The year 2020 was brutal in many senses as the effect of COVID-19 surged globally and the restaurant business dropped down. However, after battling the COVID-19 pandemic, the restaurant franchise industry could now make a fresh start.
Stats have it that consumers are expected to spend $771 billion in restaurants in 2022. Thus, to gain profit in the post pandemic era, the restaurant franchising industry will require stringent measures to ensure safety and hygiene at their premises. Using such measures for standard operations, operational efficiency, safety and technological innovation will have an impact on the overall designing.
Hygiene and safety were always the key necessity for the restaurant industry. However, COVID-19 outbreak enhanced the safety protocols to an advanced level wherein social distancing norms were essential to keep the business up and running. Therefore, the first step towards making your franchise business profitable, as per the experts, is a kitchen design that abides by the post-pandemic safety measures.
The franchisers are now concerned about cost-effective solutions in redesigning their spaces to make them post-pandemic ready. The right MEP design solution engineering firm can efficiently help in altering a franchise’s design requirements to stunning reality with cost-effective services.
The Importance of MEP in Restaurant Design
Designing a space becomes much of an investment when the right MEP design firm offers the services. Experienced MEP engineers can easily propose effective measures for energy consumption, water conservation, lighting adjustment, and optimal design resulting in a profitable investment.
Here is an account on what design changes should be considered to come over the challenges of MEP in Restaurant Design.
1. Lighting Control
The power consumption requirements of restaurants vary from that of residential buildings. The designs thus vary too. Therefore, engineers need to focus on attractive lighting that could efficiently manage the requirement. Restaurant lighting has a critical role when designing a restaurant, since it affects how interior spaces are perceived by customers. When lighting fixture efficiency increases, lighting controls have a reduced net impact on energy use. Therefore, the lighting equipment should only be chosen after calculating the overall allocated power with the energy consumed by each lighting control so as to manage the power consumption efficiently. This requires services from experienced MEP design firms.
2. Exhaust and Ventilation
Restaurants require air to be exhausted out from the kitchen to avoid odor spreading. Also, to maintain the uninterrupted air passing, proper ventilation is needed. The design therefore requires dedicated exhaust and Chimneys (hood) to avoid odor from spreading to the dine-in area. New building codes also advocate installation of makeup air when a kitchen ventilation hood exceeds 400 cubic feet of air per minute.
Infrastructure Requirement
Commercial food service facilities and wastewater management significantly differ from residential establishments. High levels of oil and grease causes odor, damage to the interiors, and poses a risk of fire breakout. To manage the damage, greece interceptor should be properly placed to avoid odor, hot water plumbing should also be planned and installed efficiently to manage the requirement, and designing precipitator installation needs to be planned properly so that oil could be separated from the water before it is released outside and chances of fire could be avoided. An experienced MEP design solution agency can offer services to manage all these requirements.
Our Restaurant & Kitchen MEP Design Solutions are Cost Effective & Energy Efficient that bring Your Vision to Life.
3 Restaurant Franchise Industry Trends in 2022
Innovative trends are making their mark in the restaurant franchise industry. The most recent trends are showing owners’ interest in making the on-site experience wholesome for the customers. Besides offering an exceptional dining experience, restaurants are considering automation as well. Here is more on the trends that are taking shape in the restaurant franchise industry this year.
1. Ghost Kitchens
Ghost kitchen, also known as cloud kitchen, is a business concept that prepares food for delivery only. Consumers place their orders through online apps and get their food delivered shortly. Ghost kitchens generally have lower upfront cost as compared to a traditional restaurant kitchen.
Enticing Facts about Ghost Kitchen -
- The global market for ghost kitchen is believed to reach $1 trillion by 2030
- 52% of adults believe ordering takeout is essential to maintain their lifestyle
- It’s easy to operate a ghost kitchen with lower tech cost & fewer required permits
- Ghost Kitchens are easy to operate with flexible menus
Types of Ghost Kitchen -
- Free standing commercial kitchen
- Shared commissary kitchen
- Rented brick & mortar kitchen
2. Quick Service Restaurant (QSR)
Enticing Facts about Quick Service Restaurant
- McDonalds is the world’s largest quick service restaurant that generates USD $24.62 billion in revenue each year.
