Page 32 - GBC ENGLISH spring 2024

James Cronk
James is Founder of the consulting company, Cronk Group. He and his partner, Scott Masse, operate Golf Industry Guru, an online training platform for owners, managers and front-line employees and The Toolbox, a web-based safety and OHS platform. To learn more visit www.cronkgroup.com and www.golfindustryguru.com and www.thetoolbox.tech.
Running a successful restaurant, within the unique context of a golf club, is not easy. This was discussed at great length in a handful of sessions at last year’s NGCOA Canada conference in Montreal.
In this article, I will delve deeper into some of the recommendations, best practices and metrics that were included in my session that was titled, “What Every Golf Person Needs to Know About F&B”, which was co-hosted with Canada’s Restaurant Guru, Jay Ashton. In our session, we talked about managing your FOUR P’s FOR SUCCESS. Your ‘purpose’, your ‘people’, your ‘products’ and your ‘profits’.
PURPOSE: DEFINE YOUR WHY!
The most important step that you can consider is what is the goal and purpose of your food and beverage restaurant. As Simon Sinek so aptly states, you must always Start with Why!
For example, what is the financial purpose of your F&B dining experience? Is it to be profitable at any cost or is it to ensure that every ten minutes four golfers walk off the first tee? Because I can assure you that if you have a poor F&B experience, and it motivates golfers to choose another course over yours, the true cost of your F&B amenity is much higher than you think.
As an example, if your F&B profit is ten cents for every dollar sold, and your average green fee is $60, you would need to sell $2,400 in F&B sales JUST to equal the same net revenue as one tee time. In the private club world, food and beverage is considered an amenity and as such, losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year is sometimes accepted as a cost of providing that amenity (and keeping golfers at your facility). The losses are supported by monthly dues.
In the for-profit public world, the choice is this: Would you rather have a reduced and simple menu with an awesome food cost of 32%, or would you rather have a full tee sheet where most of your golfers linger for a few extra hours because you have the best nachos in town? While a full tee sheet might always be the goal, it does not mean we cannot do better with improving our F&B results.
32 Golf Business Canada