Transparency as a recipe for success

How daily management reporting at apeiron reduced food costs and improved staff deployment.
Group 39 (2)
3
Hours
Resource savings per day
4
%
less personnel costs

In the ever-changing world of gastronomy, apeiron has found its formula for success: Transparency through efficient daily management reporting. The largest franchisee of L'Osteria and developer of the restaurant concept The ASH - Restaurant & Bar, was looking for ways to reduce the manual effort involved in data collection and to be able to concentrate on the important tasks again, such as reducing food costs and optimizing staff deployment. The company successfully overcame these challenges by implementing sell & pick, a comprehensive process platform that not only facilitated data flow but also enabled data-driven decision making. In this collaboration, they not only found a solution for their current needs, but also a partner for their digital future. In this article, you can learn more about the experiences of Zachary Hahne, Head of Treasury at apeiron, and how the introduction of sell & pick revolutionized their daily business.

The customer

apeiron develops gastronomy and franchise concepts from the idea to marketing. As the largest franchisee of L'Osteria with 23 restaurants and developer of the restaurant concept The ASH - Restaurant & Bar, which now has 11 locations, apeiron stands for innovation in gastronomy.

Zachary Hahne, son of CEO & Founder Kent Hahne, has been in Controlling at apeiron since March 2021, after two years in Business Development. During this time, his responsibilities included the implementation of partner systems such as sell & pick. As a Junior Controller, he played an important role in the preparation and analysis of data as well as in the planning and target setting of various KPIs, and he is also responsible for internal and external reporting. He is now head of the finance department.
The-ASH-Frankfurt-21 (1)

The challenge

Due to the rapid digitalization and the introduction of several software systems at apeiron, the manual effort involved in data collection increased significantly. The need for more efficient data processing methods became increasingly urgent due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Zack recalls: "We no longer wanted to rely so much on gut feeling. After all, numbers don't lie." The challenge was to stay on top of things amidst the growth of the restaurants and the increasing flood of data due to digitalization. It was crucial to make data-driven decisions to reduce costs without sacrificing the quality of the guest and employee experience.
We asked around in the industry how and with which tool they solve such issues and sell & pick came up again and again. It was recommended to us, so we thought it must be good - let's give it a try.
- Zack Hahne | Head of Treasury at apeiron

The solution

The decision to use sell & pick was made when the manual effort of collecting data in Excel spreadsheets became too great.

As soon as the first systems were connected and the first data flowed in, we were already satisfied with the results. Especially me, as I no longer had to create Excel sheets. It was all automatic, which I was very pleased about, but of course the management were too, because they no longer had to wait for me.

- Zack Hahne | Head of Treasury at apeiron

The transition to sell & pick was made in order to cope with the growing volumes of data more quickly and to enable effective analysis and communication.
I had to spend 2-3 hours every morning on daily reporting for our 30 or so restaurants. This has changed drastically with sell & pick. We now receive these analyses automatically every morning at 8 o'clock sharp. This saves us a lot of effort and gives us more time for problem solving and brainstorming instead of having to spend hours preparing data.
- Zack Hahne | Head of Treasury at apeiron

The result

Your use of sell & pick in day-to-day business brought immediate benefits. A management dashboard with associated daily reporting provided a quick overview of the most important KPIs. The data was automatically pulled from the Lightspeed POS system and Nesto, the personnel management system, into the sell & pick process platform and made available to all restaurants in real time.

The benchmarking effect of sell & pick is a particularly important aspect. Every day, the teams receive an overview of the performance of all restaurants, allowing decisions to be made on the basis of data.

A practical example illustrates the benefits of sell & pick:

In an attempt to reduce food costs at one location, Zack analyzed the data and realized that the proportion of burger sales was very high compared to other locations and steak sales were comparatively low. On this basis, the measure was taken to reduce staff at the grill and deploy them more specifically in other areas. The benchmarking comparison helped to understand the reasons for this. Targeted management of purchasing minimized product losses and optimized staff deployment.

The employees' collaboration with sell & pick is now strongly influenced by the daily management dashboards and automated reports. The benchmarking effect enabled the teams to immediately recognize which restaurants have challenges and which are performing above average. This encourages sharing between locations and the application of best practices to improve performance. The transition to sell & pick was initially challenging, especially in terms of confidence in the numbers. Zack emphasizes: "The first step is always to get the data right. Shit in - shit out." However, by maintaining the data correctly and providing concrete examples, the employees' trust in the data-driven decisions was strengthened.

"The collaboration between the HR management system and sell & pick has already enabled us to reduce our personnel costs by 4%. Getting to grips with the figures has made a big difference and the trust is now there."

- Zack Hahne | Head of Treasury at apeiron

apeiron is currently testing a new approach from the USA:

Hiring runners in locations with a large footprint to give service staff more time to spend with individual guests. The effects, such as increased sales and upselling, are tracked via the cash register. sell & pick integrates and analyzes the data from the cash register and the personnel management system to evaluate productivity. By directly comparing the time periods before and during this action, it can be directly determined whether this measure improves productivity. sell & pick even supports annual budget planning by providing all the necessary information at a glance.

The cooperation

The cooperation with sell & pick was rated as extremely positive. The regular exchange with the contact persons not only enabled a smooth implementation, but also continuous improvements. Zack emphasizes:

"On our digitalization journey, we felt very well picked up. You also always come up with very helpful suggestions on how we can work even better with the dashboards. I have my fixed contact persons with whom I exchange ideas every 14 days. There is never a to-do that gets lost here and future topics are also discussed regularly. Because this is a process that keeps going and keeps getting better."

Looking to the future, apeiron is already planning the next step: connecting a merchandise management system in order to carry out even more precise analyses.

A word of advice

Zack gives advice to companies facing similar challenges:

"In this day and age, digitalization has become extremely important. Introducing new systems always involves a lot of work, but it's always worth it. Test out as much as possible and it will take you a long way forward. You can save so much time and resources and finally focus on the real challenges."

Would you also like to achieve these successes for your company?

We'll show you how!