Are You a “Busy Fool”?
Sunday is usually the busiest day of the week for a British pub. The car park is full, the extractors are roaring, and the till is ringing. You look at the Z-read at the end of the night and see record takings.
But come Tuesday, when you pay the butcher, the veg supplier, and the double-time Sunday labour… the bank balance hardly moves.
This is the classic “Busy Fool” syndrome.
We are drilled from day one at hospitality college or by our area managers: “You must hit 70% GP on food.”
But on a Sunday, hitting a strict 70% GP on a high-quality Roast Beef dinner is mathematically almost impossible without serving portions so small they end up on Tripadvisor for the wrong reasons. Beef is expensive. Energy is expensive.
If you are obsessing over the 70% figure on the roast itself, you are looking at the wrong number. You need to look at the Blended GP.
The Philosophy: The Roast is the “Loss Leader”
Rory Sutherland would tell you that the Sunday Roast is not a meal; it is an event. It is the “Anchor.”
The Roast is the reason the family gets in the car. It is the reason they choose you over a sandwich at home. Because the Roast is the draw, the customer is highly price-sensitive to it. You can’t charge £35 for a standard pub roast in the suburbs. You are capped by the market.
So, stop treating the Roast as the profit engine. Treat the Roast as the Admission Ticket.
Once they are through the door (attracted by your amazing, slightly-lower-margin beef), you make your 75-80% GP on the things they didn’t plan to buy:
- The Pint of Peroni (High margin).
- The £8 glass of Malbec (Huge margin).
- The Cauliflower Cheese side (Dirt cheap to make, sold for £4.50).
- The Sticky Toffee Pudding (Flour, sugar, dates – practically free to make, sold for £7).
The goal isn’t to make 70% on the Beef. The goal is to make 60% on the Beef and 85% on everything else.
The Tactics: How to Engineer Your Sunday Margin
If your average Sunday GP is sitting at 55%, you are in the danger zone. You need to get it to a healthy “blended” 65-68%. Here is how you do it without shrinking the meat portion.
1. The “Cheap Filler” Strategy (The Visual Win) Seth Godin talks about remarkability. A plate looking “full” is remarkable. A plate looking “empty” is a rip-off. But “full” doesn’t mean “full of meat.”
- Tactics: Load the plate with high-volume, low-cost items. A giant Yorkshire pudding costs pennies (flour, egg, milk). Roast potatoes are cheap. Seasonal greens (cabbage, kale) are cheap.
- Make the Yorkshire Pudding the size of a football. It costs you 4p extra but adds £5 of perceived value. It allows you to keep the beef portion controlled (e.g., 140g) without the customer feeling cheated.
2. The “Side Dish” Tax Never include the Cauliflower Cheese in the main price. Never.
- Tactics: It is always a paid extra. If 50% of your tables order a side of Pigs in Blankets or Cauli Cheese, your GP skyrockets. These items are pure profit. Train your Front of House to ask: “Shall I put some Cauliflower Cheese on for the table?” not “Do you want any sides?” The first is a helpful suggestion; the second is a sales pitch.
3. The Starter/Dessert Ratio If a customer comes in, eats only a Roast Beef and drinks tap water, you have made very little money.
- Tactics: You need to increase the “capture rate” of starters and desserts. Design a “Sunday Starter” menu that is light and fast (Pâté, Prawn Cocktail, Soup). If the starter is too heavy, they won’t order dessert. If the Roast is too huge, they won’t order dessert.
- Golden Rule: Leave them 5% hungry after the main course. That 5% hunger is where your Net Profit lives (in the dessert menu).
The Solution: Know Your “Real” Number
The problem is, most operators see the Sunday invoices come in and panic. They see the meat bill and think they are failing.
You need to know the difference between your Meat GP and your Plate GP.
- Meat GP: Just the meat cost vs sale price. (Usually terrible).
- Plate GP: Meat + Veg + Gravy + Yorkie. (Better).
- Service GP: The total food revenue vs total food cost for the day. (The only number that matters).
Calculating this manually involves a lot of spreadsheets and a lot of headaches.
Enter the Roast Forecaster.
This tool allows you to plug in your component costs.
- It tells you: “Okay, your Beef is running at 58% GP. That’s risky.”
- But then you add your sides and veg costs.
- It calculates the Total Plate GP.
- It shows you exactly how many “Sides” you need to sell to bump your average GP back up to the magic 70%.
The Conclusion
Don’t be a slave to the flat “70% GP” myth. Context matters. Accept that the Roast is the bait. Hook them with the beef, but profit from the pudding. And use the right tools to ensure that the “Busy Fool” isn’t you.