6 ways to minimise wastage in your coffee shop

Minimise wastage in your coffee shop

There are several ways to minimise wastage in your coffee shop and are essential to the success of your business. Here are 6 of the most important.

1. STAFF TRAINING- working with a reputable company that provides excellent training for your team is an absolute must for start up hospitality businesses. Specialist training can provide your team with all of the necessary knowledge in terms of portion control, setting the correct standards for your guests etc. We provide a full, comprehensive training for all of our trade partners to ensure that you can provide the very best coffee experience for your guests.
2. ORDER VOLUMES– this is critical for any business to prevent any fresh products from exceeding their use by dates, leading to big wastage costs which leads into your GP. However, you also don’t want to under order as this can cap your cafe’s potential sales. Over the first few weeks you will gauge a good idea on what you will likely be taking. Before opening any business it is a good idea to do your market research and talk to similar local businesses to get a good idea on sales potential, as well as local town centre management to find out any upcoming events which could increase footfall.
3. FIFO – following on from number 2, it is essential that you get your team properly trained in FIFO (first in, first out) so that they are rotating stock accordingly and using older stock up first to prevent wastage.
4. DELIVERY MANAGEMENT – ensuring yourself or your management team thoroughly check over your deliveries is essential. These are key areas where huge amounts of money could be lost if this isn’t being closely monitored and actioned accordingly.
5. PORTION CONTROL – an area that can often be overlooked but can really eat into your businesses GP is portion control. You have worked out what you expect to make but suddenly start seeing staff using extra food, throwing away unused milk or unused milkshake. This can lead to hundreds, if not thousands every year, so putting into place a proper procedure for portion control is critical.
6. USING A FOOD WASTE APP– over the past few years there has been a huge rise in food wastage apps, such as, Too Good To Go. This will not only help you sell products at a slightly cheaper rate due to them approaching their sell by date but can also help you target potential customers who may not have known about your business so it is definitely worth looking in to to minimise wastage in your coffee shop!

Here at Iron and Fire we offer comprehensive support to our coffee shop customers in all aspects of their coffee offering. From award winning freshly roasted coffee beans for your business, to coffee machines, sundries and extensive training we offer a one stop shop for your coffee shop. Our in house experts have years of experience in the hospitality industry and understand the challenges when running a successful coffee shop. Our Speciality Coffee Association Barista trainers offer not only extensive coffee training but also training on the care and maintenance of your coffee machine and equipment, How to batch and serve drinks and how to minimise wastage in your coffee shop. Contact us to set up a wholesale account or for further information on how we can help you serve great coffee today.