Learn how Jersey Mike's and Areas USA have saved time and money with Crunchtime’s forecasting
Restaurant operators know how critical a good forecast is to their business’s success. At Crunchtime’s 2024 Ops Summit, industry leaders from Jersey Mike’s and Areas USA (a global leader in travel dining and retail with brands including Dunkin’, Subway, Wendy’s, Ruby Tuesday, Pizza Hut, and KFC) shared 3 ways Crunchtime’s forecasting has helped them improve their operations and control costs across their stores nationwide.
1. Auto-forecast is saving both brands significant time.
It’s no secret that manual forecasting takes time, and it can be easily overlooked or forgotten by busy store managers. “Franchisees and store managers could spend hours figuring out the sales forecast depending on the projections,” said Amanda Vrabel, Manager of Business Management Systems at Jersey Mike’s.
Time savings are a large part of what prompted Jersey Mike’s team to switch on Crunchtime’s auto-forecasting setting.
“Crunchtime's auto-forecast takes all of the effort off of our managers at Jersey Mikes,” explained Vrabel. The forecast is automatically generated, so it’s one less thing managers need to cross off their to-do list. And because the forecast is also built off preconfigured logic, the results are more accurate than manually generated forecasts. Jersey Mike’s reports they get 80-to-99% accurate results with Crunchtime’s forecasting.
Areas USA has had a similar experience. They use a hybrid forecasting model where they rely on Crunchtime’s auto-forecast, then their business analysts check the reports after to make sure they look good and adjust them as needed to account for any unforeseen circumstances.
“Our business analysts are now spending minutes, rather than hours creating forecasts,” said Marilu Cruz, Project and Crunchtime Manager at Areas USA.
2. Accurate forecasting helps both brands control their food costs.
With more accurate forecasting, Areas USA stores can now get through their supplies about two days faster than they did before, indicating they’re more efficient with their resources, potentially reducing waste, spoilage, and the risk of overstocking. In just 4 months of using Crunchtime’s forecasting at 17 store locations, Areas USA estimated approximately $140,000 in food cost savings.
Jersey Mike’s has also seen accurate forecasting help their food costs. For them, Crunchtime’s
suggested ordering feature has been the biggest factor in controlling costs and improving purchasing with the forecast.
“Before, managers were saying I think I need 10 cases of cucumbers and you ended up wasting three of them," said Vrabel. “Now, with Crunchtime’s forecasting and the suggested ordering, it will tell you don't order more than seven cases.”
3. Crunchtime’s forecasting helps Jersey Mike’s and Areas USA be more adaptable to fluctuations in demand.
Expecting the unexpected is part of every restaurant operator’s playbook. That’s why Crunchtime’s forecasting is designed to be easily adjusted when unexpected sales events arise — whether it's a catering order or a snowstorm that throws off the original forecast.
“Say you have a catering order coming up. It's obviously not going to be listed in your average for last week,” said Vrabel. “But in Crunchtime, you can easily go in and make any edits that you need to within the sales forecasting screen, then you can push it out to make sure that your teams are best prepared.”
Areas USA has also been able to easily adjust their stores’ forecast when they learn about an unexpected influx in foot traffic. If a manager reports that 50 buses are coming to a location, they can quickly “adjust the forecast to accommodate for the additional business, bring in additional staff, and order more food. Basically, they can adjust their forecast, so their business has what they need to succeed that day," explained Cruz.
The effects of a good forecast don’t stop at food cost savings
High-quality forecasting can positively impact all aspects of your business, improving your purchase orders, daily prep management, and labor scheduling. If you’re interested in learning more about forecasting, visit our
website or
schedule a demo today.
About the experts in this article
The tips in this article were taken from a live panel discussion on the “Art of Forecasting” at the
2024 Crunchtime Ops Summit. The panel was comprised of the following thought leaders from the restaurant industry:
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Amanda Vrabel
Manager of Business Management Systems, Jersey Mike’s |
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Marilu Cruz
Project and Crunchtime Manager, Areas USA |
![[Sneak Peek] 2023 Ops Summit Featured Customer: Jersey Mike’s](https://www.crunchtime.com/hs-fs/hubfs/2023%20Redesign/Jersey_Mikes_slide.png?length=720&name=Jersey_Mikes_slide.png)
