Vijay took over the Roll Bar, on the Bridge, in December 2019
The previous owner, who had run the business for over 20 years, was returning to Madeira for family reasons, and the opportunity seemed too good to miss.
“I knew I was going to need someone to handle all the books and admin side of the business,” says Vijay, “because honestly I know it’s not my strong point from previous experience!”
Vijay contacted a number of local providers but was unimpressed. “It wasn’t just that the rates were often high - I expected as much because this is a quite a high volume business, with multiple deliveries and often a couple of hundred sales transactions a day. I was put off by things such as their insistence that I use certain apps without any real explanation of why it would be good for my business, or their inability to deal with every aspect of our back office operation.”
Accounting for food retail is paper-intensive, with delivery notes still arriving in hard copy every day, and the requirement to maintain archives of things like credit card slips. “Almost all the proposals I had demanded that I scan everything myself and forward it onto them, which I knew would take so much time I would spend an hour or more every day dealing with it. I wanted to outsource this function to save time, not spend ten hours a week doing half the job myself”.
Digital menu and signage
TCS worked with Vijay to develop a set of processes that suited his style of working. “Paperwork just goes in a tray,” Vijay explains, “and every couple of days someone from TCS collects it and processes it. Most of the time I don’t even notice when they’ve been in! I get a set of management reports every Monday morning, but I can also log in and run reports myself whenever I want.”
Total Back Office Outsourcing
TCS was able to provide a full back office service to the Roll Bar, ensuring that Vijay and his team can spend their time focussing on delivering a great product with high levels of customer service.
As well as total bookkeeping support, we provided them with a new EPOS system which is managed by TCS and provides deep insight into customer spending patterns.
We sourced a great deal on card payments, saving around £100 a month on the rates paid by the previous owner.
We worked with our friends at Boudlo Forge to provide a digital signage and menu solution, meaning an end to tipp-exed printed menu boards.
We also manage the company’s HR records, ensuring the Roll Bar is compliant with current employment legislation and Population Management requirements.
We even provide a cash collection and banking service.
During the Covid-19 Lockdown
The Roll Bar was forced to close for most of March, April and May, and re-opened in Phase 4. During this period of time we helped with applications for both States assistance and guaranteed loan applications. “TCS were invaluable as I had just returned from being off-island when the lockdown began,” explains Vijay, “and as such I had to self-isolate for two weeks. So I really needed to be sure that everything was being handled correctly, and I was confident that I could leave TCS to get on with it!”
We ensured that the premises were secure, and we even helped staff find temporary employment wherever we could. “You can’t really make a hundred sandwiches a day from home,” said one of the kitchen team, “at least you can’t sell them!” We also maintained constant contact with suppliers, as it was not possible to keep up with all payments while the business had zero income, and it was important to ensure any money available was distributed fairly.
TCS worked remotely with the kitchen team leader to tidy up some of the tasks you just never get around to when you’re busy trading. “A lot of our purchase prices have changed even over the last six months as there have been various pressures on the supply chain,” says Vijay. “While we were shut the TCS team spent a lot of time on the phone and on Google Hangouts reviewing every ingredient - is it the right price, can we get it cheaper, is the quality right, can we source a better product elsewhere?”
A full menu review followed, and many prices either stayed the same or were reduced. More importantly a process was put in place to highlight any pricing discrepancies in the future, and fix them quickly.
When phase 4 started, TCS quickly added online ordering so that the Roll Bar could re-open whilst complying with States directions on takeaways.
Ongoing Efficiency
TCS are always looking to improve current processes. “We knew there were some parts of the business that were inefficient,” explains Vijay, “and we asked TCS to spend some time looking for areas of improvement.”
TCS went down to the Roll Bar and spent some time actually working shifts, both on the counter and in the kitchen, to understand what the pinch-points were.
As a result, we made some fundamental changes to the EPOS system to make order processing faster. We helped to planogram the fridges to make sure less time was needed replenishing each day. And we altered the layout of the kitchen to reduce the amount staff had to walk around to different areas to prepare any sandwich. “I’d estimate we walk about three miles a week less now,” said the kitchen team leader. “I can now prepare 90% of the menu without having to go into the other room, or to a fridge in the basement, and this was all done with the equipment we already had.”
To find out more about how we helped Vijay achieve a 20% increase in gross profit while still saving him a whole day of admin every week, get in touch.