Sales-Mix Analysis Tools

A sales-mix analysis is simply a recap of the number of items sold, their food costs, and consequently, the profit margin for the restaurant. Over time, it provides a good look at the average profit generated by each You can do a sales-mix analysis for your restaurant by following these simple instructions: 1. Using a spreadsheet program, (or by simply using a piece of paper), create a spreadsheet with 9 columns. The columns should be headed: item, selling price, number sold, total sales, cost, profit margin, total costs, total profit, and stars. 2. Place the name of each menu item in the first column. 3. Choose a time frame, such as daily, weekly, etc., and record the number sold for each item. 4. Calculate the food cost for each item and record it under the "cost" column. 5. Multiply number sold by selling price to calculate total sales. 6. Subtract the food cost from the selling price to calculate profit margin. 7. Multiply number sold times cost to get total cost. 8. Multiply number sold times profit margin to get total margin. 9. Place a check mark in the Stars column next to any item that delivers a good margin. You want to sell more of these. 10. Calculate the average profit margin per guest by dividing the total profit margin by the number of guests served. This is a very important number. Use it to determine the efficiency of any menu changes. If you offer a new special and this number goes up, life is good! If you create a new menu and the number goes down, well that means you may be in trouble.