Restaurant Industry in the UK - Assignment Example

Restaurant Industry in the UK Abstract Food service sector is one of the fastest growing economies in all countries. In UK the specialty is foreign delicacies as well as modified form of traditional British dishes. This paper explores the functions, strengths and weaknesses of two fine dining restaurant, The Magpie Café and Michael Caines Restaurants. Magpie Café is known for serving fresh fish, therefore their special dishes are dependent on availability of fish on any specific day. Michael Caines Restaurants also specialize on varieties of fish and at the same time they focus on protection of the environment with relation to fish and seafood. In restaurant business it is important to persuade customers to revisit, therefore price needs to be kept at competitive level. Introduction Restaurants are places where people dine to take a break from homemade food. This culture is prevalent in every country of this world. The managers of restaurants consider themselves as service givers to people. Their motive is to provide services beyond the expectations of customers, and they derive satisfaction from the growing popularity of their restaurants. In this modern society, restaurant managers need to perform activities more than just serving food and drinks to customers at reasonable prices. They also need to learn how to account for their services and finances with relation to their establishment (Schmidgall, 2003, p.ix). In order to achieve the goal of satisfying customers within budgetary constraints, managers need to become involved in deciding the budgetary targets. This way, managers will remain aware of operational factors of their restaurants along with the budgetary process (Guilding, 2012, p.184). This paper compares the functions and accountability of two well known restaurants in the UK. The Restaurant Industry In this current era, the restaurant sector is considered as one of the most proficient and widespread sector of them all. Restaurants are being established every year by large numbers around the globe with increasing customers and marketers. Today, customers do not visit restaurants only to satisfy their hunger, but restaurants have become a part of their lifestyle. With increasing development of the tourism industry in most of the countries, restaurants are becoming prominent and major source of national income. Also, the extent to which restaurant business flourishes in a country depends on the socioeconomic conditions of both developed and developing nations. People tend to make their selection of restaurants based on three principle factors like availability of choice varieties, higher value for money, and quality and convenient services. Unlike in any other industry, in hotel and restaurant industry “there is a very thin line of differentiation between the product and services offered by one restaurant from its competitors” (Bhattacharya et al., 2011, p.175). For instance, restaurants provide similar cuisines like Italian pizza provide similar kinds of food and in similar environment. So, one thing that differentiates restaurants are quality of service and type of service like availability of home delivery service (Fullen, 2005, p.110). Therefore the focus needs to be on acquiring greater level of competitive advantage over the others. For this purpose, two kinds of strategies are important. Firstly, restaurants are mostly known for their service quality (other than quality and variety of food), and therefore each restaurant should adapt a unique customer service to enhance customer loyalty. Secondly, by providing attractive discounts a restaurant can attain low-cost leadership (Bhattacharya et al., 2011, p.176). Finally, like any other business, the success of a restaurant depends upon its established mission statement which “embodies the company’s philosophies, goals, ambitions and moral” (Godsey, 2010, p.9). There are various categories of restaurants – chain restaurants like McDonald’s, Quick service like burger and pizza, Fast casual like Atlanta bread company, Family like Perkins and Waffle House, Casual like TGI Friday’s, Fine dining like The Palm and Four Seasons, and so on (Walker, 2007, p.19). Food service industry in UK In the renowned restaurants that serve the upper class, food is delicate, tasty and expensive since cost of wine significantly adds to the cost. The ambiance is inclined to be formal. The cooking style is derived from foreign cuisines like the Mediterranean, French and Italian, and is often modified form of traditional British dishes. In recent years, there has been more emphasis on fusion dishes “combining ingredients and influences from all over the world” (Mason, 