Holdens and Co Case Study
Holdens and Co. is a family-run business with three locations across Lancashire. Holdens and Co. have been making their award-winning Artisan ice cream for over 95 years with the same original recipe. The company recently rebranded and extended its offer to include cafes as a way to reduce the seasonality of the business model. The business comprises of the original shop in Bolton, a farm shop and café in Abbey Village, and a newly extended café and ice cream parlour in the village of Whalley. They are positioned as a premium café, deli, and ice cream experience with a key focus on quality ingredients sourced from small artisan suppliers.
Project Description:
Boost Consultancy was selected by the business owners to carry out a root and branch analysis of the current business model. The review included the current structure and labour cost by location, an in depth look at sales by day part and time and category, the capability of the current management team highlighting and skills gaps, the occupancy rate of café, staff training, recruitment, brand standards and how these are embedded, customer experience and current service levels, stock processes and management, menu offer and margins and waste. This review provided an objective assessment of the current business context, its potential performance and its viability to become profitable and sustainable. The review highlighted key recommendations and opportunities to optimise performance and reduce costs and increase profitability without compromising the customer experience. It also provided external benchmarks of what good labour and COG% looks like.
What was delivered:
Boost Consultancy completed a strategic review of the business by location, building a thorough understanding of the current context and providing key recommendations to drive improved performance with a suggested priority order to ensure maximum impact. This insight was used to identify key focus areas that would deliver the greatest impact on the commercial performance of the business.
We worked alongside the business owners to support them in articulating the business mission and values and used this to support the development of key processes for training and inducting new starters.
We created Job Descriptions for all roles to provide clarity on accountabilities. We highlighted shortfalls in compliance and supported in bridging these gaps by creating processes in line with best practices.
Supported the reduction of stock holding and the implementation of a robust stock process to provide visibility of COG to highlight issues with waste and portion control.
Boost Consultancy worked collaboratively with the owners and General Managers to develop and implement improved sales reporting to ensure sales were monitored and reviewed weekly to highlight key actions and opportunities for the GMs and team to deliver.
We provided mentoring and coaching to Lucy (co-owner) to ensure she was providing strong and effective leadership for the GMs to ensure they delivered the best possible results.
We identified key gaps in the capabilities of some of the senior teams and supported the owners with the recruitment of a new GM for their flagship café/deli.
Created forecasted P&L for each location benchmarked against industry best practices. We improved the quality of the commercial conversations at every level to ensure ownership and understanding of the impact each person could have.
Created training materials to assist in improving the standards and quality of the customer experience. Supported Lucy (co-owner) with the development of a retail promotional calendar and improved POS to drive engagement and participation in retail.
Leveraged existing systems to put in place a tracking process so managers had visibility of what they were spending on labour and adjusted accordingly.
Worked with the Head Chef to redevelop the menu at Whalley with a focus on all-day brunch offers to increase food spend and attract more customers.
Supported with the development of a dessert menu that showcased ice cream.
Provided Director-level thinking and guidance to help them stabilize the business and generate more profit and cash flow.
Results:
The profit % of each of the locations improved and labour and COG was brought under control achieving a circa 4-5% reduction in labour cost overall.
Following the successful completion of the project I am providing ongoing support 1-2 days a month to ensure continued momentum with the work, to ensure it delivers a positive impact on the business.