- The global quick service restaurant generated nearly $736.15 billion revenue in 2020
- QSR market size that was valued at USD $257.19 billion in 2019 is expected to grow 5.1% at $736.15 billion revenue in 2020 a compound annual growth from 2020 to 2027
- 58% of consumers believe that they will dine at a quick service restaurant once a week
QSR franchise opportunities are an exciting offer to take up in developing markets. As enticing as it sounds, the business is challenging as well. That is why it is always better to opt for a QSR franchise restaurant than starting from the scratch. Here are the pointers that showcase the benefits of taking up a QSR franchise service restaurant:
QSR Franchise Equals to an Established Brand
QSR franchise opportunities offer a company’s established brand identity to the new business. The new business won’t have to think about marketing and other similar concerns as the brand will provide with every necessary marketing material, menu, and other requirements needed to take up a new establishment.
Operational Support
Established brands ensure that the new franchise gets all the operational support and required training. The new business will be given guidelines to follow that makes it easy to operate even in a new location. The brand’s established methods of providing customer service, attracting new customers, and keeping the marketing game up-to-date ensure that the new restaurant runs smoothly.
Risk Management
Taking a QSR franchise tends to have lesser risk as compared to establishing a new restaurant. With the support of an established entity, the risk management can be done exceptionally well in order to avoid any upcoming business glitches.
Potential Growth
There is a lot of room to grow with a franchising QSR restaurant. The ongoing support and guidance required to operate the business make it easy to avoid risk and grow multifold. As the growth plans are prepared and shared with the new establishment by the brand itself, the possibilities of gaining quick popularity and profit increase immediately.
3. Drive-thru
Enticing Facts about Drive-thru
- Drive-thrus account for 70% of sales of the total sales for fast food joints
- Nearly three quarters of US consumers have used a drive-thru since the pandemic broke out
- Higher volumes and larger orders slowed down the drive-thru times by 30 seconds in the pandemic
- Burger king tops the chart as the most popular drive-thru in 2021
Drive-thru franchises come with added benefits. While restaurants require a dine-in area, sitting facility, and rest rooms, there are no such expenses involved in drive-thru franchises. There is lower staff requirement as well which is not possible with dine-in restaurants. All these facilities lower the cost of operation and establishment of drive-thrus. Here are more reasons to consider drive-thru franchises.
Lesser Initial Investment
Sit-down coffee shops require space for sitting, staffing and infrastructure. With drive-thrus these costs are easy to avoid as there is no requirement for all these facilities except infrastructure. Additionally, utilities, maintenance, wages, rent/payments are comparatively less for drive-thru. This makes it possible for drive-thru models to earn higher profit margins.
Drive-thrus are Least Affected in Situations like Lockdown
The worldwide lockdown had a negative impact on dine-in restaurants. The entire supply chain was affected and so were the restaurants. Drive-thrus, however, managed to operate after a few months of lockdown after changing their nature of operations a bit. Such establishments thus are able to operate in any such situation owing to their nature of business and operations.
Drive-thrus Require Small Building Footprint
Drive-thrus are easier to fit in small areas. Many drive-thru franchises help in site procurement and research making it easier for the new business to operate in the most profitable areas. Drive-thrus generally operate with double-sided building design to make it easier for customers to place and get their orders immediately.
4. What Types of Restaurants are the Most Profitable?
By 2023, consumers are expected to spend $817 billion on prepared (fast) food and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Thus, taking restaurant franchises should be considered the most profitable model to invest into for bigger returns. While every restaurant franchise looks glamorous from outside, the reality is not always the same from the inside. Taking up new franchises is a huge investment and therefore it is important to invest into the most profitable business models. Here are the options to consider.
Fast Food Restaurants
The craze for fast food restaurants has increased in the past decade. People are keen to have their food without any delay. With fast food franchising outlets, it becomes easier for restaurants to serve the clients in the least timeframe with a variety of food as preferred by the visitors.
Bar Restaurants
Bars have the highest profit margins in the restaurant business. The profit margins on alcohol are much higher than margins on food. Bars generate a higher ROI with estimated annual earnings of $3,00,000.
Buffet Restaurants
It might not seem a great idea to let your customer eat all the food. But choosing to invest in a buffet restaurant allows you to pick ingredients in bulk, manage the tables with fewer resources (allowing customers for self-service), and charging additionally for all the drinks served to the customers.
The Bottom Line
There are a lot of reasons to invest in a franchise restaurant. The ongoing popularity of home food delivery, dine-in options, and partying at a buffet set-up makes it sensible to invest in the opportunity. Also, there are services available to strategically design your restaurant set up with the help of franchise engineers from NY engineers.
