Restaurant Running Costs

[Deleted member 303555]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum, just wanted to see if anyone has experience they can share as regards the difference in running costs between QSRs and small casual full service restaurants. Don't need actual numbers as much as percentages to include COGs, rent, salaries, service charges, utilities etc.

We're looking at opening a new QSR in the north west and working on current projections of rent at 10-15%, salaries 30-40%, COGs 25-30%, net profit 8-15%. Does this sound realistic?

Really appreciate any responses and input!

 

[ecommerce84]

H Rocky123, welcome to the forum.

I don’t have experience with a QSR but your numbers are close to what we achieve with a casual sit down restaurant. Salaries are pretty steady at 35%, and rent has gone down from approx 12% to around 8% as turnover has increased.

I would imagine it would be broadly similar for a fast food outlet.

My key piece of advice wouldn’t be to ensure you have sufficient funding at the beginning. Not only do restaurants cost more to set up than most people would envisage, but you may not turn a profit for a few years so you’ll need to be able to support the business as it gets established.

Good luck.

 

[sminter1st]

I'd second the above advice. Our percentages are pretty similar for a family-run sit-down restaurant, if you include myself and my husband's (currently not taken) salaries from the business. It's very important to have a financial back-up for your second year/period of trading when the initial buzz of people trying a new place dies down and you have the dip before you build up your regular clientele. Sorry, don't have specific QSR advice though.

 

[Deleted member 303555]

This is really helpful, thank you for taking the time to respond ecommerce84 and sminter1st!

Very good points about financial back-up, luckily we have already opened restaurants abroad so well aware of those pitfalls!

 

[sminter1st]

We were the same, we had a restaurant abroad in Greece. Also look really carefully at your pricing with regards to when VAT will kick in and which schemes you might want to use, as I've found this can be a really tricky area to handle.