Incorporating Multiple Concepts in One Kitchen
The ghost kitchen concept revolves around the strategy of operating several restaurant brands from one kitchen for optimal revenue generation and maximum usage of food preparation space. To use an analogy, the ghost kitchen concept is like adding more flavors to your ice cream shop so you can attract more customers, the more offerings you have, the greater the chances of making a profit, while having less offerings minimizes those chances and your customers may not be that interested in your ice cream shop because of your limited flavors. That is why the ghost concept has become a pivotal and powerful strategy in the restaurant industry because with extra brands in the back of the house, the greater the potential of turning a profit and increasing your revenue.
As a restaurant owner, you may be wondering how you would fit extra concepts into your already existing restaurant operation. This will depend on your kitchen size and the number of concepts you want to include in your kitchen, but with the right kitchen equipment needed to prepare the food, along with dedicated employees working in the back of the house, these are the two main things you need for success.
The Operation
Running multiple brands from one kitchen significantly lowers the operational costs and effectively utilizes inventory and manpower. However, despite working under one kitchen, each brand functions in a different manner. The menu, recipes, gross sales, frequency and source of orders, inventory consumption for example, all function differently for each brand. So how do you organize each brand into one kitchen so they don’t conflict with each other? The answer is pretty straight forward, as the restaurateur you will be able to select established brands from Combo Kitchen’s network that compliment your already existing restaurant brand. In addition, to optimize the entire operation, as the restaurateur, you will need powerful software that automates and centralizes the entire management process of your newly converted restaurant.
A robust restaurant POS consolidates orders from all the sources into a single dashboard and it’s easier to accept and manager orders from multiple sources on a central platform. For example, if one customer places an order for Brand A on an online aggregator platform and another customer places an order for Brand B via telephone, it is accepted on a single integrated platform. Orders from multiple brands can be viewed, accepted and managed centrally through a single consolidated platform. This feature in the POS system is beneficial for ghost kitchens that have multiple brands or kitchen operators that manage the ordering and delivery of multiple brands. For a hassle-free order acceptance, POS systems also display the full menu of each brand on the central acceptance dashboard and on kitchen display systems.
Managing Orders from Different Brands
The newly emerging Combo Kitchen brand is gaining popularity for their restaurant strategy by offering multiple cuisine options to customers from a single kitchen. But managing orders from different brands that are coming from different sources can be a challenge. This is where the implementation of a POS can provide convenience and ease of management to the ghost kitchen operator. With a single interface managing, the orders from different brands don’t require multiple hands. Modern POS systems allow you to create multiple brand tabs on a central panel where you can accept the orders of multiple brands and track the order status. The orders are pushed directly to the integrated Kitchen Display systems which provide a complete overview of all the orders received from different brands to the kitchen staff.
Inventory Requirements for Each Brand
Food inventory management is an important aspect in the ghost kitchen operation and this is where restaurant management software can be really handy. This type of software can generate inventory consumption statistics for each brand. The raw material consumption of each brand can be easily tracked. The software also helps you to keep track of all the finished and semi-finished items. Similarly, a comprehensive recipe management feature displays an adequate amount of raw materials that need to be utilized by the kitchen staff.
Order Preparation and Packaging Time
If you are aiming for a delivery-only restaurant, quality and speed are of utmost importance. Speed is a crucial factor that ensures that your customers receive fresh food quickly. To deliver quality and speed, ghost kitchen operators make sure that the entire order taking mechanism is optimized timely. Also, you may have questions such as how long will it take to accept orders? What is the total food preparation and packaging time? How can I know that customers are receiving their orders on time? This is where POS systems can drastically improve the entire order taking operations by identifying the gaps at each level of order preparation.
Menu Management
Regardless of how you set up and organize your kitchen, menu management is important for every restaurant. Since the storefront for delivery-only restaurants is through digital mediums, restaurateurs need to keep a close track of updating the menu regularly. For example, if a ghost kitchen operator is managing 5 delivery only restaurant brands from the back of the house, 5 different menus will have to be managed at the same time, a daunting task if done without POS or restaurant management software. A robust POS integrates all the menu of different brands into a single dashboard. You can easily edit and update the menu of different brands from a single dashboard.