors. It is also necessary that the price boundaries between competing menu items are clearly defined. But all prices must be in the same price segment. For example, if one salad costs forty euros, and the other four, then this difference should be clear to the guest.

    So, the prices for the menu items are determined. Thanks to the right calculation and a happy accident, the restaurant's offer became popular with visitors. And here another question arises related to pricing. After the restaurant has a circle of regular customers, and certain dishes have become especially popular, every sane restaurateur will have an idea: should I increase the price of the most popular menu items?

    In principle, there is nothing reprehensible in such a desire, especially since food prices rise almost every season. At the same time, the increase in prices in the restaurant is perceived by its guests very painfully. Therefore, it is extremely important under no circumstances to raise the price of all menus at the same time. The price can be gradually increased only for signature dishes that are especially popular with guests (with the author's recipe and design, special presentation, which have no analogues in competing restaurants). And only if it does not harm this very popularity.

    If a restaurateur raises the cost of dishes, then he must clearly imagine how he will explain these highest prices to his guests, Boris Yaroslavtsev warns. - For example, we explain the high prices in our restaurant with excellent service, high-quality products and highly qualified chefs. In order to keep the brand and sell the product in an expensive frame, we work all day long. But besides raising food prices, there are other options for increasing profits. For example, recently fashionable restaurateurs adhere to the following pricing model - cheap cuisine with expensive alcohol and drinks.

    There is no doubt that the visitor, with all the desire, will not be able to refuse alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, tea and coffee. At the same time, it will have relatively low prices for dishes. This psychological move can be used with even greater success if you work with the assortment, and not just inflate prices for a typical offer for all restaurants in the city. Do not forget that in addition to author's and exotic dishes, there is a huge selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, not counting a wide range of dry and champagne wines, armagnac, cognac, whiskey, gin, tequila, vodka and beer, quite rare varieties of tea and coffee. And not at a very high cost. Even better, if the assortment of drinks includes something that will be remembered by customers for a long time: the opportunity to participate in a real Japanese tea ceremony, a selection of all kinds of national tinctures on plants, insects and reptiles, or, for example, the "most ordinary" Kopi Luwak coffee worth up to $400 per kilogram. The "production" of this coffee is carried out by small tree animals of the viverrid family. Local residents feed the animals with ripe coffee beans, and "in gratitude" the animals leave a few grains in the excrement, treated with their gastric juice, which makes the taste of the coffee drink made from them unusually refined. Such an offer will not only be remembered by any guest for a long time, but will also allow the restaurateur to earn money, because the trade margin for tea and coffee, as a rule, exceeds the margin for dishes. But that will be a completely different story.