Evaluate The Menu Management Techniques Employed At Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant Essay

Introduction

In this essay paper an evaluation of the menu management techniques at Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant has been done. A number of important factors have been taken under consideration to explore the strategies of Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant related to its functional overview, menu pricing strategies, management of contribution margins to generate more revenue and profit for the restaurant company. Besides the management and measures which have been implemented in cost control by Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant have been discussed in this paper to identify how it affects the profitability of Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant. Eventually the specific merchandising and retailing as well as other approaches have been thoroughly discussed and analyzed to find out how Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant can produce more sales and revenue in the restaurant market. In order to understand the menu management techniques of any organization most importantly one has to determine the menu engineering and its impact on profit margin of the said business organization. Similar procedure has been followed in this paper also to show how each of the discussed factors are correlated with the company’s revenue and profit margins and to what extent the present strategies are helping the company.

Overview of the operation of Riverford Field Kitchen

Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant is a place where customers can find something unique as far as taste of the food and services has concerned. Eating in the restaurant is definitely something to cherish as its delicious food are simply outstanding. The food menu is compiled with a lot of verity to explore more than a customer want actually. Apart from the quality food and services uniquely in Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant there is only one sitting and the whole restaurant is served simultaneously which makes it more special as a restaurant. Importantly the Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant is located between Buckfasleigh and Totnes off of the A384 and minutes away from the A38 that is a huge market place to be at. Therefore the customers have found it easy to come to this place. Apart from the positional benefit the extraordinary accommodation and facilities of Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant have generated a huge impact on its clients. As Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant is an organic restaurant it tends to get the attention of its clients as people present day know to be health conscious. In the restaurant the menu presented to the customers has its own impact as there is something for each of the adults as well as children. For lunch the restaurant offers a seasonal salad followed by innovative vegetable side dishes. Apart from that a good portion of one meat dish has been served for the customers. In case of pudding Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant has offered its clients to choose one of its delicious tempting dishes. In case of supper the restaurant offers more lavish dishes to start of such as four vegetable anti-pasti dishes followed by heavy meals and desserts. In the drinks section the restaurant presents fully licensed drinks such as organic wine, beers and cider, local juices and spirits. Fine dining arrangements and fast delivery of orders are certainly appreciated by the clients when they have come to this place (Lee, 2015). Apart from the eating facility the restaurant provides a very family friendly atmosphere as children with all ages are heartily welcomed by the restaurant. To impress the children there is a children section in the restaurant that well equipped with a toy box with baby changing facilities, children’s books, highchairs and large lawn to provide ample space for the kids to run and play. But the restaurant does not offer children’s menu as they have to share same food as adults. Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant has a specialty of offering its customers to visit its own farmland and touring them to show how they grow vegetables inspired of organic method. Guided tours are arranged by the restaurant by using tractor trailer sides seasonally. Alternately customers can visit the firms individually by using guide maps by themselves. These features are really impressing as far as Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant’s operational functioning has concerned. The restaurant has views which are stated to be out of the box kind of stuff (Mancuso, 2009).

Pricing strategies on the menu

Basically the pricing of Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant is exceptional as for lunch (3 courses) it offers £23.50 per person and £11.75 for children aged 3-12 years and in case of supper (3 courses) it costs £27.50 per person and £13.75 for children aged 3-12 years whereas children below 3 years of age severed free of cost. In order to maintain such pricing the company has to consider a lot of things and strategies of pricing has been done according to that. Riverford Field Kitchen has to consider factors like direct costs, indirect costs of food products, preparation and labor cost, overhead expenses, service type presented in restaurant, competition in the restaurant market and pricing boundaries (Jagels, Coltman and Coltman, 2004). Direct and indirect costs of food products and ingredients are important as in preparing food some the products can be got wasted and some has to rejected due to lack of quality. Determine the pricing boundary can vary depending on the location, supply, demand and quality of preparation. Targeting proper demographic of market can help to make specific pricing strategy. But as most of the food products and vegetables have come from own farm of the company it has a huge impact in making pricing strategy (Pizam, 2005).

