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Restaurants Tools Overview How do changes in my costs etc affect my restaurant's profits

How do changes in my income affect my profits?

What If? Analysis

Your Budget for the coming year will be positively and negatively affected by changes in your sales values, costs and customer numbers throughout the coming year.

A What If? Analysis enables you to calculate the impact of such changes on your budgeted profit by focusing on possible scenarios that may occur. This helps you to plan for such scenarios and take corrective action, if necessary.

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What If? Analysis: Fáilte Restaurant Example

Background Information

  • The Fáilte Restaurant expects to serve 6,000 customers in the coming period, each spending an average of €20.
  • Cost of sales are currently 40% of sales value (equivalent to 60% gross margin).
  • Other variable costs, eg overtime and consumables, are 15% of sales.
  • Fixed costs include full-time payrolls and overheads.

Scenarios

The Fáilte Restaurant carries out a What If? Analysis based on two possible scenarios:

Scenario A: What if Fáilte Restaurant covers reduce by 10%? Scenario B: What if Fáilte Restaurant selling prices drop by averageof 10%?
 

Fáilte Restaurant: Budget and What If? Analysis
  Budget Scenario A - Covers reduce by 10% Scenario B - Prices reduce by 10%
Number of covers 6,000 5,400 6,000
Average spend €20 €20 €18
       
Sales 120,000 108,000 108,000
Cost of sales 48,000 43,200 48,000
Gross margin 72,000 64,800 60,000
Other variable costs 18,000 16,200 18,000
Contribution to fixed costs and profit 54,000 48,600 42,000
Fixed costs 40,000 40,000 40,000
Profit €14,000 €8,600 €2,000
       
€ drop in profit   -€5,400 -€12,000
% drop in profit   -39% -86%
 


  • In Scenario 1, covers reduce by 10%. But as fixed costs have not changed, there is a disproportionate 39% drop in profit.
  • In Scenario 2, prices reduce by 10%, but in this case, both the fixed costs and cost of sales remain unchanged as the same volume of covers is being served. At 86%, the drop in profit is much more dramatic, almost eliminating the expected profit for the period.

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