In hospitality, margins are won or lost in the detail: a half-measure overpour, a mis-keyed line on the EPOS, a keg that isn’t reconciled, a fridge that runs a touch too warm. When you treat stocktaking and compliance audits as a necessary cost, you optimise for the cheapest tick-box. When you treat them as value, you unlock repeatable profits and reduce risk.
The problem with “cost thinking”
Cost thinking asks: “How do I spend less on audits?”
Value thinking asks: “How do audits help me keep more of every pound of revenue?”
In pubs, bars, hotels and restaurants, leakage and waste hide in plain sight: untracked staff drinks, line losses, overpouring, supplier discrepancies, mis-priced menu items, poor rotation, temperature breaches. One unreconciled keg a week could cost a busy pub over £500 a year. Multiply that across a group, and the figures escalate quickly. Sector bodies report many operators running on paper-thin margins or at a loss; in that context, preventable loss is the last place you want to be “saving” money.
What good looks like
- Forensic stock accuracy: frequent, consistent counts tied to actionable KPIs (variance by product, yield, cost of sales, GP by category).
- Operational coaching: turn findings into behaviour change – pour discipline, line cleaning cadence, prep standards, portion control.
- Menu & margin optimisation: engineer the list by contribution, not just popularity; price to value, not habit.
- Compliance as protection: food safety, licensing and health & safety aligned to reduce fines, incidents and insurance exposure.
How Capcon turns audits into advisory value
- Insight that drives change – We don’t just hand over a variance figure; we explain why it’s happening and how to fix it, fast.
- Benchmarks that matter – Compare sites, teams and products, then focus on the few actions that move GP this week.
- Shrinkage to strategy – Tight stock controls reduce waste, overpour and theft; compliance audits cut regulatory and reputational risk – both feed straight into profit and resilience.
- Results on the day – Unlike many systems, Nifty19 delivers actionable reports on the day, so managers can take corrective action before the next trading cycle.
- Continuous improvement – Advice and coaching embed changes so the gains stick, not just in month one but month twelve.
As Mike Porteous of Capcon says:
“An audit is only as good as the behaviour it changes. Stocktaking should deliver value the same day, not sit in a report no one acts on.”
The Bottom line
A “cheap” audit that doesn’t change behaviour is the most expensive decision you’ll make this year. A value-driven audit, powered by tools like Nifty19, turns losses into margin – every stocktake, every site.
If you’d like to see how much margin your business could be keeping, contact Capcon.
