Restaurant landlords regain cash flow with Tapville

This is the most difficult time in history for landlords and restaurants. The mandated shutdowns, social distancing and uncertainty in the hospitality industry is causing many restaurant operators to abandon their lease obligations. Landlords are finding they are burdened with tenants that are no longer meeting lease obligations forcing landlords to subordinate FF&E with little or no recourse to recoup loss rent.

Landlords Take Action

The reality is that restaurants will be closing due to the pandemic with the peak of closures to start in early 2021. Second generation restaurant locations will flood local markets with excess inventory, while lending for new operators will be stifled until certainty is clear with vaccination and customers returning to dining locations.

Tapville Social is a concept that can be easily implemented in existing restaurant locations. The self-pour TapWall and tech-forward infrastructure can be integrated into an existing second generation restaurant within weeks.

Tapville Social has been operating it's self-service, self-pour, high-tech concepts for over four years. Tapville has positioned the use of technology to lower labor costs, create a more customized guest experience and collect valuable data insights for customer acquisition & retention. Self-pour beer, self-service with hospitality is the future of the industry. FSR magazine recently published an article highlighting how self-pour beer has come of age for restaurants. Read the article on how Self-Pour Beer Comes of Age for Restaurants.

“This tech is here to stay,” Tota says. “And it’s the future of the restaurant industry.” - FSR Magazine

Tapville has been partnering with a number of landlords to evaluate their current restaurant operation to determine if the location, floor plan and kitchen would be suitable for a conversion to Tapville Social.

Tapville can convert an existing restaurant to a high-tech concept could be accomplished is less than 6 - 8 weeks. These conversions position the landlord to regain cash flow on their vacant restaurant. Tapville's approach is simple: Tapville executes a management agreement with the landlord paying a percentage of sales to start cash flow. Tapville collects a management fee based on performance and the landlord and Tapville share in the profits. A lease obligation may be exercised by Tapville when more certainty in the economy is determined. The landlord can provide notice to terminate the management agreement if a tenant is identified.

The Tapville Makeover Recipe Book

Converting an existing restaurant to a Tapville concept is accomplished by following our Tapville Makeover Recipe Book. We recommend five changes that will position a restaurant to be successful in the future.

Upon signing a management agreement, our team will work closely to help with the conversion of a concept to Tapville Social. We have identified the best practices, documented standard operating procedures and training to increase the speed of proficiency for the operator & team.

Recipe #1 - Dine-flow, space planning, ambiance, dining room traffic-flow optimization

Tapville analyzes the current space planning with respect to floor plans, traffic-flow and the guest experience. The business objective is to build a floor plan that maximizes table-seating, while creating a comfortable arrangement for guests.

Dine-flow is how guests check-in, are seated, access self-pour beverages and check-out. Positioning the guest seating around and within close proximity of the "tap wall" increases beverage sales and creates a guest experience with experiential exploration of craft beverages. This results in higher sales. The check-in & check-out process is also important during planning the guest experience dine-flow. Tapville has identified best practice for optimizing & creating a comfortable dine-flow.

Recipe #2 - Guest facing-technology integration, self-service and mobile application

Tapville is unique by providing technology that simplifies the guest experience, while providing an environment where guests can focus on the social interactions of their colleagues, family and friends during their visit. We've eliminated guest checks, servers taking food orders and bartenders pouring beer.

By replacing those transaction-based tasks with technology, we've focused our staff on hospitality, education and creating a welcoming environment. It's fundamentally different than most restaurant concepts with a net value add of lower labor costs, less staff that is well-compensated and an exceptional guest experience.

Recipe #3 - Menu realignment, beverage program enhancement and kitchen line optimization

The secret to success of any restaurant concept is lowering the prime cost of the operation while delivering an exceptional guest experience. Prime cost is the total of labor, food and beverage costs. The prime cost is controllable by the operator.

Optimizing product mix, adjusting pricing, managing labor and reducing waste are all actions that operators can take to manage their prime cost. The challenge is that these can only be managed to a threshold where they don't impact the guest experience.

Tapville has built a model that optimizes all the factors for prime cost with an net output of a lower prime cost than industry benchmarks. In some cases, we are seeing 10% to 12% decrease in prime costs over larger restaurant chains. How do we do that? It's simple, we've used technology, optimized our food & beverage ratio, optimized our food menu and re-aligned the job roles— while lowering our attrition through higher compensation. What? We have less people, but they get paid more than their peers, so they stay employed longer.

Recipe #4 - Marketing technology implementation, proximity detection and social marketing

Technology, specifically marketing technologies are enhancing faster than operators can keep up with them. At Tapville, we have built an ecosystem to gather data insights, process the data and take action to improve our marketing and operations. Our loyalty program not only provides an incentive for guest return visits, we've mined over 35 data insights that we use for smart marketing campaigns, product mix/assortment, menu customization and operational labor scheduling.

In addition, Tapville has a smartphone loyalty app where guests can order takeout, delivery and dine-in menu items. We believe that operators that leverage the latest technologies like geo-fencing, proximity, loyalty apps, and digital marketing platforms and can integrate them with their guest transaction and demographic data will outperform their competition.

Recipe #5 - Role design, team training, launch planning and grand re-opening

Tapville has simplified not only the standard operating procedures, but also the role & job design of all roles within the restaurant. The Tapville model simplifies the job roles and tasks with specialization for each role. Each role within the restaurant has a specific performance objective to enhance the guest experience and complement the technology.

Our role-based learning program makes it simple to train a new hire and increase their speed to proficiency with modular, activity-based learning. Our goal is to decrease the time it takes to train new team members to get them productive on delivering guest service.

The grand re-opening timeline is scripted and specific to prepare the restaurant to be re-open with the Tapville model. Managers and team members are given the tools and job aids required to be ready for opening day.

Contact Tapville to discuss a quick conversion to regain cash flow for your real estate investment

Contact us about opportunities for real estate here: https://www.tapvillesocial.com/real-estate