Services

Kitchen problems, solved on paper first.

Every engagement starts with the same question: what does this outlet have to take each month, and what's stopping it? Everything below is a different route to that answer, and most clients need two or three rather than the lot.

Before you open

Concept development and positioning

What the place is, who it's for, and what it charges. Settled on paper and pressure-tested against the catchment before you commit to a site.

This is the cheapest work we do and it prevents the most expensive problems. Plenty of concepts are perfectly good and simply can't carry the rent being asked for that unit. Worth knowing before the lease, not after.

Suits: Operators still choosing between sites or formats.

Pre-opening project management

A dated build programme from lease signing to first service, with a named owner against every item.

The expensive mistakes in a new site are nearly all made before anyone cooks anything. A layout that adds a second person to every service. A licence applied for three weeks too late. A fit-out that runs six weeks over while rent is already being paid. We run the programme week by week from lease to opening, with the cash requirement attached to each week and one person named against every item, so you can see what's late while it's still cheap to fix.

Suits: First-time operators and groups adding a site.

Licensing and compliance

Applications prepared, scheduled against your build programme, and tracked to approval, so licensing isn't the thing that delays your opening.

SFA licensing, halal certification and liquor approvals all run on their own timelines, and none of them care about your opening date. We prepare the applications, schedule them against the build programme, and track them through to approval, so a finished site doesn't sit empty waiting on paperwork.

Suits: Operators opening, relocating, or changing format.

Supplier sourcing and procurement

Tendering, specification and terms across your main spend categories. Negotiated properly, then written down so the savings hold.

Buying rarely gets tendered once a place is open, and prices drift. We specify and tender your main categories, then negotiate terms rather than just unit prices, because payment days and delivery frequency often matter more than a few cents a kilo. The savings only hold if the kitchen can follow the buying list, so we write one they'll actually use.

Suits: Operators setting up buying for a new site, and multi-site groups whose buying has never been tendered.

A newly fitted commercial kitchen, stainless benching and racking in place.

A note on kitchens

The layout decides the labour.

Half the staffing problems we are asked to solve were designed into the room before it opened. A pass in the wrong place, a cold store on the far side of the kitchen, a single sink where two services meet. None of it shows up on a drawing. All of it shows up in the wage bill, every week, for as long as the lease runs.

Once you're trading

Menu engineering and costing

Every dish costed to the gram, then ranked by contribution rather than popularity. You finish knowing which lines pay for the kitchen and which ones are being carried.

Most menus are priced by feel, then adjusted only when something starts to look expensive. That tells you nothing about whether a dish pays for the kitchen that made it. We cost every line at the prices you're paying this month, then set that against how often it actually sells. The answer is usually that four or five dishes are carrying the menu and a similar number are quietly eating the margin. Some get repriced. Some get rebuilt. One or two normally come off.

Suits: Operators whose food cost has drifted, or who are pricing on instinct.

Kitchen workflow and labour

We work a full service with your team, then map where the minutes and the wastage go. The output is a change list with a cost and a date against each item.

Manpower is the constraint in most Singapore kitchens now, and the answer is rarely another pair of hands. It's usually prep moved to a different time of day, a cold store that adds ten steps to every plate, or a dish that takes four minutes when the rest take ninety seconds.

Suits: Kitchens that feel busy but don't convert it to margin.

Financial modelling and P&L reporting

An operating model your bank and your head chef can both read, and a monthly reporting pack that takes an hour to produce rather than a weekend.

A model your bank believes and a model your head chef can read are usually two different documents. They shouldn't be. We build one operating model, tie it to how the kitchen actually runs, and reduce month-end to a single page showing food, labour, rent and what's left. If producing your numbers currently takes a weekend, that's the thing we fix first.

Suits: Anyone raising money, or reporting to a board or a bank.

Turnaround for underperforming outlets

For sites losing money now. We agree what stops immediately, what's protected, and what the outlet needs to clear each month to stay open.

The runway is usually short, so the sequence matters. First we agree what stops immediately and what's protected. Then we work out the number the outlet has to take each month to stay open, and whether that number is reachable. Sometimes it isn't, and hearing that early is worth more than hearing it politely.

Suits: Sites where cash is going out faster than it's coming in.

How we work

Four stages. Stop after any of them.

Stage 01

The Read

We work a full service, read twelve months of accounts, and cost the menu line by line. You keep the findings whether or not you carry on with us.

Stage 02

The Plan

What changes, what it costs, and what it returns by which month. One document, with an owner and a date against every line. Plenty of clients take it from there.

Stage 03

Implementation

We stay on site while the changes land, because a plan handed over at the door is a plan that gets filed.

Stage 04

Handover

Your team runs the reporting without us. If they still need us after six months, we haven't finished the job.

In practice

How an engagement usually runs

Glassware set out along a bar top under low light.

Two weeks for the read. A week to write the plan. After that it depends entirely on what we found, and we'll give you a range before you commit rather than after.

Most implementation work runs six to twelve weeks, with us on site for part of each week rather than sitting in your office full-time. You keep running the business. We're there for the parts that need someone watching.

We work with whoever you already use. If you have an accountant, a designer, a contractor or a recruiter, we'd rather brief them properly than replace them. Where you need somebody you don't have, we'll say so and tell you what to look for.

One thing worth saying plainly. We are paid by you, and never by a supplier. When we tender your buying, the recommendation is not for sale.

Common questions

Before you get in touch

Do you take on single sites, or only groups?

Both. The work is the same shape either way. A single site simply needs less of it.

What happens in the first two weeks?

We work two full services on the floor with your team, read your last twelve months of accounts, and cost the menu to the gram. You keep the findings whether or not the engagement continues.

Will you sign an NDA?

Yes. Most of our work touches supplier terms and staff costs, so we expect to.

Start here

Tell us which line applies.

Point at the service that fits and we'll come back with what we'd look at first and roughly what it would cost.

Talk to us

info@saltandledger.com.sg