Takeaways from Toast’s Restaurant Success Report

Last month, Toast released its annual Restaurant Success Report report which provides a comprehensive look at where the restaurant industry stands today. They surveyed thousands of guests and restauranteurs about industry trends, challenges, and which restaurants and service providers are doing it right.

We took a look at some of the most pressing issues facing the restaurant industry and how xtraCHEF can help.

52% of restaurant professionals named high operating and food costs a top challenge

Running a restaurant isn’t easy. Fluctuating food prices (shoutout to the avocado) and rising labor costs aren’t making it any easier.

Restaurants have multiple ways of tackling these issues. On the labor side, 47% of restaurants scheduled staff for fewer hours and 13% resorted to laying off employees. Others are modifying menu items or raising prices to offset rising costs.

However, managing food costs is key to turning a healthy profit without cutting staff or passing along extra cost to customers. Consistently tracking prices and auditing vendors is an easy way to manage prime costs in a tricky labor market. xtraCHEF’s interactive dashboards provide restaurants with unprecedented visibility into food costs, empowering them to make smarter, data-driven decisions.

xtraCHEF’s Perspective on Food Waste featured in the Restaurant Success Report 2019

Throwing away food is bad for the environment and bad for business.

Most restaurants have creative ways to reduce waste from repurposing leftover kitchen trim to composting. But none of these solutions gets at the root of the problem.

Enter inventory management.

“While you can’t control what a guest might eat or leave behind, you can control your inventory. Keeping close tabs on what’s on your shelves can help reduce spoilage and minimize over-ordering, which are key to keeping waste to a minimum.”

– John Enny,  xtraCHEF’s Director of Marketing

Having a smart system to count and track inventory is the first step to avoid over-ordering and reduce food waste. xtraCHEF’s easy-to-use inventory management software helps restaurants streamline and standardize inventory tracking practices. Because if you don’t know what you have, how can you know how much to order?

More restaurants saw profits increase last year than the previous year

How about some good news?

Year over year, more restaurants are seeing profits increase! 62% of restaurants saw an increase in profits in 2018, up from 51% the year before. 91% of respondents expect profits to increase in 2019.

This means that despite the challenges listed above, restaurants are finding ways to work smarter…or are just glass-half-full kind of folks. Ideally, they’re both!

Restaurants are using an average of 3 different technology vendors

Restaurants are investing in technology to  manage everything from back of house operations to online ordering. More than ever, it’s important for restaurants to harness technology – and make sure that it’s all working together to make their business successful.

Interested in learning more?

xtraCHEF is at the forefront of helping both Toast customers and non-Toast customers to control operating costs, reduce food waste, and increase margins. You can read about Dos Toros integrated Toast & xtraCHEF to streamline AP and keep their teams focused on food and guests.

Request a demo to see the product in action and discover if xtraCHEF is a good fit for your restaurant.