Starting a restaurant? Keep your staff happy (Audio Podcast)

Alan McGilveray, owner of McGilveray’s The Wortley Arms, has seen it all when it comes to the hospitality trade. In this exclusive Favouritetable interview, he explains ‘how to start a new restaurant’ with Mark Ferguson, director of More Fire PR Ltd.

Mark Ferguson: Let's start at the beginning. How do you start a restaurant? Do you just suddenly have an idea one day or is it years in the making?

Alan McGilveray: It's been years in the making. I used to work for Marriott Hotels as a chef for 23-and-a-half years. After this I had a bit of a plan about owning my own restaurant. 

I went into food development for six years, then was self-employed as a consultant for four years, and that's when the restaurant at Fox Valley became available. We had just enough money in the bank and we opened McGilveray’s at Fox Valley in 2019.

Q: You make it sound easy. You have experience as a restaurateur, have an idea, see an opportunity and go forward. But what about the practicalities, what are the very first steps?

A: It's about getting the fundamentals together - getting your designers in place. We basically took over a burger place with McGilveray’s at Fox Valley, so we turned it into a shell and built it from there.

We had a bar and kitchen. Luckily my wife has experience as a commercial manager for Lloyds Catering so we did the design drawings ourselves and saved a lot of money, with only a four-week window to open. We ran that for five years and took on Favouritetable in 2022.

We'd used online booking systems and I looked at when we first opened, the cost of just setting up something was a small fortune.

Q: How important is having the right restaurant booking software system?

A: Favouritetable do everything, and you can even print everything off if you want to be old school about it.

Take today for example - we've got 70 people booked, so I can print these details out and tick them off as they come in, or you can go on your iPad and just click them all. It’s a bit like having a normal booking book, isn't it? 

For us it’s mostly weekend based, although having 70-80 people booked on a Wednesday is fantastic. Normally we have about 20, and Saturdays and Sundays are key. 

We literally rely on the system to congregate all of our bookings together over a set period of time, and it will space all your bookings out, but you've still got to manage it accordingly because some people will phone up and book so they don't they don't go through the system. 

Q: What about the importance of the restaurant’s brand, and of course the food?

A: I'm lucky to have a good team here. We have an assistant manager, three chefs, and I have a chef background too so I can jump in there. 

Innovation is key. It's always a changing market. You've got younger people who want different tastes, and new ideas and dishes. The days are gone where you just have one menu for 12 months. 

You've got to have specials, and do things that are going to encourage people to come back. 

We work with two local butchers based in Wortley, so you couldn't get more on the doorstep than that, and it's important to promote that you're using local products. 

In terms of customers we're lucky to be near Wortley Hall, which is a big tourist attraction, and a lot of people are staying there or attending a conference, function or wedding. As well as locals we had some Australians in last week, and Americans the week before. 

Q: What are the pitfalls for restaurant start-ups? 

A: You need the right staff – this is key, and it's not just about money. It's about staff who are passionate about your business, and you're passionate about them. 

When I worked with Marriott, they always had the ethos that if you look after your staff, they will look after your customers, and your customers look after your bottom line.

So, wherever possible, we try and put our staff first. Don't expect any member of your staff to do stuff you are not prepared to do yourself. We would not think twice about going on our pot wash station and washing dishes if needed. 

Our pot wash guys are some of the most important people because without any plates or cutlery, you don’t have a restaurant, so if they’re getting snowed under we help. 

Q: What are the challenges and opportunities for the restaurant sector in the future? 

A: I think the wider restaurant service sector is actually struggling. Unless you're a big brand, like Wetherspoons. 

Independent restaurants or pubs like ourselves are going to struggle because every penny counts. Our toilets were down last week, so that’s a £1,200 cost. Whatever profit I made last week, that's my toilets paid for. 

Whereas, if you're a big brand, you've got the people who’ll come and do that repair at half the price. 

That's the key to opening a place like this. You to remember that there's going to be lots of pitfalls and things going wrong on a day-to-day basis, so I feel the sector is going to really struggle over the next 12 to 18 months. If we can get past this, we'll be fine. 

Q: How important is personal resilience?

A: We have to be very resilient. Wortley village is an affluent area, so you have to develop and price our menu accordingly. 

Our prices are around 15% more expensive here than at our last restaurant because it's a more expensive areas and we’ve spent £180,000 refurbishing the premises. 

This pricing has to be taken into consideration. You've got the best restaurant and it's all new. But you have to cost that into your menu. 

If you think you're going to get the money back somehow by just doing a normal menu, you’ll never achieve a successful return on investment. 

Q: What’s your one, final message for anyone planning a restaurant start-up?

A: If I was starting up my restaurant now, I would make sure all of my systems are integrated together. You need your EPOS and card systems combined, at the right price, using a product like Favouritetable. 

I think Favouritetable are getting better and better, and they don't charge the earth.