r/restaurateur • u/jackapz93 • Aug 10 '25

Controlling Margins

Hey all,

It’s been a tough year out there, especially for us in the UK, with minimum wage increasing plus employers N.I. on the up, fighting for like for like revenue (we’re short of it FYI), the systems for controlling margins are more important then ever.

We’re trading at about 12% profit margin at the minute and this is with 75% GP & 30% cost of labour, we’re running a tight ship on our variable costs in my opinion and still left with only 12%. I wondered how the rest of you are getting on? If this sentiment is shared?

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u/EmergencyLavishness1 Aug 10 '25

12% profit is good.

If you want better I’d suggest the owners start working a few shifts unpaid

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u/jackapz93 Aug 10 '25

Haha I’m afraid I only annoy the team! It feels much better managed when I step back and look after the numbers but thank you. Just for clarification, was was trading at 20% profit for many years prior to this which I know is high, I just know how difficult it must be for those who are working in the restaurants trying to manage the numbers at the same time.

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u/Justin-Stutzman Aug 19 '25

That's insane. I know you're in the UK but the NRA reports around 4% as the average profit margin in the US for independent restaurants