Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: So a quick question to start.
If you had to remove two dishes from your menu tomorrow because labour's tight costs have shifted again or service just isn't really flowing, would you know instantly which dishes are protecting your margin and keeping your customers happy? And if the answer is no, and you can't think of anything straight away, you're really not alone.
Today we're going to be talking about how your menu can flex to your business's needs and the practical tools and support that we have to help our customers make confident decisions, even when the industry is constantly changing.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Today we're filming from an extra special location at Hip Hop's warehouse and brewery in Manchester. Hip Hop is a Manchester founded brand making fizzy pop that is refreshingly real.
Built on a simple belief that soft drinks had drifted. Too much sugar, too many sweeteners, not enough focus on taste. So they did things differently. Hip Hop makes drinks with real fruit, no artificial sweeteners, and flavors that actually deliver the kind you want to come back to, not just try once. Hip Hop has built a growing community, choosing something that tastes good and feels a bit more real. In fact, this spring, Hip Hop has launched a limited edition Yellow Sun Lemonade. Created to celebrate the release of a highly anticipated Supergirl film landing in cinemas June 26.
Yellow Sun Lemonade is holiday level refreshment in a can available through Bidfood from May. Lightly sparkling with a proper squeeze of real zesty lemon. Sharp, sweet, ridiculously refreshing.
See Supergirl in cinemas June 26th.
Supergirl.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: So hello and welcome back to Talking Food with Bidfood, the podcast where we talk all things foods, trends, food service and the realities of running a business right now.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: My name's Claudia and I'm the new business marketing manager here at Bidfood and
[00:02:05] Speaker A: today I'm joined by Georgia, customer marketing exec at Bidfood and also lead on the unlock your menu campaign.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: Today's episode is a really, really good episode, especially if you're someone who only knows Bidfood as a wholesaler delivery food service. What we're able to give insight into today is what more we're able to offer you.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Absolutely. I think this episode will come as a bit of a surprise as to everything Bidfood has to offer.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: So let's be honest, it's a pretty difficult time to be in food service at the moment.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Absolutely.
There's rising costs, pressure on margin, staff challenges, skills gaps. It can really feel like a constant battle just to keep service moving.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: And we're really hearing this every single day from our Customers, you're absolutely right.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: And one example is we've got a multisite pub group who recently told us that their sort of biggest frustration wasn't just about sort of food costs alone. It was actually that their menu had sort of become too complex for their team that they had on shift.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And do you know what? That is such a common situation that we are always being faced with with our customers. Menus grow, teams change, but the menus don't always keep up, especially when costs are involved.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: You're absolutely right.
And menus just sort of are more than just menus now. They're more like commercial tools. They have to sort of excite customers, work for your team, protect your margin and sort of adapt to changes really quick.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: So what is unlock your Menu? Let's talk about it.
[00:03:43] Speaker B: Well, unlock your menu is an amazing platform and support hub which we've created, which is both reactive and proactive to support our customers.
[00:03:53] Speaker A: Absolutely. So it's not just a campaign or sort of a one off initiative, it's really a sort of always on toolkit to help our customers with real life problems.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: And an amazing feature of unlock your menu is the tools that we are putting out there are both proactive and reactive to the industry challenges.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: So whether you're trying to sort of plan ahead, thinking about food and drink trends or profitability, or even reacting to challenges like inflation, sort of staff shortages or just cost pressure in general, there's so much practical resource and support on there to help you.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: It's an always on campaign really, isn't it?
[00:04:31] Speaker A: Absolutely. It's always evolving.
One thing we hear a lot from prospects is, is I didn't realize Bidfood did all of this.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Exactly. We hear this time and time again, which is why we want to talk about it today.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: So people know us as a bit of a food wholesaler, which is obviously a huge part of what we do at Bidfood. But Unlock your menu is just one example of sort of that added value support that we provide our customers to help them navigate sort of the food service industry and support their long term success.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: Exactly. And rather than saying here's one way to do something, make it fit, unlock your menu, provide you with the tools to be able to say here's a range of different available ways to do something, but we can adapt it to your needs.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: Yeah. So exactly that. Which is really important for sort of all business types, really small independent chains or multi site massive operators. Because we know that sort of no two kitchens are exactly the same. So no Teams are the same and customer bases aren't the same either. So it works across all business types.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: Exactly.
So let's start with the biggest challenge.
Cost pressures.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: So unlock your menu sort of helps you to rethink your menu really with profitability in mind and looking at sort of menu engineering as well, without compromising on that quality or customer appeal, which is so important.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Oh, 100%. And a really common example that we see is operators and customers often assume that their best selling dish is the most expensive, the most profitable dish on their menu. But that's not always the case, is it?
[00:06:10] Speaker A: No, absolutely not. So we've actually worked with quite a few customers who have sort of discovered that one of their top selling dishes, although it was great because it sold, wasn't really the best and sort of tied up a lot of labor, created a lot of food waste and sort of delivered one of the lowest margins on their menu. Which isn't great.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Exactly. And it's not always about making big changes. Making small changes and little adjustments can actually have a huge impact. This could be simple things like adjusting portion size, changing your garnish, all these little things will instantly improve your margin and your costs to your dish.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: Absolutely.
