What are your food costs

Pizza Shop Talk The Think Tank
1

I’m trying to get an idea of ranges for cost of goods sold? Can everyone share with me theirs? I’m looking just for food costs, not supplies or anything else that people like to throw in cost of goods sometimes.

Also, if any one knows the numbers for some franchises, I’d like those as well. I’ve seen posters on here who say they worked for Dominos that’s why I figure some might know.

Thanks!

2

DFW,

That’s a rangy question, but I’ll give it a shot…

The short and sweet answer would be 26%-32% with 28% being an industry standard. If that’s all you’re looking for then you can stop right here. If you want me to get all wordy and long-winded like I always do (I know, it’s annoying… but sometimes I just can’t stop), keep reading…

A number of things can contribute to running a high or a low F%:

  1. How many pizzas do you sell at regular price vs. discount?
  2. How many high F% side items do you sell (like wings and drinks)?
  3. How many low F% side items do you sell (like breadsticks)?
  4. Are your portioning standards realistic with how want the pizzas to look and what you charge?
  5. Do you sell a lot of specialty pizzas vs. one topping pizzas?

If you discount a lot, naturally you would see a spike in your F%, possibly into the low to mid 30%'s. If your store has very few discounts and you sell primarily from the menu you would see your costs in the low to mid 20% range.

Low ticket/high cost sides will drive sales and increase your ticket avg., but sometimes it’s hard to argue the cost of such increases when you see a lower overall profit because they take up so much of your cost. On the other hand, low cost sides (like breadsticks) are a fantastic way to increase your ticket average, simultaneously increasing the profit of the entire order. Most shops, an order of breadsticks will cost around 35 cents, selling for around $3 = 11.67 F%.

You, of course, own your own business which means you, of course, created your own portion chart. Following exact portions, run an ideal food cost on your menu to see what you should be running at regular menu price. Too low is just as bad as too high. Hope this helps. -J_r0kk

3

My food cost run 27-28% including bags,boxes, cups etc.

4

Food Cost is important. But Upsell is more important. Cause you can sell pizza all day long at 28%, but I would rather add an order of wings, and a 2-liter of coke, and a quart of ice cream to the order for $12 bucks more even if it raise my food cost to 42%.
If your in a slow store, and your running 26 to 28% food cost. You might consider changing your discounts. Remember never change your price, in fact every year you should increase your full price about 3 to 5%. Advo says that 60 to 70% of pizza customers use a coupon, or a discount. So check your offers, develop bundles, or add-on packages, build value into your products. I use grande cheese, its expensive and it increases my FC by 3 to 4%, but it is a far superior product, and the customers recognize it. If you are a franchise, build value by strengthening your Product, Service, and your Image. I run FC in the 42% area but my volume is so high in some of my stores that my labor cost dips below 14%. And believe me, I would rather have a store doing $20,000 a week, at 42 FC, and 14 LC, than a $10,000 a week store at 32 FC, and 24 LC. Your customer will get more for there money, and your employees will make more money.
PEOPLE WILL ONLY PART WITH THEIR MONEY WHEN THEY PERCEIVE AN EQUAL OR GREATER VALUE FOR YOUR PRODUCTS.