Who would have thought that a restaurant that had no hope of surviving that day would survive and become more profitable until today? MHA has extracted lessons and followed up on the results of the mission to revive the restaurant business with Jay Muk, owner of Lom Yak restaurant, Phetchaburi Soi 5, one of the participants in the MHA Advise project, molding businesses into professionals, a project from Makro Horeca Academy (MHA) that will provide advice to restaurant owners who are Makro members and Makro Horeca Academy (MHA) members so that they can continue and become more profitable. Importantly, the nickname Jay Muk with a million views came because...
The giant shop that has profits that are not as big as you think…
Before we get into the story of the mission to revive the Lom Yak restaurant, MHA would like to introduce this restaurant a bit. Ms. Muk or Khun Thitaphat Weerapathomsak, the owner of Lom Yak Restaurant, Petchburi Soi 5, because she loves to eat noodles, egg noodles and stir-fried basil, she wanted to open a restaurant that sold her favorite dishes and that everyone could enjoy, without getting bored. The origin of the name Lom Yak is because she is a big eater. Whenever she goes to a restaurant, she usually orders 2-3 dishes. So, she wanted to open a restaurant where customers can be full from just one dish. The concept of the restaurant is “If customers eat a lot, they can order the giant size.” The word Lom Yak comes from the special large-sized menu. If customers can finish it within 30 minutes, they don’t have to pay. The restaurant calls it “Size Lom Yak.”
Before coming to ask for advice in the MHA Advise project, Mr. Muk had opened Lom Yak restaurant for about 5-6 months. However, the restaurant had problems all along, such as slow cooking, wrong serving, wrong menu, not enough employees, etc. But the most serious problem was low profit. Even though Lom Yak restaurant had sales in the millions per month, the profit was only 5,000-20,000 baht.
Due to the problems that had accumulated over the past several months , I gave up and wanted to close the shop, but because I still had customers, I gritted my teeth and continued to open the shop. And I started to feel that there must be some kind of problem with the store, so I started looking for a solution.
“I happened to have the opportunity to attend a Makro event before the chef came to help improve the restaurant. I attended an event at Makro Srinakarin. It was an event where we consulted with the chef about our problems and how we should fix them. So I applied,” Muk explained.
Due to the problems that had accumulated over the past several months , I gave up and wanted to close the shop, but because I still had customers, I gritted my teeth and continued to open the shop. And I started to feel that there must be some kind of problem with the store, so I started looking for a solution.
“I happened to have the opportunity to attend a Makro event before the chef came to help improve the restaurant. I attended an event at Makro Srinakarin. It was an event where we consulted with the chef about our problems and how we should fix them. So I applied,” Muk explained.
Turning point with the MHA Advise project
Muk came to consult with experts in the MHA Advise project to develop a professional business and had the opportunity to talk and consult with “Chef Job” for about 30 minutes. Initially, Chef Job, Natthinee Plodthong, who is an expert in menu planning and a trainer in kitchen operations, gave advice on the management of the restaurant’s ingredients.
Instead of using estimation, it is now measured and measured. This method helps reduce the problem of ingredients very well. As a result of the adjustments made according to Chef Job's advice, the problem of ingredients has clearly decreased. However, there are still many other problems of the restaurant that need to be solved. Khun Muk therefore decided to join the MHA Advise project to receive more advice from experts than before.
Instead of using estimation, it is now measured and measured. This method helps reduce the problem of ingredients very well. As a result of the adjustments made according to Chef Job's advice, the problem of ingredients has clearly decreased. However, there are still many other problems of the restaurant that need to be solved. Khun Muk therefore decided to join the MHA Advise project to receive more advice from experts than before.
From joining the MHA Advise project, in addition to receiving advice from Chef Job regularly, Muk also received additional advice from Chef Daniel Altos, a former Executive Chef of a 5-star hotel and a leading airline kitchen, in managing problems within the restaurant. He came to give free advice to both Chef Job and Chef Daniel's restaurants.
Cut the menu, increase profits
The first thing the chef suggested to improve was Manage the food menu by cutting out menus that do not sell well or menus that no one orders, leaving only the best-selling menus. The chef explained that it was the management of raw materials, which helped reduce costs by reducing the amount of unused ingredients that were stored until they rotted. Ms. Muk cut out the toppings from the noodles, which were too many, until there were only 3 left, and removed the fried pork topping because it was not sold, and recalculated the cost of the toppings to increase profits. As for the stir-fried basil menu, it was reduced from 30 to only 10 menus, only the ones that were actually sold, which allowed for better management of the raw material stock.
But before the menu could be cut, a lot of homework had to be done. Both Khun Muk and Chef Job had to re-categorize the menu and collect statistics on orders for each menu. They had to set up a POS (Point of Sale: sales system in the store) for about 10 days to collect statistics on what sold well and what didn't, and report to the chefs periodically.
Serve food faster with a new kitchen layout
Chef Daniel suggested a solution to the problem of the flow of work in the restaurant. The problem was that the cooking area was spread out in too many places, which resulted in a lot of people. The chef suggested that the solution be to move the various stations to the appropriate places, including:
1. The dumpling pot, microwave, and crispy pork pot had to be moved together with the noodle zone, which was originally separate, causing delays in preparing the menu.
2. Move the refrigerator from the top floor to the kitchen so that the workers don't waste time running up and down when they need ingredients. This makes the food come out faster and saves a lot of working time.
1. The dumpling pot, microwave, and crispy pork pot had to be moved together with the noodle zone, which was originally separate, causing delays in preparing the menu.
