Quick-Service and Fast-Casual
Cafeterias and Buffets
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The Restaurant Renovation

Every day, the restaurant industry faces a new and growing world of risk. While travel and dining remain popular public pursuits, demand and consumer expectations have continued to expand with rapidly shifting demographics and the evolution of a global marketplace. Today’s challenges not only include dealing with economic uncertainty and the correlating rising costs of doing business, the threat of foodborne illness, technology advancements, and green development but also treating and preserving value in a highly competitive environment, navigating the wave of new regulations, and motivating and taking care of employees.

The restaurant industry of today is undergoing a major renovation. Consumers are armed with more information and less time than ever before. They are looking for extensive choice, increased convenience, more variety, nutritious alternatives and lower prices. Restaurant companies can only meet the challenges of today’s world market by understanding, and establishing strategies to address consumer trends, economic conditions, technology, competition, and concerns for public safety. They must also embrace innovation while simultaneously finding effective marketing strategies to stay ahead of the competitors in this tight economic environment.

The problem of attracting and retaining qualified workers due to a compressed labor force, once an issue only in an isolated number of markets, is increasingly becoming a global challenge. Shifting demographics, an aging workforce, new labor laws, and failure to adequately address worker satisfaction are all cited as contributing factors. Consequently, the industry has been left with an insufficient pipeline of new workers to satisfy demand. Additional challenges include rising labor costs, due to increased pricing of healthcare, and a diverse labor force with language and cultural barriers. 

The workplace of today is becoming much more fluid, and today’s workers have higher expectations than their predecessors, so attracting and retaining good people is more difficult than ever. Companies are making efforts to reduce turnover with training programs that emphasize leadership skills as well as operational standards. These variables are transforming company structures and cultures and over the next decade, the convergence of dominant business, demographic, and social trends will only accelerate the changes sweeping through today’s workplace.

Today, more than ever before, restaurants are attempting to offset skyrocketing food costs, the industry’s number one threat, and, at the same time, working to develop cost-reduction strategies that maximize efficiency without compromising growth. Costs are on the rise and are expected to continue to rise well into the foreseeable future.

The restaurant industry has traditionally lagged behind others in implementing energy-efficient innovations as the focus has been on efforts trying to guarantee quality food and service and finding competent employees. With rising energy costs, spiraling fuel costs that sharply boost their overhead for transporting food and supplies, and soaring commodity costs now affecting the bottom line, restaurant companies are scouring the marketplace for new ways to hold costs down. Many are attempting to reduce their utility costs by upgrading their equipment or changing their operating procedures. Others are substituting or dropping more expensive dishes in an effort to eliminate costs hindering them from profitable operations.

Restaurant chains are being squeezed at every turn by rising commodity and energy costs. Companies need to take a serious look at their energy budgets and become more creative or they will be forced to look at further raising menu prices and/or disappointing customers with reduced service offerings.

The challenging restaurant environment has given rise to new risks and heightened concern with traditional risks. We continue to be innovators in responding to the emerging trends in the industry.

Our insurance placement specialists have access to capacity, obtain favorable coverage terms and negotiate competitive premiums. And with full transparency, we provide our clients with complete and accurate information about our compensation relating to the placement. We combine our insurance placement expertise with the industry knowledge found in our Restaurant Practice to provide you with the coverage you need at a competitive price.

We also can provide an inventory of benchmarking reports that can be customized to reflect your specific peer group and address a wide range of coverage lines including casualty, workers’ compensation, property, and environmental.

Helping you address the challenges you face starts with looking at the world from your perspective. We seek to understand your overall business challenges as well as your financial and operational objectives.

Working with you, we can assist you in identifying and prioritizing the risks faced by your organization. Then, together, we can build a comprehensive risk management solution incorporating both appropriate risk transfer coverage and services and internal policies and procedures designed to effectively mitigate and manage risk today and in the future.

The result is a complete solution incorporating not only coverage and services but also the internal policies, tools, and procedures that you can put in place to construct a risk governance architecture. It’s a dynamic approach that is mindful of both long-term and short-term goals.