Abuelo's Slashes Inventory Dollars with Enterprise Solution
At Abuelo's, a 40-unit Mexican restaurant chain owned by Food Concepts International and headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, every guests' experience is full of fresh, creative food and knowledgeable and gracious service. In this economic environment, it is more important than ever for restaurants to be able to drive out inefficiencies without taking up any marketing dollars. Like many concepts, Abuelo's was looking to find a synergy between actual and theoretical food costs and a system that could not only maximize efficiency and profits, but would also complement Abuelo's existing operation.
Functionality and adaptability were the two main factors that lead to the decision for Abuelo's to begin
using eRestaurant, an enterprise solutions suite from Los Alamitos, California-based Altametrics. eRestaurant is specifically designed to help restaurant chains of all sizes work more productively, increase guest service and value, effectively integrate with other business applications, and easily access information to make informed decisions.
Boosting the bottom line
The company wanted each one of its general managers to be able to integrate this program into their businesses and use it on a daily basis to increase their bottom line. To ensure this, Abuelo's selected five restaurants of varying volumes and let the managers sample eRestaurant for three months prior to its system-wide debut. eRestaurant allowed these managers to move beyond basic food cost solutions and spreadsheets to consolidate existing systems and achieve real-time access to enterprise data. The managers were impressed with the ease of which they learned the application, as well as the immediate difference they saw in food cost variance and inventory variance.
Abuelo's regional partners and district managers received two days of intensive eRestaurant training at Abuelo's Lubbock headquarters, during which time they familiarize themselves with the program's ins and outs before returning to their restaurants to fine-tune the eRestaurant system for two weeks.
Since its inception six months ago, eRestaurant has helped Abuelo's restaurants to achieve a significant decrease in inventory dollars. Because eRestaurant tracks each individual ingredient rather than general ledger codes, Abuelo's was also able to lower its actual food variance costs when compared to the theoretical. Managers have reported that eRestaurant is far more comprehensive than Abuelo's former spreadsheet method, and that they wouldn't be able to make the middle of their P&L as efficient without the eRestaurant system in place. These findings led Abuelo's to incorporate additional eRestaurant modules into their existing food cost and inventory control operations, including supply chain management, labor cost, and work force management solutions. Also, since eRestaurant handles all invoices, ordering and inventories, Abuelo's managers have much more time to spend as brand ambassadors and provide each guest with the highest level of customer service possible. This increased efficiency has brought about an upturn in profitability and management approval across the board Ã.‚¬" the exact end results Abuelo's had hoped for.
Ryan Biggs is the vice president of strategic planning for Abuelo's. He has been in restaurant development and planning for nearly ten years where he has worked in product development and assessment for Brinker International Restaurants, specifically for Chili's, and most recently in strategic planning for Food Concepts International, working specifically for the 40-chain Mexican restaurant, Abuelo's.
Functionality and adaptability were the two main factors that lead to the decision for Abuelo's to begin
using eRestaurant, an enterprise solutions suite from Los Alamitos, California-based Altametrics. eRestaurant is specifically designed to help restaurant chains of all sizes work more productively, increase guest service and value, effectively integrate with other business applications, and easily access information to make informed decisions. Boosting the bottom line
The company wanted each one of its general managers to be able to integrate this program into their businesses and use it on a daily basis to increase their bottom line. To ensure this, Abuelo's selected five restaurants of varying volumes and let the managers sample eRestaurant for three months prior to its system-wide debut. eRestaurant allowed these managers to move beyond basic food cost solutions and spreadsheets to consolidate existing systems and achieve real-time access to enterprise data. The managers were impressed with the ease of which they learned the application, as well as the immediate difference they saw in food cost variance and inventory variance.
Abuelo's regional partners and district managers received two days of intensive eRestaurant training at Abuelo's Lubbock headquarters, during which time they familiarize themselves with the program's ins and outs before returning to their restaurants to fine-tune the eRestaurant system for two weeks.
Since its inception six months ago, eRestaurant has helped Abuelo's restaurants to achieve a significant decrease in inventory dollars. Because eRestaurant tracks each individual ingredient rather than general ledger codes, Abuelo's was also able to lower its actual food variance costs when compared to the theoretical. Managers have reported that eRestaurant is far more comprehensive than Abuelo's former spreadsheet method, and that they wouldn't be able to make the middle of their P&L as efficient without the eRestaurant system in place. These findings led Abuelo's to incorporate additional eRestaurant modules into their existing food cost and inventory control operations, including supply chain management, labor cost, and work force management solutions. Also, since eRestaurant handles all invoices, ordering and inventories, Abuelo's managers have much more time to spend as brand ambassadors and provide each guest with the highest level of customer service possible. This increased efficiency has brought about an upturn in profitability and management approval across the board Ã.‚¬" the exact end results Abuelo's had hoped for.
Ryan Biggs is the vice president of strategic planning for Abuelo's. He has been in restaurant development and planning for nearly ten years where he has worked in product development and assessment for Brinker International Restaurants, specifically for Chili's, and most recently in strategic planning for Food Concepts International, working specifically for the 40-chain Mexican restaurant, Abuelo's.