Hospitality Value Optimisation

Value optimisation – my silver bullet

UK hospitality challenges

The UK hospitality industry is navigating a perfect storm. High street businesses from independent coffee shops to regional pub chains are facing a critical squeeze as multiple tax and inflationary pressures converge. Hospitality value optimisation is now more critical than ever before.

National Insurance

The National Insurance double hit of the lower threshold of when businesses start paying NI from £9,100 to £5,000 coupled together with the rate hike of employer contribution rate from 13.8% to 15%.

Business Rates

The Business Rates Reform (April 2026) marks the introduction of a new permanent business rates system following the end of the temporary 40% relief.

Raw Material Costs

General inflation may have cooled since the peaks of 2023 but food and beverage costs remain volatile.

Food inflation is projected to average around 3.1% to 3.8% through 2026 driven by regulatory costs including new packaging costs, sustainability requirements and post Brexit border checks which have created a new floor for raw material prices that will never drop to pre 2020 levels. Some illustrations include:

• Meat prices have surged by an average of 15.91% across 2025 into 2026.
• Chicken prices are up approximately 7.6% largely driven by bird flu across the UK and EU which have tightened supply.
• The Packaging Tax is estimated to add 0.5% directly to food inflation.
• White potatoes as of early 2026 rose by approximately 123%
• Onions and carrots are seeing persistent inflation of 5% – 10% due to saturated soils preventing machinery from harvesting crops.
• Salad leaves are prone to 20% – 30% price swings during the winter gap of Jan – March.

Supply Chain Recalibration

Multiple climate related crop failures in both the UK and Europe are continuing to cause sudden price spikes in raw materials which are being passed on to food manufacturers and retailers.

How businesses are adapting

To survive the high cost, high tax environment, high street operators and retailers appear to be adopting three main strategies.

Labour Efficient Menus

Menus are moving away from chef heavy and complex products towards more modular simpler dishes requiring less expensive staff and complexity with fewer costs attached.

Trading Hours

Shorter weeks and hours are avoiding threshold costs of keeping staff on the clock during low footfall periods.

The strategy for managing staff hours has shifted from rotas moving from ‘cutting’ to ‘precision engineering’.

Offers

Loyalty apps, meal deals and other offers are driving incremental spend. No longer just a ‘nice to have’ these have become the primary defensive and offensive tool for the UK high street to combat the rising costs of National Insurance and raw materials.

As of early 2026 roughly 80% of UK consumers are actively engaged in at least one hospitality loyalty scheme and the high street meal deal has been redesigned to protect margins while maintaining perceived value.

Hospitality Value Optimisation – my silver bullet

Over the last ten years I have worked extensively with large UK retailers, manufacturers, coffee chains and independents to address many of these challenging issues saving them considerable amounts of money. I have achieved this by sensitively looking in great detail at everything from factory production methods, equipment, raw materials, shelf lives, packaging and recipes.

The results I have achieved come with a personal guarantee that no recipe will ever be undermined in the integrity of the product’s quality or taste. In many cases with improvements along the way.

This work, which I have considerable experience in, covers every food category from ready meals, meat, fish, deli, soup, deserts, dairy, bakery, drinks and much more.

For more information about my food consultancy please get in touch, and you can read more about my experience on my Biography page and by reading my clients’ testimonials.