Case Study

Cubby's Expands Restaurant Tech Stack and Continues Expansion

Cubby's Restaurant Tech Case Study

About Cubby's

“Eating out at a favorite restaurant should be affordable & never boring.”

The Problem

Controlling food costs is always top of mind for Cubby’s, a Utah-based multi-unit restaurant brand committed to fresh, high-quality ingredients. The concept – fresh, local food that balances hearty menu items with lighter ones – grew quickly, but the quality of ingredients used could easily overtake profits without being carefully managed.

Staying on top of food and labor costs was more straightforward with fewer locations. However, now at 12 stores, a commissary, and more growth planned, Cubby’s needed to get processes and procedures in place that were repeatable and scalable, said Cubby’s CFO Seth Braun.

Laying the foundation for further growth led Cubby’s to begin looking for a back-of-house (BOH) platform that would allow them to carefully manage costs, as well as get better visibility into operations across all locations.

Getting tools into the managers’ hands that would allow them to better see and manage food and labor, as well as integrate with accounting, POS, and other systems to ensure good data across the company was critical as they evaluated BOH partners.

“Getting these tools in place is a game changer for our managers,” Braun said.

“It's just nice to see their franchisees minds shift to, ‘Oh I see. This is great! I love how the scheduler works.’ It’s been a learning curve, but now they have tools that they can look at."

“They’re getting the aha moment, like, ‘This is something I can actually use to improve my numbers, improve my store, improve how I’m managing my people,’ Braun said.

The Solution

A Mindset Shift

Prior to implementing SynergySuite, Cubby’s was using multiple systems to track their back-of-house processes, including spreadsheets, non-integrated third-party software, and email. Now, having these processes in a single location with fewer manual inputs, Cubby’s has reduced data entry errors and streamlined processes.

To get to that point, Braun said they were intentional about preparing managers and other key employees about the change to SynergySuite. Cubby’s asked those employees to approach the change with a positive and open mindset, and this allowed everyone to get over the initial discomfort or confusion with a new system and begin seeing the benefits.

The Outcome - Early Results

While Cubby’s has only recently completed implementation, Braun said they’re optimistic about the improvements SynergySuite can bring based off early results. Store managers have regularly been at or below labor goals for the last few months.

Additionally, Cubby’s head chef said he’s been hearing more from managers catching and fixing inventory discrepancies because of the increased visibility they have into inventory with SynergySuite. It’s an issue that’s more easily resolved in the moment, rather than being found weeks later and tracked through multiple spreadsheets.

He’s noticed various managers being able to dial in their actual inventory count each month because he’s been able to show them these variances and go, ‘That doesn’t look right. Let’s look into it.’

A Strong Partnership

In addition to the strong feature set SynergySuite offers, Braun said one of the things they have most appreciated about SynergySuite is the collaborative approach to success. Braun said the SynergySuite implementation team for Cubby’s guided them through the configuration process efficiently while adjusting timelines as needed when Cubby’s needed more time with specific deliverables.

“One thing that I’m really impressed with about SynergySuite is that they are so open to make changes with the software or with different attributes within the software and working with their customers,” Braun said. “SynergySuite feels like a partner rather than, ‘No, this is our software. Sorry. Work with it. Good luck.’ But I feel like they care, and want to make SynergySuite work for us, which is what you want in a partner.”

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