How Rocksalt reduces labour costs, and grows business with CPU and central bakery
Rocksalt is a multiple award-winning cafe and restaurant with locations across Ireland, serving specialty coffee alongside delicious and healthy food.
Founded in 2018, the business has come a long way since, growing into five different venues with two central production units (CPUs). In 2021, the business began expanding its catering service and building partnerships with well-known retailers, like SuperValu — both of which have been an important and prolific part of Rocksalt’s business.
But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing to get here.
THE CHALLENGE
One of the first hurdles Rocksalt faced was managing labour costs. With multiple sites and no real-time labour management system, it was hard to track schedules and optimise shifts to meet demand.
The results? Rocksalt was overspending on wages, which impacted profitability.
“We were struggling with managing labour costs. We needed a system where we could oversee all our sites weekly. We just didn’t have any real-time visibility.”
Stephen Burns, Group Operations Manager at Rocksalt
As the business began opening more venues, they turned to CPUs to streamline their operations. But production planning from the CPU was taking up huge amounts of time.
Again, Rocksalt didn’t have the system in place to access real-time insights about inventory, production schedules, and supplier costs.
Without these insights, the production planning process simply wasn’t efficient. Not to mention, the business wasn’t reacting to price changes as quickly as it could. This meant missing opportunities to reduce supplier costs and improve the bottom line.
Fortunately, Nory gave Rocksalt the insight and functionality to tackle these challenges head-on.
THE SOLUTION
Nory gave Rocksalt access to real-time insights. For labour management, this means accurately predicting demand across venues to maintain optimal staffing levels at each location. As a result, they’ve been able to:
- Reduce labour costs by 14%
- Forecasting sales to within a 3% accuracy so that labour was based on more accurate demand
Rocksalt is currently getting fully up to speed with our inventory management system — in the meantime, the cafe is using Nory’s integrated supplier management features. The business can now accurately track prices and supplier costs, allowing them to make instant changes to optimise spending.
“Because all the ordering and invoices are updated daily, we can catch a price increase from a supplier pretty much instantly. As soon as we spot it, we can react to it immediately.”
Stephen Burns, Group Operations Manager at Rocksalt
Our supplier management function also allows Rocksalt to improve its inventory ordering, with orders from each location seamlessly reaching the CPU.
One of their CPUs is a central bakery to produce baked goods, while the other makes all the other products. Instead of individual venues ordering items from each CPU, Nory automatically predicts what they need. Then, we order the necessary ingredients directly from each CPU to provide locations with the right amount of food. This drives profitability by preventing stockouts and excess waste.
And with instant access to real-time pricing, reviewing costs is a much less time-intensive experience. Stephen Burns, the Group Operations Manager at Rocksalt, now spends less time managing pricing and more time running the business.
“I would’ve previously spent around 50% of my time trying to manage pricing from suppliers. Now, it’s a 10-minute job because I can see the price changes instantly, pick up the phone, and take action.”
Stephen Burns, Group Operations Manager at Rocksalt
Access to AI-powered data and real-time insights has also allowed Rocksalt to improve demand planning for each location, with the business forecasting sales to within 2.5% accuracy so far in 2024.
And on top of all this? Rocksalt has sustained quality and consistency amidst all this growth. With the right digital infrastructure in place, the business has been able to uphold its high standards as it branches into new locations and avenues, like catering and retail.
“We’ve managed to grow the business without letting go of our core fundamentals. As we expand, we remain loyal to our staff, our customers, and we don’t sacrifice the quality of our coffee or our food.”
Stephen Burns, Group Operations Manager at Rocksalt
What’s next for Rocksalt?
Rocksalt has big plans for growth in the future, focusing on its retail and catering arms of the business.
“The plan is to keep growing. The retail and catering element of the business is huge for us, allowing us to increase revenue without massively increasing costs.”
Stephen Burns, Group Operations Manager at Rocksalt
And Nory? We’re here for the long-haul. Rocksalt is currently getting set up with our inventory management system, and they’re eagerly anticipating Nory’s AI-powered CPU.
We’re excited to keep supporting Rocksalt as it grows into new locations, providing Rocksalt with real-time insights to support its growth. From the CPU kitchen and on-the-ground operations to supplying retailers and optimising its catering service — we’ll be there every step of the way.
“I wasn’t expecting the CPU to be at such an advanced level. It’s been essential to the operation of our business. With Nory’s AI-powered CPU, we’ll be able to grow the business faster because we can spend less time managing production.”
Stephen Burns, Group Operations Manager at Rocksalt