Pricing Method

Basically there are four pricing method in order to determine pricing of a restaurant products such as Common Menu Pricing Methods, Ideal Food Cost Pricing Method, Competition Pricing Method and Demand Driven Pricing Method. In case of Riverford Field Kitchen the company is using the second one, Ideal Food Cost Pricing Method generally to determine the pricing of products (Wiener, 2013). In this pricing method the company has to consider the actual production cost of a product associated with all the added cost and then it has to consider what should be the ideal food cost percentage in order to get the maximum process from sale. Generally the ideal food percentage for Riverford Field Kitchen is said to be 25 percent to 30 percent. Then by the dividing the raw food cost of the product with desire food cost percentage will determine the item price. This particular pricing strategy is very useful for Riverford Field Kitchen by considering the raw material cost as well as the ingredients and the other costing of manufacturing the food product (Crawford and Di Benedetto, 2000). Here it can be mentioned that in case of competitive market Riverford Field Kitchen can concentrate on Competition Pricing Method in making pricing strategy to secure more profit for the organization. But it should be analyzed before implementing in the pricing system.

Increasing profit margin

In order to increase profit margin, sometimes Riverford Field Kitchen has to raise the menu prices which is a delicate issue. So pricing strategies has to certain that price hike in the menu items can be managed internally (Baum, 2011). The organic farms of Riverford Field Kitchen have certainly up to the mark and it has helped significantly to control the pricing. So it is important to take a note of profitability in making pricing strategies.

Managing contribution margins

In order to manage contribution margins of Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant Menu Engineering can be certainly appreciated as it is very impressive increasing profitability per client by analyzing the popularity and profitability of menu items and how placement of the items on the menu can be justified (Daft and Marcic, 2014). In this section the menu engineering of Riverford Field Kitchen has been discussed below and the impact of it on profitability has also been mentioned.

Menu engineering procedure of Riverford Field Kitchen

The craft of Menu engineering has been conducted in four steps by Riverford Field Kitchen. The discussion is done below (A comparison of menu selection techniques: Touch panel, mouse and keyboard, 1988).

Costing a menu:

First of all in this segment the costing of a menu has been determined by breaking it in several parts such as it’s every individual ingredients and components. The exact costing of has to be done with respect to the monetary costing of food not depending on labor as the menu engineering process has depended on profitability level of each item presented in the menu of Riverford Field Kitchen. Experts with high knowledge of the managerial department have to perform the task to ensure perfection in calculation.

Categorize items of the menu as per popularity and profitability:

When the costing of an item has been figured out perfectly, it’s time to categorize items depending on the popularity and profitability of the item and this is done very professionally in case of Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant. The menu is spilt perfectly into categories and sections such as Appetizers, Pudding, Entrees, Desserts and Drinks. Here the key to success for Riverford Field Kitchen is by not overlapping in menu items of the restaurants (Irish, 2009). Then again the categories are divided into sections such as Entrée Category contains meat entrees, vegetable entrees, seafood entrees and Drink category is sectioned into Alcoholic drinks and non alcoholic drinks to be mentioned in the menu section. Apart from that seasonal meal has been quoted in the website of the company to have different types and special meals for each season. Besides lunch and supper items are presented in a different way so that items of the menu can have its own impact on the guests. According to the popularity and profitability items have to make its place in the menu itinerary.

Design the menu:

Now in order to design the menu Riverford Field Kitchen has maintained professionalism by giving priority to its signature dishes in the menu itinerary as most popular dishes. It is very important to present dishes in such a way that can take more attention from the guests. Now when it comes to menu engineering techniques to determine the design here Riverford Field Kitchen is also proved its efficiency by creating enough visual cues in the menu by highlighting the items have to be sold more. The psychological aspects of the customers have also been taken under consideration by the Riverford Field Kitchen in designing the menu by not listing the prices in a column down the right hand of the menu itinerary (Pizam, 2010). Also the menu contains items brief description and the brand name are mentioned in the menu make it perfect for Riverford Field Kitchen. So in designing the menu the restaurant company has showed efficiency of high level.

Testing of Menu design:

In case of new menu design the menu engineering is not completed without testing the new menu design. It is one of the effective ways to understand what is successful in order creating menu itinerary (Williams et al., n.d.).

