A Fine Balance
General manager, Mark Eggberry, joined the team in the last year. He says financial success has been down to the right balance between volume and price.
“Where people will just pop in and order what they normally have, we try to steer them in another direction. There are certain dishes that are phenomenal such as the king crab which will bring up your average spend. But while we are still a business and are looking to do just that, it is also about creating the greater experience.”
This has seen the team concentrate on the customers in at that particular time instead of trying to drive in further custom. Between 70%-80% of Okku’s guests are repeat customers.
| Advertisement |
“We’re allowing people more time to eat on the tables – allowing people to have maybe a cocktail after their meal – stick around a bit longer. Previously we were under such pressure to turn the tables that it got to the point where too many people were not enjoying their meals. It was going too fast – so we slowed it down, and our average spend went up,” says Thesleff.
Where the food is concerned, award winning chef Hugh Sato Gardiner, has designed, and with his team produced, 50 new dishes resulting in a 25% increase in the number of dishes being served. Impressively, food costs have dropped by 3% too.
waste watchers
Gardiner, named Chef of the Year; stand-alone, for a second year running says this is purely down to being careful.
“We’re using some very expensive items. If there’s not attention to detail, in some instances – neglect or an “I don’t care attitude” then wastage will happen. You’re going to have wastage in any kitchen. It’s being proactive about it.”
Eggberry adds that “using the whole carcass” is key to cutting wastage also.
“It’s not as if we are in any way jeopardising on our quality of product. The tuna and crispy rice is one of our best sellers, it’s a really simple dish which we can only use certain off-cuts for. To achieve a cost like that we’re not only being clever on how we engineer our menu but being aware of not wasting; using the whole animal or vegetable wherever we can.”
One of the reasons Okku is so “aggressive” in its approach to cost cutting is the challenge of obtaining authentic Japanese produce. Thesleff reveals that if you previously looked to obtain a Japanese melon you’d be AED300-400 ($80-$110) worse off.
“When we started out back in 2007-2008 it was the toughest scene. I was doing supply hunting with other chefs and it was very, very difficult. For example, the largest seafood distributor here didn’t know what rock shrimp was – didn’t carry black cod so it was very difficult,” says Gardiner.
“Without pointing fingers, when the campaign was launched here – you had private and government entities involved. They weren’t thinking from the consumers’ point of view. They weren’t thinking from the consumers’ wallets or purses. By the time those products ended up at Choithrams, Lulu or Spinneys, the prices were outrageous – people didn’t buy and reverted back to the sub standard Asian products.”
This has driven Gardiner to look into directly buying from a farmer in Japan. As Okku opens more outlets, this relationship will allow it to get the volume it needs to lift the supply chain of items such as fresh wasabi, moeshi bean sprouts, edemame on branches – which Okku didn’t have access to before. It will also make these products more freely available to local supermarkets.
Article continues on next page ...
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
