Stellar Concepts Pvt. Ltd. is the fastest growing casual dining restaurant franchise in India. Stellar owns the master franchises of more than 29 restaurants across India and Sri Lanka under the brand names Chili's Grill & Bar, PAUL, Cinnabon, and Auntie Anne’s. In 2019, Stellar introduced PAUL, a well-known French chain of bakery-café restaurants, to the Indian market with plans to have stores across India and other countries.
Business case
Before they started looking for a new solution, PAUL struggled with multiple, separate systems that couldn’t communicate with each other, causing them to spend a lot of extra time and effort to maintain. They used Tally ERP and spreadsheets, email, and WhatsApp for the back office and communication with suppliers, which became increasingly challenging to manage as they grew. The company tried different POS solutions and providers, including Posit and Oracle MICROS, but none of them met their requirements for inventory management. “We were often dealing with incorrect inventory. In fact, we never knew the real status of products in the stores,” says Vaibhav Kaushish, Operations Manager at Stellar Concepts.
Local LS Retail partner, Trident Information Systems, recommended LS Central for restaurants to the company, which extends Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP and connects front of house and kitchen. “We tried multiple solutions, but it was clear to us that LS Retail software was the solution we needed, bringing together front office, back office, loyalty, KDS and replenishment,” says Kaushish.
Benefits
Businesses in the bakery goods sector, where freshness is crucial to the viability of products, need strong control over inventory. With the help of LS Central for restaurants, PAUL has managed to optimize inventory levels based on sales trends and stock on-hand. The Kitchen Display System (KDS) enables staff to see exactly what goods must be prepared and serve customers more efficiently. Since implementing the new system, PAUL has:
- Reduced costs with the recipe management module. They can keep track of the cost of products sold at the store and manage raw material purchasing effectively.
- Increased cross-selling. They have defined recommended and substitute products that the staff can promote when taking orders, like sides with beverages.
- Optimized inventory management using a single system. In the past, the company used to keep stock for 4-5 days only, which resulted in too much food waste and unnecessary financial losses. Now, they can order ingredients in the right quantities based on the last few days' sales to ensure product freshness across all locations.
- Achieved tighter control over finances. They get access to reliable insights and reports that help them make strategic business decisions to maximize profits.
- Improved customer loyalty. They can easily manage promotions and offers, as well as happy hours, directly from headquarters.
PAUL is already looking at future opportunities, which include the use of mobile POS for employees to serve guests faster during their busiest times of day, and the use of AI to recommend products to customers based on their previous purchases.
