Thoughts for Food

Paul Pleydell, director of Pleydell Smithyman Limited - garden centre design and business consultants, looks at what makes a good garden centre cafe or restaurant.

 

As an industry, are we getting our garden centre restaurants right?

 

They have become such an important part of today's garden centre, driving footfall, balancing our seasonal trade and providing strong profit centres, can we afford to get them wrong?

 

So, whether you have an established 500 seat restaurant or are one of the few centres yet to 'have a go' with your first small 25 seat cafe, I have set down below my top ten thoughts for getting the best from your garden centre catering offer.

 

1. Love and Passion

Top of the list must be a love of food and desire to deliver the very best to your customers; to be passionate about the suppliers you work with, the ingredients you use and the fantastic dishes you serve, and to care about the customers who visit. Choose your team from people who are 'foodies' and 'people' people as both will enthuse about the food they serve and the customer will share your love and passion for food.

 

2. Location, Location, Location

The location of your cafe is critical if you are to get the most from your customers. Maximising the opportunity for secondary spend will happen if your customer flow is right and the route to and from your cafe takes in a good range of seasonal, promotional and impulse goods. Cafes have been a salvation for many garden centres in the last few years of difficult trading, but if it is sited too close to your main entrance, retail sales are likely to suffer.

 

3. Being Distinctive

It is vital that your cafe or restaurant is distinctive and memorable . This doesn't mean it has to be themed, but it does mean your restaurant should give a clear message to your customers. Are you creating delight, making people smile and giving them something to talk about when they leave? The variety in garden centres is already noticeable with some great 'fine dining' experiences as well as lively and buzzing family focused restaurants or relaxing cafes for meeting friends and treating yourself. Keep it simple and stand out.

 

4. Launching Satellites

If you are already doing great food, why not share it. You could go into the local town and set up a stand alone cafe. You could create 'pop up' facilities to cope with peak trading periods or to complement special events. You could convert some of your retail customers to catering customers by taking food and drinks to them. In the shop set up a tasting bar, a smoothie station, or just wander around with samples of a fantastic tray bake.

 

5. Trending

The design of your 'front of house' areas will have a huge effect on the popularity of your cafe or restaurant. We all have favourite pubs and restaurants where we like to eat but don't always know why. Beware of trends in furniture and finishes, they can date quickly and often a more timeless approach that is bespoke to your business is the best way forward and will save you having to revamp every few years. Design consultants are well placed and experienced in helping you to develop and deliver an individual offer.

 

6. Make the Kitchen work for you

Developing a modern catering facility can be one of the most capital intensive areas of a garden centre, so it makes sense to use the facilities as much as you can. Off peak times can be used for baking and creating a range of home cooked 'own label' foods that can be retailed from your food area in the shop. Or for the lucky few, the site layout and planning permission can allow evening opening.

 

7. Serve and Sell

Garden Centres are unique retailers in the 'food chain', from seeds and 'grow your own' to growing and selling fresh ingredients; showcasing local produce, learning how to cook, buying ready meals or letting someone else do the cooking for you. Create a food zone - restaurant, food hall, bakery, butchers (partner with the best in the area). Food halls can also generate excellent sales performance, higher than most garden centre departments.

 

8. Size Matters

Making your cafe or restaurant the right size is a fine balance and shouldn't be looked at in isolation. This requires an overview of the whole business to establish the correct size of catering facility for the current (and future) turnover of the site. This, in turn, will dictate the amount of parking and the number of toilets, the size of the staff facilities and storage/service areas. Within the restaurant the length of servery, size of kitchens and size of the seating areas and seating density must also be carefully planned. In particular, look closely at occupancy - too many large tables can dramatically reduce the number of people you can accommodate.

 

9. Make a Contribution

Above all, ensure your café is profitable and delivers a good return for your effort and enthusiasm.

 

A simple way to check how you are doing is to benchmark your café. As a rule of thumb it should be some 15-20% of your turnover, with a sales performance of at least £1250m2 , a gross margin of around 67-70% and staff costs ideally around 30% .

 

10. A Fresh Pair of Eyes

Make time to experience your restaurant or cafe as a customer and ask others to critically review what you are doing. Sometimes it takes someone from outside of your business to take a fresh look at what you are offering.

 

Creating a great garden centre cafe or restaurant is not about choosing dishwashers and chairs it is about serving fantastic food and creating a place where people want to be - somewhere truly memorable.