Dubai’s bustling F&B scene sees the opening of new restaurants
regularly, and closures near as frequently. While there’s no pinpoint
reason that is responsible responsible for doors closing, there are a
range of contributing factors, such as areas of the business often
forgotten about during an outlet’s launch period.
Overlooking
important areas of the restaurant business could see the closure of your
venue. Before opening a restaurant in Dubai, we would advise any
restauranteur to consider and manage their resources to ensure they’re
able to effectively deliver on a few key areas. These five aspects of
opening a restaurant in Dubai should never fall by the wayside
Menu Engineering needs to be consistent Dubai
is known for its extremely trend conscious market, we suggest
restaurant menus must be re-engineered every three to six months to stay
relevant. Dubai’s F&B market is always evolving, drawing
inspiration from all major leading food capitals around the world. It’s
important to ensure you have the right talent on board within your brand
or to task F&B consultants to develop head-turning signature menus
and to manage these unavoidable updates regularly, effectively and
creatively.
Budgets need to be set aside for staff training and experiences. A
downfall for many restaurants is the high turnover of staff. Losing
employees is costly when there are hiring costs such as visas,
healthcare, accommodation, etc to consider in the UAE. High staff
turnover is a real financial loss to any business. It is important to
remember that an average employee needs six months to be fully
productive and thoroughly understand the business, losing them
frequently means you are constantly dealing with a rookie team instead
of retaining strong people, who you’ve invested trainings and
operational synergy in, just when they are finally becoming an asset to
you. It’s important for businesses to include training and incentive
budgets into their P&L. Employees who feel taken care of and valued will always put more into making success of the business.
Waste management is crucial Too
many restaurants don’t have waste management systems in place which
results in large amounts of stock on shelves and in fridges that end up
in the bin. You should implement a strong POS system as well as kitchen
management systems for inventory control that ensures you sell what you
buy. A JIT system is perfect for the current market scenario of
unpredictable sales and can help minimise stock levels and rotating
products so that they do not spoil. Food wastage is a massive issue
globally, and costs restaurant owners thousands every year.
Ensure you have a set marketing budget Instagram
marketing in this region is more effective and crucial to a brand’s
positioning and communication than anywhere else globally. Having a
budget set for social media marketing is essential. The budget will also
need to include hiring the right candidate with the relevant skills.
High quality imagery is a must, so don’t skimp on photography. Building
great content through lifestyle and professional imagery and videos is
the way to go in the UAE. We’re living in an age where many consumers
choose where to dine by scrolling through feeds. Restaurants need to
make their grid count.
Careful selection of your kitchen and build contractor You
should be prepared to pay a premium price if you want to open on time
and produce a quality venue. While it may seem appealing to go with the
lower priced contractor to start, this will ultimately result in
spending more in the long run. Delayed openings and poor delivery are
conventional for low-cost contractors in Dubai. Tender out your build
contracts and ask for references. Make sure to check if the contactor
has done restaurants before because the fit out of F&B units is very
different from usual contracting.
