While we can work with any business or entity that meets our minimum spending thresholds, we do have some ideal client types that we like to work with.
Restaurant groups are one of those. Why is that?
The answer is simple. Restaurant groups have expenses in many categories that we help with, and they almost always meet our spending thresholds for those categories. This makes the return on investment of our time and our clients’ time highly valuable in these engagements.
Some of the best areas where we are able to help restaurant groups are waste and recycling, uniforms and linen, telecom, and utilities.
Restaurant groups have some pretty basic needs for waste and recycling and are not the most complex environments we work in. That being said, they are high-volume producers and cannot afford to have issues with their waste impeding their ability to sell food.
Some of the issues facing restaurant groups include limited space in parking lots, leaky or smelly enclosures affecting customer satisfaction, missed pickups and inconsistent service, contamination and overage charges, and multiple locations across different regions with varying waste disposal regulations and markets. The list goes on.
So, while on the surface it looks like a simple setup, there are many factors that can come into play. P3’s team of waste and recycling experts has worked in these environments many times. In fact, helping restaurants manage their waste is how we started all those years ago. We know how to navigate these needs and nuances effectively, providing the best solution for our clients while maximizing cost savings.
Most restaurants will have expenses related to uniforms or linens. The needs vary widely depending on the type of restaurant (e.g., quick-serve, fast-casual, sit-down, etc.), but most will have some linen and uniform needs.
In our experience, a multi-location restaurant group will often have enough expenses to qualify for a review. When they do, we typically experience 30-40% savings. Why? It’s simply what we do day in and day out. We leverage our knowledge and database of benchmarks on behalf of our clients. Our experts know what these vendors are willing to accept and how to get it.
Restaurants typically have very limited telecommunication needs. That being said, they simply cannot afford to experience downtime with their systems. Not being able to take orders or payments can bring a restaurant to its knees.
It’s your IT department’s job to keep the computers running smoothly, but that doesn’t mean they have access to thousands of benchmark data points and know what you should be paying on a line-item level. Expenses on a per-location basis may not be high, but they can quickly accumulate across multiple locations.
We know exactly what the vendors charge for each line item and are able to leverage that data to ensure you are getting the best deal possible and being billed correctly.
Restaurants and restaurant groups are typically not ideal utility audit clients for us in regulated markets. Why? They simply don’t spend much per location, are not that complicated (thus having less likelihood of errors and overcharges), and there are limited tariff options available.
In deregulated markets, however, we are often able to help restaurants secure better energy contracts. Even single locations can meet our minimum spend thresholds here.
*Client must be spending above this minimum annually, across its organization, to qualify for our free expense analysis. ** In this particular category, these are minimum annual spends per location. This means, for example, 50 locations spending $200/month would not be a good fit.
