When Dublin retailer Thomas Ennis started out in 2005, he started with a vision to have the best fresh food and drink in the market.
Working with Spar, he now runs 12 city centre and forecourt stores and his business turns over €20m (£16.8m) a year.
At the ACS Summit last week, he revealed five ways you can make more from food to go and quality, fresh food:
- Bring in baristas. “I’m not a fan of machine coffee. All my stores have barista-made coffee and on that one product we do €52,000 (£44,000) a week. If you want to be known for good food, you need a good hipster barista,” he said.
- Don’t go in cheap. “I don’t buy cheap stuff. It has to be high-end, quality product because consumers can’t be fooled. They know what good food should taste like.”
- Know your margin. “It shocks me how many retailers don’t know this. If you’re self-employed you have to know everything.”
- Get on the floor. “We have our meetings and talk to our suppliers on the shop floor. This helps us find ways we can be better.”
- Do what you love. “We opened up a shop called Spar Gourmet in 2011. I reached a margin of 42% in that shop and our others run at 30%+. Everything I do is about food because I love it and because you make more money.”
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