Fine Dining Restaurant Business Plan

Gabri's Restaurant & Lounge

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Strategy and Implementation Summary

Our strategy is simple, we intend to succeed by giving people a combination of excellent and interesting food in an environment that appeals to a wide and varied group of successful people. We will focus on maintaining quality and establishing a strong identity in our community. Our main focus in marketing will be to increase customer awareness in the surrounding communities. We will direct all of our tactics and programs toward the goal of explaining who we are and what we do. We will keep our standards high and execute the concept so that word-of-mouth will be our main marketing force. 

We will create an appealing and entertaining environment with unbeatable quality at an exceptional price. An exciting and friendly restaurant, we will be the talk of the town. Therefore, the execution of our concept is the most critical element of our plan. All menu items are moderately priced for the area. While we are not striving to be the lowest-priced restaurant, we are aiming to be the value leader.

5.1 Competitive Edge

Our competitive edge is the menu, the chef, the environment, the management, the service and our friendly place! We will have an international menu and our food will be made with the freshest ingredients and produce available. The chef has an excellent taste for what fine dining is and requires. Our environment is elegant and comfortable and our decor is warm and relaxing. Great service is very important to us. The management and servers will handle every detail to make customer's special evening even more special! All this and our great atmosphere will make customers want to come back again and again!

5.1.1 Main Competitors

Our biggest competition is the town next to Long Branch, called Red Bank which has a large selection of restaurants. Currently, many people who live in Long Branch drive seven miles to Red Bank to dine out. With the redevelopment in Long Branch and with Gabri's Lounge & Restaurant, we will convince these people to stay in Long Branch and eat at our restaurant.

There are three restaurants in Long Branch that are similar to Gabri's. These are also the three most popular places in Long Branch. Each of these restaurants will be important to us. We feel the clientele they have is the class of clientele that Gabri's will appeal to.

1. The first place is an 80 seat restaurant, open six days a week and serves lunch and dinner located uptown on Broadway. It is very busy for lunch as well as at dinner time. Their price range is £7-£15 for lunch and £12-£29 for dinner entrees.
   
2. The second is an upscale lounge/food bar with a small menu. It is located in the West End district two blocks away from the ocean. They are only open for dinner. The small items on there menu range from £8-£15 and a mixed drink is £8-£10.
   
3. The third place is an upscale Contemporary American restaurant at the Ocean. They are open seven days a week, dinner for two without wine averages £100.

Everyone that sells prepared meals is our competition though because we all compete for the same home meal replacement dollar. However, there are two segments of the restaurant industry that are our main competition: the casual dining restaurant concept and the fine dining value restaurant. If the value of the food and price and service is better at a fine dining restaurant than a casual restaurant, where will is a customer more likely to go?

The key is to deliver the best food at the best price with the highest level of service. This is the very definition of value. This concept is at the heart of Gabri's Restaurant & Lounge.

5.2 Marketing Strategy

The total population in New Jersey is 8,414,350 people.

615,301 people live in Monmouth County, 50% between 25-55 years old. That is the age group that dines out two to three times a week and spends an average £795 a month on food and drinks.

There are 224,447 households in Monmouth County and an average 2.7 persons per household. The median family income in Monmouth County averages, £64,271/year. There are 636 registered businesses in Long Branch with 7,885 employees. 

We mention that there are over 200,000 Scandinavians living in New Jersey and most of them live within 30 miles of Long Branch. We will be serving some Swedish cuisine as there is no Scandinavian restaurant in New Jersey.

Our primary customer base is from Long Branch, West Long Branch, Monmouth Beach, Rumson, Little Silver, Middletown, Red Bank, Shrewsbury, Deal, Eatontown, Freehold, Oceanport, Allenhurst, & Asbury Park.

City	Population	Median Family Income
Long Branch	31,340	£38,651
West Long Branch	7,690	£71,852
Monmouth Beach	3,595	£80,484
Rumson	7,137	£120,865
Middletown	66,237	£75,566
Little Silver	6,170	£94,094
Red Bank	11,844	£47,282
Asbury Park	16,930	£23,081
Eatontown	14,008	£53,833
Freehold	31,537	£48,654
Shrewsbury	1,098	£86,911
Deal	1179	£58,472
Oceanport	6,146	£71,458
Allenhurst	759	£85,000

5.2.1 Marketing Program

We will employ three different marketing tactics to increase customer awareness of Gabri's Lounge & Restaurant. Our most important tactic will be word-of-mouth/in-store marketing. This will be by far the cheapest and most effective of our marketing programs.

Word-of-mouth/In-store Marketing

•  V.I.P. Party - We will host a V.I.P. Dinner before the 'Grand Opening.' This will serve the dual purpose of training our staff and introducing ourselves to the community. The list of individuals we will invite comes from the Chamber of Commerce.
• Grand Opening celebration.
• Once a month invite a new local artist to show their work in the lounge.
• "Restaurant Night" -  Every Monday night we will have a special evening for restaurant people. A perfect night for the local area's restaurant owners and staff to get together on a night off!
• Valentine's Day.
• Easter dinner.
• Swedish Midsummer party.
• Fourth of July celebration.
• Labor Day weekend party.
• Wine tasting dinner.
• Swedish Smörgåsbord.
• New Years Eve party.
• Special ethnic food nights.
• Memorial Day.

Local Store Marketing

• Make a brochure for the large hotels and popular bed & breakfast establishments in town to provide to their guests, containing interior pictures of our restaurant, menus and prices.
• There are several nursing homes in the city of Long Branch. We will approach them to sponsor meals for the elderly. This will offer us higher visibility to a group that may not be as mobile and we'll be contributing to the community in a material way. Word-of-mouth referral is very powerful and particularly amongst the elderly to both their peers and their extended families.

Local Media

• Newspaper campaign - Placing several large ads throughout the month to deliver our concept to local area.
• Direct mail piece - Containing interior pictures of our restaurant, our menu, "Theme Nights," catering and an explanation of our concept.
• Website
• Target marketing to businesses for regular business lunch and dinner entertaining.
  

5.3 Sales Strategy

Our sales plan is to establish and maintain position with our local customers. The strategy is to build more customers in order to increase revenue. Sales in our business is client service. It is repeat business. We will focus on making all our customers happy with our food, service and entertainment options.

Our strategy in the restaurant is to have an experienced staff that know the food, wine and liquor. We will train every new employee so they will fit in with Gabri's concept, which is "Wonderful food, reasonably-priced wine and knowledgeable service in an outstanding atmosphere."

 

5.3.1 Sales Forecast

The following table and charts show sales projections for our first twelve months. Monthly restaurant gross sales are to average £68,186. That is 30 people for lunch spending approximately £15 per person, and for dinner approximately 50 people spending an average £25 per person. Catering will average £10,471/month or three parties of £3,490 each. Our total cost of goods sold is capped at 33% of total sales. We expect sales to increase 15% after Year 1. See Income Statement in the appendix for restaurant and catering sales assumptions.

5.4 Milestones

The accompanying table lists important program milestones, with dates and managers in charge, and budgets for each. The milestone schedule indicates our emphasis on planning for implementation.

What the table doesn't show is the commitment behind it. Our business plan includes complete provisions for plan-vs.-actual analysis, and we will hold monthly follow-up meetings to discuss the variance and course corrections.