And that is really what unlock your menu sort of focuses on. It provides these sort of simple and practical fixes. It's not just all about theory, like these things do work and help our customers day in, day out.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Unlock your menu. Just provide that clear guidance for our customers. It's helping operators respond, being proactive, reactive, but also providing that support that makes them feel in control.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: Absolutely. And we have a whole section on our unlock your menu hub which is dedicated to profitability.
We also have an in depth sort of menu engineering blog as well, which breaks down what to sort of look for, how to analyze your menu and where sort of small tweaks can be used to make massive impacts tools in
[00:07:37] Speaker B: all different types of formats.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: If you're looking for a soft drink that delivers on taste and and what's inside the can, Hip Hop is worth checking out. Their drinks are made from real fruit and contain no sweeteners. So you get bold, refreshing drinks without the compromise. They're low calorie, but full of flavor with prebiotic fiber to support digestion. And it's not just us saying it. Hip Hop's range is award winning for taste too.
Make sure to keep an eye out for their limited edition yellow sunshine lemonade available through Bidfood from May.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: So let's move on to the second biggest challenge that we're seeing, and that's staffing and skill gaps.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: Menus only work if a team can execute that menu effectively and efficiently.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: You're absolutely right. And we've seen this play out with a few of our sort of contract catering sites. For example, every chef sort of has their own way of doing things, which has made sort of onboarding new starters a little bit difficult.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: So instead of adding more dishes to your menu, look at shifting your focus to seeing how you can standardize your menus and making life simpler for everyone
[00:08:49] Speaker A: and sort of them tips paired with Caterers Campus, which is our free e learning platform meant for sort of new team members to sort of bring them up to speed faster without sort of pulling, I guess, more senior chefs off of service to train them constantly. It's a really good resource for supporting new team members.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: ANCA's campus offers over 30 different modules, varying in all different topics, from sustainability to specialized diets, to even things like covering cost savings. It's a really, really amazing platform.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: It really is. And one of the best things about it is with Caterers Campus, we've actually saved our current customers over £10 million in training costs.
And that doesn't even include sort of the cost of time out of business, the cost of traveling, and the cost of certifications for training. So it's a great way of investing in your teams, giving them that confidence all completely free.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: So the third challenge inspiration.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Yeah, we see a lot of customers having difficulty with this and sometimes it's not just sort of ripping up your menu and starting from scratch. Yeah, it's actually just sort of unlocking the potential of what you already have and repurposing what you've already got.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: Exactly. And day parts are such a great example of this.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: We've seen a lot of customers sort of unlock new revenue opportunities just by looking at more quieter trading times. Great examples of this are sort of adapting their existing ingredients into sort of simplified brunch, grab and go offers or even like takeaways as well, without sort of increasing prep time or stock.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: It's not about doing more. It's about making a menu work better across more different moments spread across the day.
So what we do have available is a whole range of support, including things like insights, simple swaps, cost saving initiatives, versatile ingredients. All of these different tools can be collected together to be able to provide you with the perfect daypart menu.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: So what underpins of all of this insight?
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Well, we are constantly listening to our customers, operators and analyzing the industry's trends. We work really, really closely with our culinary experts across the business and also our procurement teams.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: And we don't do that in total isolation. We also work with external parties as well. And one example of this is our Unlock your menu webinar, which we did in collaboration with UK Hospitality.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: This was an amazing webinar. This brought together industry insight, real operators perspectives and focusing on how businesses can protect their margin whilst also maintaining that key quality across their menus.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Absolutely. And it wasn't just sort of about the theory as well. It was a lot about sort of practical decisions that operators are making right now and how menus can adapt without sort of losing that identity and still keeping that customer appeal.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: And that collaboration really reflects what Unlock your menu is all about. It's about working alongside the industry, not just talking about it.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: Absolutely, yeah.
If you're listening, as a prospective customer, this is the key takeaway for you.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: Bidfood isn't just here to deliver your products, we're here to support how your business runs.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: Unlock your Menu is all about helping your menus work harder so you don't have to.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Definitely. And whether you're scaling up, reviewing supplies or just exploring what support is available to you, Unlock your menu shows how we work alongside our customers as a partner, not just as a wholesaler.
So if this episode has sparked interest for you, the next step is simple, isn't it?
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Georgia, head to the Bidfood website and explore our Unlock your menu hub in the Inspiration tab.
You can also find it in the episode description. Browse the resources, see what resonates and imagine how it could work for your business.
[00:13:04] Speaker B: And if you want to go one step further, you can also watch our UK hospitality webinar we mentioned earlier on in today's episode, which is accessible via the link in our description.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: It's a great watch. If you want to hear about how other operators are tackling the same challenges with practical takeaways, you can apply straight away.
And that's it for today's episode of Talking Food with Vidfood.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: Thank you to Hip Hop for providing us with an amazing location to film today and for the delicious refreshments.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Cheers.