2. Move the refrigerator from the top floor to the kitchen so that the workers don't waste time running up and down when they need ingredients. This makes the food come out faster and saves a lot of working time.
And the chef has also improved the order management system. The chef suggested adding clips, hooks, and rails to hold the order sheets so that the orders can be arranged neatly and not get lost. Previously, the method was to stack them or hold the order sheets and run up and down to pick up the ingredients according to the order.
Results after the change
For more than 3 months, the business turnaround mission of Lom Yak Restaurant, Phetchaburi Soi 5 has been ongoing. The results that have come back are considered to be a complete turnaround of the business.
“Now, from 5,000 when we first opened, and we followed the chef’s advice, now we see a profit of hundreds of thousands. Before, we didn’t have our own salary, now we have our own salary, we know how to set our own salary. Before, we worked without our own salary, but we had no more than 5,000, 15,000, 20,000 left, but now we have our own salary starting at 40,000 baht first, the rest is profit.”
Muk also gave advice from the chef about sales and menus that sometimes if sales are the same but if we can control expenses well, we can increase profits, whether it is wages or raw material costs. And if we can open more shops on days that we used to be closed without affecting employment, we will have more profits in another way.
"Now, our store's sales are the same but profits have increased" because
“Now, from 5,000 when we first opened, and we followed the chef’s advice, now we see a profit of hundreds of thousands. Before, we didn’t have our own salary, now we have our own salary, we know how to set our own salary. Before, we worked without our own salary, but we had no more than 5,000, 15,000, 20,000 left, but now we have our own salary starting at 40,000 baht first, the rest is profit.”
Muk also gave advice from the chef about sales and menus that sometimes if sales are the same but if we can control expenses well, we can increase profits, whether it is wages or raw material costs. And if we can open more shops on days that we used to be closed without affecting employment, we will have more profits in another way.
"Now, our store's sales are the same but profits have increased" because
- Because we don't have to spend money on ingredients that we buy and then don't sell and then go bad.
- We don't need to hire part-time workers.
- We can open the shop every day without having to close the shop.”
And in improving the shop, it does not always have to cost. We may have placed many devices in the wrong places or not used to their maximum efficiency. But if we have the purchasing power and can increase the efficiency of the work, it is a suitable investment for the shop.
“For example, in the past, we used to have a microwave at our restaurant, but we didn’t really make use of the microwave. We mostly used an electric stove when stewing pork or beef. Everything can be made into portions and microwaved so it won’t spoil. And the refrigerator we have, we usually put it on the 3rd floor. The kids have to run from the 2nd to the 3rd floor to get the ingredients. The chef advised us on where the refrigerator should be, what its function should be, to save time and avoid running around. We wouldn’t have to run up to get the ingredients, and how to store the ingredients, which cabinets to put them in, and what items we already have that we don’t know how to use. The chef also told us what kind of things we should use.”
These days, Khun Muk still has to do his homework and submit it to the chef every day. He still has to keep statistics on what sells well or not because the chef still wants to cut more menus to increase work efficiency. The MHA Advise team still contacts and asks for advice from Khun Muk all the time, whether during the past COVID-19 crisis, how to adjust or give new challenges to Khun Muk right now.
With the mission to develop new menus, menus that use the same ingredients, do not need to use new ingredients, but can create new menus to maintain the old customer base so that they do not get bored and still come to eat continuously without Muk having to pay any expenses to Makro HoReCa Academy.
Before parting, Ms. Muk also gave encouragement to restaurant operators to overcome obstacles during this crisis and gave advice on running a restaurant business that you must first understand the restaurant business well.
“We used to think it was scary, but the more I learned from Makro HoReCa Academy, the more I realized that I used to think that selling a lot would make a lot of profit. But if you learn about restaurants well, you don’t really need to do much. Everything requires calculating costs and learning about restaurant systems well. You don’t need to sell a lot to make a lot of profit. I want every restaurant to learn more about restaurants. Or try consulting with Makro HoReCa Academy. It’s free. No matter how many restaurants you have, even ten, I’ll recommend them. Because Makro doesn’t just sell us ingredients. In my opinion, Makro gives us many things, such as giving our restaurants opportunities to overcome problems. It’s like our partner. Makro is our partner, not just selling us ingredients.”
With the mission to develop new menus, menus that use the same ingredients, do not need to use new ingredients, but can create new menus to maintain the old customer base so that they do not get bored and still come to eat continuously without Muk having to pay any expenses to Makro HoReCa Academy.
Before parting, Ms. Muk also gave encouragement to restaurant operators to overcome obstacles during this crisis and gave advice on running a restaurant business that you must first understand the restaurant business well.
“We used to think it was scary, but the more I learned from Makro HoReCa Academy, the more I realized that I used to think that selling a lot would make a lot of profit. But if you learn about restaurants well, you don’t really need to do much. Everything requires calculating costs and learning about restaurant systems well. You don’t need to sell a lot to make a lot of profit. I want every restaurant to learn more about restaurants. Or try consulting with Makro HoReCa Academy. It’s free. No matter how many restaurants you have, even ten, I’ll recommend them. Because Makro doesn’t just sell us ingredients. In my opinion, Makro gives us many things, such as giving our restaurants opportunities to overcome problems. It’s like our partner. Makro is our partner, not just selling us ingredients.”
Finally, MHA would like to give encouragement to Ms. Muk, Lom Yak Restaurant, Petchaburi Soi 5, and all restaurant operators, so that their restaurants can continue and make more profit. Makro HoReCa Academy also has many other restaurants that have joined the special MHA Advise project to develop businesses into professionals. You can watch the clip below to use the advice of experts from Makro HoReCa Academy to develop your restaurants.