The impact of menu engineering on profitability

Cost control management and measures in place of Riverford Field Kitchen
A well appreciated cost control management practice has been followed by the restaurant company to reduce its costing to a certain level in order to improve the profitability and sales figure. By analyzing how costing of the products can be decreased company has made a well practice to keep looking at the Riverford Field Kitchen Farm from where its raw materials such as vegetables are coming. Ultimately the farm business of Riverford Field Kitchen has a huge impact on the cost control at present situation. Besides a well managed procedure has been implemented by the cost management department of Riverford Field Kitchen to manage the costing of products. Cost management of the company is operated to control the budget for the organization as well that can help to organize and coordinate the production as well as distribution, marketing, and selling (Yoon and George, 2012). Apart from this budget of the company helps to make the most of the opportunities and resources to get the best effect as far as profitability has concerned (Grimaldi, 1984). Cost control management has to take the responsibilities regarding to several issues such as accounting control, company objectives, managerial control, management establishment which can influence in costing of production. Cost control is associated with the investment and return of the company. To make sure Riverford Field Kitchen is moving swiftly towards its objective cost control has to be specific by comparing the standard cost and actual cost of production. In a procedure of data collection, data analysis, budget control and consolidation the accounting has been done to cost control management. Collecting and analyzing data generally reviews the projection and the actual position in cost assessment by taking gross revenues, expenses, production expenses and sales expenses under consideration (Restaurant menu management, 1984). For Riverford Field Kitchen the budget of farm production is been controlled to take effect from the restaurant business.

Merchandising and retailing approaches

Several merchandising and retailing approaches have been taken by Riverford Field Kitchen Restaurant to make further progress in the restaurant markets. Most importantly the company is developing itself as a brand which is very helpful for growth of the restaurant business of the company. In order to slower economy restaurant business has to fight with the retail stores and it is very important for the company to merchandise itself by keeping its branding intact (Shy, 2008). Riverford Field Kitchen has also figured out the target demographic of the market to make most appropriate steps to promote itself. Besides developing newer market plans are proven to be helpful in retail marketing. Online advertising has been promoted by Riverford Field Kitchen to merchandise its product to generate more sales and revenue. By making changes in the menu itinerary Riverford Field Kitchen is trying to capture attention of the customers (Hilton, Maher and Selto, 2000). The quality in menu has empowered certainly to increase sales volume. Updating the menu according to the preference has also helped. In retail market by offering sales and coupons to the consumers company can promote the name of the restaurant (Stenzel and Stenzel, 2003). Most importantly giving advertisements in the newspapers and magazines the restaurant company has generated its brand name.

Other mentionable approaches to generate revenue

The company has given preferences to promote its signature as well as most profitable items in order to achieve maximum profit by making changes in the menu item. The restaurant is also focusing to create occasional specials to serve the guests in a better way to encourage the customers to prefer Riverford Field Kitchen. Besides the tour service of Riverford Field Kitchen Farm is also a vital approach taken by the organization to increase its revenue by showing people how the company organizes its organic farming. The guided tour service is very popular among the guests of Riverford Field Kitchen. All in one company is on the verge of developing new strategies that will prove to be beneficiary in generating further profitability and revenue growth (Holliday, n.d.).

Conclusion

After discussing all the important factors and features in evaluating of menu management techniques of Riverford Field Kitchen it can be certainly concluded that the restaurant company is performing all the tasks quite effectively. Still there are few places where the company can alter its strategy in marketing section. The operational overview of Riverford Field Kitchen is highly impressive with its efficient services and signature dishes. The hospitality is quite amazing to say the least. The pricing strategies in pricing the products have worked in favor of Riverford Field Kitchen quite impressively. The pricing method implemented by the company is providing enough support in the sales as well as profitability figure (Huntzinger, 2007). Most importantly the contribution margin has been exceptionally managed by menu engineering to make sure the menu itinerary has reflected according to the strategies to ensure increase in sale of the most productive dishes. It has impacted hugely in improving the profitability. Although a demand driven price method should be considered in the pricing strategy in some cases to generate more revenue, signature products can certainly increase the sales and profit figure to a certain level. Apart from that the current retailing and merchandising strategies are needed to be revised and a more focus has to be shifted in online marketing to increase the number of visitors in the restaurant. Overall a well maintained menu management technique has certainly helped Riverford Field Kitchen to make popularity among the customers that has a positive impact on the profitability of the restaurant company.

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