2004, p.161). Catering and hospitality industry is the fifth largest economic sector in the UK, and has one of the highest number of employees among all other sectors (Foskett & Paskins, 2011, p.3). Magpie café The Magpie café is a fine dining restaurant enclosed in a black and white building that overlooks the harbour. The restaurant provides fabulous view which is an added advantage since it acts as stressbuster for customers. The restaurant provides a wide choice of food, and their forte is to make dishes with “prime fresh local fish, seafood and specially selected ingredients” (The Magpie Café, 2014). The Magpie’s Café was constructed 1750 as a Merchants House. For a considerable period of time, it became the place where pilots would wait till they received orders to bring their vessels into the harbour. The restaurant has retained the traditional ambiance (The Magpie’s Café: History, 2014). Since Magpie Café is known for serving fresh fish, therefore their special dishes are dependent on availability of fish on any specific day. On the other hand, satisfying the demands of the customers is also top priority and so they focus on mixing and matching fish and dishes according to the tastes of the customers. Since fish is their principle ingredient, therefore the website of Magpie’s Café provides a brief knowledge of different varieties of sea fish like the cod, haddock, lemon sole, skate wing and so on. This restaurant, situated at North Yorkshire, provides “over 100 original recipes from the North’s finest chefs and restaurants” (The Magpie’s Café: Restaurant Menu, 2014). For beverages, they provide a wide selection of white wine, rose wine, red wine, dessert wine, bottled beer and also soft drinks including fruit cocktail (The Magpie’s Café: Wine Menu, 2014). The Magpie’s Café offers seasonal and local elements to wedding brunches, business meetings and seminars. They promise to deliver Central Valley’s best quality service (Magpie: Catering, 2014). Michael Caines Restaurant The Michael Caines Restaurant and Champagne Bar is situated at ABode Manchester “in an atmospheric lower level dining room, serves exciting and innovative European cuisine utilising the best local and regional produce and ingredients” (Michael Caines Restaurant, 2014). Michael Caines is the founder of the restaurants which were established in the year 2000, and looks after the food and beverage operations (Michael Caines: Biography, 2014). Michael Caines restaurants focus on protection of the environment with relation to fish and seafood. The chefs of the restaurants emphasize on sustainability of the food products they use since it is important that quality ingredients are always available for creating great food. Michael Caine is aware of the rapidly declining state of marine wild life and fish habitats caused by excessive fishing. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), “nearly 70% of the world's fish stocks are now fully fished, over-fished, or depleted, a shocking statistic” (Food for Thought, 2014). This happens because of demand of specific variety of fishes, and therefore Michael strives to offer greater variety of fish both for benefit of the marine environment and also to broaden the taste of his customers (Food for Thought, 2014). Comparative Analysis Both the restaurants cater to the upper class clientele; therefore one important factor is the quality and availability of food. Today, customers have become more conscious about hygienic foods and expect the same from restaurants. It is not possible for a restaurant to become successful if the food is not hygienic (Raza et al., 2012, p.802). Both Magpie’s café and Michael Caine restaurants make daily purchases so as to serve fresh fish to the customers. This preserves the hygienic elements of their dishes. High class restaurants need to maintain accurate records since customers often book their seats in advance (Raza et al., 2012, p.802). However, Magpie Café is well known for its queues which only prove its immense popularity. Customer satisfaction depends to a great extent on prompt service, but more than that consistency of services is the element that induces customers revisit a restaurant (Raza et al., 2012, p.802). Magpie Café although claims that their kitchen staff focus on providing fast service so that customers do not have to wait for long after placing orders, they nevertheless have mentioned in their menu that customers need to patient at busy times. Since profit maximization is the ultimate goal of any business, therefore critical elements to success are related to revenues and cost factors. Likewise, restaurants also focus on activities that garner more revenue and minimize costs. In restaurant business, the most