Background
Fresh Kitchen by Robert Irvine is a first-of-its-kind eatery located within the Pentagon. It provides fast, fresh cuisine to eat in or take out in a setting uniquely suited to today’s busy Pentagon worker.
Challenge
Robert’s experience and passion in turning around failing businesses has led him to become a big fan of integrating the latest technologies into the hospitality industry. Knowing this, Tony Figurelli, SVP of Hospitality at Fresh Kitchen by Robert Irvine, set out to find not only a robust back office system, but one that is constantly evolving and keeping up with the industry’s ever-changing needs. “I have always been a big fan of back office systems” says Tony. “I was truly impressed by how easy Radar’s dashboards put the information I need right at my fingertips.”
Solution
Starting out, Tony’s main goal was to be able to: have more accurate forecasting; drill down on sales to identify where the restaurant is excelling and where it needs to concentrate more effort; have transparency in the product mix to better control food costs; and better understand aspects and variances of their labor.
Fresh Kitchen by Robert Irvine started with the Labor module and has recently begun to implement COGS. “The Labor module integrates seamlessly to the POS,” Tony says. “I love that I no longer have to use a third party and can begin to pare down the number of vendors we use. The information from the POS simply flows into Radar and creates usable data that we can turn into actionable plans to improve the efficiency of our staff.”
Results
Knowing the importance of staying on top of your business at all times, Tony feels confident in his choice to implementing Radar. Radar Schedules give him the ability to: see sales patterns and guests averages; compare the number of transactions per hour, per cashier to reward star employees and create training opportunities for those who need it; and reduce fraud by drilling down on comps and receiving abnormal comp alerts.
The overtime alerts have also helped reduce labor costs. “The best part is that I can be halfway across the country and receive alerts that help me be proactive,” Tony says. “It is so much easier to reduce overtime when you are not looking at a two-week period. Knowing that an employee is about to go into overtime before it happens is key to controlling it. We are aligned now to beat our forecasted numbers,” he adds.
