keep on reducing. Historically we’ve
used rudimentary flat percentage
targets, and now we recognise that a
good chunk of the estate is optimised
in terms of its usage. So this year
we’ve decided to do a site or monthly
specific target, which means the sites
that have performed well historically
aren’t penalised and we maximise the
opportunity where it still remains.
In terms of the business case, I come
at it from a technology or kit point of
view. Being a multisite operator, it’s
harder to implement things across
the whole estate, but it’s easier to get
them going because you’re in a position
where you can take a manufacturer or a
solution provider through our process,
which is that we aim to get a free of
charge proof of concept, which means
the operators are engaged with it.
We know that it works in our
restaurants without impacting the
operation, and from there we can go to
a wider pilot across a representative
sample of the estate and we use the
half hourly data to prove the impact of
the solution. That will be stacked up
against a controlled data set of normal
sites, and if that all works out then
generally we’ll get the investment from
the business to push forward.
Oliver Rosevear: From a cost point
of view, we’ve had a reduction over
the last nine years on end usage,
but I think we’re now reaching that
‘what next?’ stage. I think employee
engagement is a really easy way
of reducing waste, but is quite
challenging when you’ve got 20,000
employees who all have different levels
of attitude.
I think how we start to really land
that, especially with the turnover
within hospitality, is a real challenge.
When we looked at how we solve the
business case, it’s very much about
becoming commercially sustainable.
So rather than saying ‘it’s the right
thing to do,’ we’ve taken the view of
how to try and balance the business
but also do the right thing sustainably.
One of those key things for us is
about working really close with our
procurement team.
As an example, when we looked at
our back-of-house refrigeration, the
way our procurement team used to
work is they’d go out and say, ‘what
do we need from a performance pointof view?’ and ‘what’s the lowest price
we’re going to get?
But with refrigeration, you use seven
times more cost on energy than you
do on the cost of the refrigerator. So
it’s about flipping that on its head and
thinking about the operational cost,
which has really resonated with the
business because it allowed us to show
saving across the year.Martyn Clover: There’s definitely
been a change in the last few years,
where there’s an acceptance that
things have to change and the way
we work has to change. With new kit,
although there’s an investment, it
might halve the cook times of products,
so that doubles the capacity, and very
quickly the business case writes itself.
It’s not always the case, but if you
look at most of the changes in that way
then they make sense commercially,
and once they make sense
commercially and it’s the right thing to
do then it’s easy to make the case.How have you overcome
barriers regarding engaging
teams at a site level, and who
is the most important person to
make that change?WE’VE TAKEN
THE HEAT FROM
OUR REFRIGERATORS
AND PUT THAT INTO
CREATING HOT
WATER, LOOKING AT
THE WHOLE SYSTEM
AS OPPOSED TO
INDIVIDUAL BITS OF KIT”
Oliver Rosevear says
Costa’s procurement
team is now tuned into
energy performance.22 | Foodservice Equipment Journal | August 2019 http://www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com
PANEL DISCUSSION