important source of revenue is the liquor department. Sales of alcohol, beverages and soft drinks account for significant portion of a restaurant’s profits. Restaurant managers make strategies to provide ideal dining experience and variety in the choice of food keeping in mind the taste preferences of target customers. Restaurant strategy more often is focused on attracting customers and therefore revenues depend on money earned once customers visit a restaurant (Wells, 2012, p.144). Both Magpie Café and Michael Caines Restaurants have liquor section where they provide quality alcohol, beverages and soft drinks. Recommendations In order to attract all customers of different age groups, restaurants should keep track of feedback channels like survey and social media. The next step is to study the feedback and work on the negative ones by making appropriate marketing and operational strategies (Waite, n.d.). Since menu is an important thing since customers place order based on it, therefore it should be designed in the manner to influence the customer demands. This can be done by providing proper descriptions of each item and by highlighting popular or profitable items (Mooney, 1994, p.46). Moreover, macroeconomic environment needs to be ascertained like customer behavior in relation to price (Brotherton, 2012, p.24). In restaurant business it is important to persuade customers to revisit, therefore price needs to be kept at competitive level. It is already mentioned above that there is very little differences that distinguish different restaurants, therefore too high price can make customers easily shift to other restaurants. References Bhattacharya, S., Sengupta, P.P. & Mishra, R. (2011). Exploring Customer Loyalty: A Study on Fast Food Outlets in the City of Chennai. Zenith, Vol.1 No.4, pp.175-183 Brotherton, B. (2012) An Introduction to the UK Hospitality Industry, - a comparative approach, Routledge Food for Thought (2014), accessed on March 11, 2014 from: http://www.michaelcaines.com/michael-on-food/food-thought Foskett, D. & Paskins, P. (2011) The Theory of Hospitality and Catering, Hodder Education Fullen, S.L. (2005) Opening a Restaurant or Other Food Business Starter Kit, Atlantic Publishing Company Godsey, J.A. (2010). Organic Restaurant Business Plan, California Polytechnic State Univ., accessed on March 11, 2014 from: http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1035&context=agbsp Guilding, C. (2012) Accounting Essentials for Hospitality Managers, Routledge Magpie: Catering (2014), accessed on March 11, 2014 from: http://www.magpiecafe.com/catering Mason, L. (2004) Food culture in Great Britain, Greenwood Publishing Group Michael Caines: Biography (2014), accessed on March 11, 2014 from: http://www.michaelcaines.com/about-michael/biography Michael Caines Restaurant (2014), accessed on March 11, 2014 from: http://www.abodemanchester.co.uk/michael-caines-dining/michael-caines-restaurants Mooney, S. (1994), Planning and Designing the Menu, pp.45-58, In Jones, P. & Merricks, P. (eds) The Management of Food Service Operations, Cengage Learning Raza, M.A. et al. (2012). Relationship between service quality, perceived value, satisfaction and revisit intention in hotel industry. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, Vol.4 No.8, pp.788-805 Schmidgall, R.S. et al. (2003) Restaurant Financial Basics, NJ: John Wiley & Sons The Magpie Café (2014), accessed on March 10, 2014 from: http://www.magpiecafe.co.uk/cafe/#content The Magpie’s Café: History (2014), accessed on March 10, 2014 from: http://www.magpiecafe.co.uk/history/#content The Magpie’s Café: Restaurant Menu (2014), accessed on March 11, 2014 from: http://magpiecafeadmin.pearsonsdigital.co.uk/global/uploads/pdfs/Menu_Main_2013-Nov.pdf The Magpie’s Café: Wine Menu (2014), accessed on March 11, 2014 from: http://magpiecafeadmin.pearsonsdigital.co.uk/global/uploads/pdfs/web_wine_menu_feb2013.pdf Waite, M. (n.d.) Connecting with guests from 5 generations, ehotelier, accessed on March 11, 2014 from: http://ehotelier.com/hospitality-news/item.php?id=27187_0_11_0_C Walker, J.R. (2007) The Restaurant: from Concept to Operation, John Wiley and Sons Wells, S. (2012) Choosing the Future, Routledge Appendix SWOT analysis Strengths Clean environment Fresh fish due to daily shopping Prompt and consistent service Brand name Weaknesses Thin line of differentiation from competitors Cannot experiment much with prices Opportunities Increasing tourism industry Main cuisine being fish, varities can be experimented Threats Competitors can lower price Emergence of new restaurants in same locality Images:- (queue in front of Magpie Café) (Michael Caines Restaurant is situation inside the ABobe Manchester) Read More