Program tocut costs

Contract catering managers at Sutcliffe are saving time, accurately budgeting and controlling costs with a computer program designed by the firm.

Using the Lynx Plus program has helped David Lewis, a Sutcliffe manager based at Sara Lee, Slough, to cut one part-time cashier and consistently work within budget. "Before I was 107% of budget but now I am regularly achieving 98%. On top of that it has saved me so much time I now work the till at lunch service. That not only saves me the part-time staff cost but places me front of house meeting the customers and finding out their likes and dislikes," says Lewis.

The Sara Lee staff restaurant is typical of Sutcliffe's 2,300 contracts. There are eight staff serving 180 breakfasts and 200 lunches on working days. Although staff costs are covered by the client, Sutcliffe has to recover the food costs - there's no subsidy. Turnover is about £2,000 to £2,300/week with an average spend of £1.50/person on a main course and sweet.

With margins tightening on such contract catering sites, Sutcliffe is keen to increase efficiency. A few per cent savings on annual food purchasing of £180m and total turnover of £400m can mean a big difference to the bottom line.

In 1989 the company realised the only way to get the computer program needed to realise the gains it sought would be to develop its own. In 1991 it produced Solitaire, a sophisticated computer program to aid budgeting and business management which is installed at its bigger sites such as Kodak, Rothmans and British Airways.

One aim of Solitaire is to help managers know what menus will cost, explains Marian Saltmer, general manager operational systems. "The menu is placed in the system and the cost that comes out is based on real bought-in invoices. It allows for accurate budgeting, can be networked and leaves nothing to chance."

Manual systems

There are now 160 of the packages - controlling about 10% of the firm's business. Although the system works well in the top contracts it did not help managers who were relying on a manual system. Sutcliffe's computer programers then turned their attention to addressing the needs of the core business.

"Ask a manager what's the main bane of your life? And the answer is: ‘paperwork'. The managers have to handle cash reconciliations; supply invoicing, credit notes, estimates, delivery notes and collations," says Saltmer.

And that's what Lynx is designed to cut. A basic system, Lynx produces a summary of the weekly trading, including daily sales, meal numbers and total invoices, and it replaces the weekly handwritten return sheets. The information is loaded on to a computer disc and sent to the firm's head office accounts department.

It is this last feature which is behind its popularity, reckons Saltmer. "Introduction of Lynx has been demand driven. Managers and chef-managers don't want to know about computers - but they dislike paperwork even more! In the first 16 months after its introduction we had it in about 1,700 sites."

Another reason for the Lynx's success, she adds, is ease of use. People using it don't have to type - all the functions are helped by prompts accessed by sliding the coloured bar "we don't call it a cursor" down the screen. "After two-and-a-half hours of training managers who have never touched a computer before can do all the bookwork on screen. There is a great enthusiasm about the job," she adds.

Lynx Plus is a new development which has the same trading information and collation but also includes automatically costed recipes, stock control and additional purchasing information.

At Sara Lee in Slough, Lewis finds the Lynx Plus invaluable in recipe and menu planning. The program holds 1,500 stock items of food with real costs and 500 recipes, which he uses to plan and change menus with precise costings.

"The benefit is I can look quickly at the recipe, see what we need and know the cost/portion based on real invoices."