Fish friers Review - Mar / Apr 2012 - Issue 2 - National Federation of ...

THE fish friers REVIEW
Sell your bits!
Many years ago a wise old frier said to me “don’t forget to sell the bits”, I wasn’t
too sure what he meant, as when I came into the trade I had bought a fish and chip
shop and all I wanted to do was to sell fish and chips. What this guy meant was
that even though we are in the business of selling fish and chips, we have all got
to sell our add-on’s to try and increase our turnover and also to try and bring our
GP up!
I’m not trying to tell you all how to suck eggs, or insult your intelligence and
business acumen, but because of the nature of our trade we are somewhat insular
and unless we talk to other friers, or visit other shops we can sometimes lose what’s
really going on out there. Anyway, to get back to my bits story, this frier whom I
was talking about was a butcher in his former life and he was used to utilising and
selling all the bits of the animal, rather than just selling joints of meat, that meant
he wasn’t throwing much product away and
also making the most of “his bits”. When he
came into the fish and chips industry it was
just a natural progression for him and I’ll give
you a flavour of what he did.
This frier had a chicken rotisserie, well what’s
so clever about that, we can all sell full and
half chickens? Well this guy would sell
chicken portions, but the clever thing was
how he used all the bits, he would split one
of the chicken breasts into 2 pieces and sell
them as a “chicken royal sandwich” he would batter one of the breast slices and
serve it on a bun with a little salad garnish and some mayo and knock them out for
£1.99 a pop ( this was a few years ago so 4 pieces of breast were bringing in £8.00
, lots more than the cost of a raw chicken) they were very good sellers, with any
of the remaining parts of the chicken he would take off the meat (dark meat as well
as white meat) chop it up and keep it in containers in his fridges, then he could
sell the meat in “his own recipe chicken curry”, now get this… a portion of the
chicken meat mixed with some raw, finely chopped onions and then a Chinese
style curry poured onto it, then served with either chips or boiled rice, again a good
price for the dish, give the customer a free spoon fork as part of the meal, customer
walks out happy and some more money in the till (this is as well as his fish and
chip trade). He actually remarked that he was happier selling the boiled rice instead
of the chips as it was making him more money (and more GP). Gasps of horror
from you all – we are not going to start doing chickens on a spit, we are not doing
boiled rice and we are not doing pizzas and kebabs blah blah! But that exactly what
I’m trying to get at, just sell a few more bits and you keep up turnover and
profitability.
Brilliant Bolt-on’s
How about next time you’re at a cash & carry buying a large tray of nicely sized
34
Mr E Frier
Thank you all for the comments on my article in the last Fish Friers Review. I had some positive and
some negative suggestions, which is all good stuff and lots of ideas for future debate… so please keep
them coming to misterefrier@gmail.com
“
you end up with
a lot of pound
coins in the till
mushrooms? You can batter them up, stick them in your hotbox, say a portion of
4 and charge £1.25 for them; they look nice in the hotbox, get the customers
talking, keep the vegetarians happy and at the end of the shift if they didn’t sell,
bin em! If they did sell, well you may have a few more quid that you would never
have got. Customers usually buy these as a bolt-on rather than a main meal, plus
you have the advantage if you are making spag bol for tea or similar you are never
short of your fungal friends!!
Another shop I visited was selling a thing called spicy chips, the owner wouldn’t
tell me what the ingredient was but all they were doing was just sprinkling some
spiced powder on a box of chips, giving it a good shake and selling them out at a
premium, again a nice talking point for customers and something different.
Same thing as the battered mushrooms, how about buying a bag of large onions
from your suppliers, slice an onion up (not too thin, the rings should measure
across the size of your thumbnail) get them
battered up and in a dish in your hotbox and
knock them out as a portion of onion rings
for £1.50 a time, you’ll be surprised at how
many you can sell and again it’s an up sell as
opposed to your core offering.
Last one of many more, how about now and
again (or all the time), offering a kiddie box
or kiddie meal deal at a pound or even 99
pence? Using an MP1 box or similar, serve a
scant amount of chips with a small sausage on top (the trick is to tell your staff
very, very small chips) depending on which area your shop is in you could sell a
lot of these and don’t forget the kids bring their parents in who may buy some
other gear at the same time. Not only could you sell a lot of these, but you end up
with a lot of pound coins in the till, which saves you hunting for change and also
bank charges!
Well you might say what a load of old tosh from Mr E Frier, or perhaps or not, if
anybody wants to chip in with any other ideas please let us know and lets all share
them, times are tight so as someone says “Every little helps.” Let’s keep the ideas
coming in and above all let’s talk a bit more to each other; after all, we are all in the
same boat!
PS: I forgot to mention the “Cumberland Style” sausage, due to EC demarcation
rules and appellation controlée I can’t say Cumberland sausage any more, but one
of these in the hotbox can do very well, customers may buy them instead of a
jumbo, but because or your premium on them, you could make a “tasty” profit on
them. See you all next edition!
Keep frying!!
“