Understanding Menu & Wine List Engineering
Menu Engineering analyses the entire menu (as opposed to individual menu items) as a measure of profitability and success. It combines the Gross Profit of individual items with their Popularity (the number sold). The technique can be used for food menus and also wine and beverage lists. Spreadsheets allow you to check this and graph the results - a visual 'picture' of the menu or wine list performance is often more effective in working out the strengths and weaknesses. Examples using the Menu Profit Calculator PLUS and the Wine List Profit Calculator PLUS are shown below. Both these powerful tool are available from the Download Library (Spreadsheet section) for Profitable Hospitality 1st Class Members. Menu Engineering
Enter the menu items, selling and purchase prices in the spreadsheet*. Then enter sales figures for a typical week or month from your POS or cash register, to see the 'big winners', the 'losers' and the 'helpers'. What makes a winner or loser? A combination of good sales AND a good gross profit margin - these are the items that are in the top-right of the graph below. As shown in this example, there are quite a few menu items with good profit margins (above the line), but not enough of them have good sales (on the right-hand side). Work is needed on this menu to improve its overall performance. First, enter the details of your menu: Sort buttons allow you to check the most and least profitable items, and best overall gross profit contribution:
Profit performance or 'Profit Strength' is shown on the graph: Menu items with a good profit margin are shown above the line, but in this example, not enough of them have good sales (on the right-hand side). Work is needed on this menu.
Wine List Engineering
Enter the wine list items, selling and purchase prices in the spreadsheet*. Then enter sales figures for a typical week or month from your POS or cash register, to see the 'big winners', the 'losers' and the 'helpers'. What makes a winner or loser? A combination of good sales AND a good gross profit margin - these are the items that are in the top-right of the graph below. As shown in this example, there are quite a few items with good profit margins (above the line), but not enough of them have good sales (on the right-hand side). Work is needed on this wine list to improve its overall performance. First, enter the details of your wine list: Sort buttons allow you to check the most and least profitable items, and best overall gross profit contribution:
Profit performance or 'Profit Strength' is shown on the graph: Items with a good profit margin are shown above the line, but in this example, not enough of them have good sales (on the right-hand side). Work is needed to improve this wine list.
The examples above use the Menu Profit Calculator PLUS and the Wine List Profit Calculator PLUS available from the Profitable Hospitality Download Library (Spreadsheet section). Join Profitable Hospitality as a 1st Class Member for immediate access. [*Set the GST tax rate to 0% for countries outside Australia]
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Restaurant Management
