Increase your Jedburgh restaurant profit in 30 days

With two menus and two price lists. Jedburgh Abbey and Mary Queen of Scots House bring a visitor season that runs roughly April to October, and A68 traffic adds a lunch trade that has an hour rather than an evening. A short, fast, properly costed lunch menu takes that hour and pays for it, while the evening room keeps the full offer. Served off one menu, the lunch hour usually loses money.

Because covers and margin are different things. A full room only pays you when every dish clears its food cost, the wine list is priced to its own margin, and the rota matches the bookings rather than the busiest night. Most busy-but-broke restaurants we see have a menu costed a year ago, portions that have crept up since, and no-shows nobody charges for. Fix those three and the same covers start paying you.

Shrink it to fit. Jedburgh's visitor trade is seasonal, so January is the regulars and nobody else, and the trade's own advice is to cut the days that lose money rather than open on hope. Work out the takings for each day last January against wages, energy and stock, close the days that fail that test, shorten the menu, and use the quiet weeks for the costing review.

Thin, which is why the detail matters: Sage's April 2026 guide puts the UK average net margin at about 4.2%, with full-service restaurants at 3% to 5% and quick-service at 6% to 10%, on gross margins of 60% to 75%. At 4% net, a £10 main leaves you 40p. That is why a dish costed wrongly, or a table that never arrives, takes a whole evening's profit with it.

Because the shortage is national and it is not easing: the UK chef shortage has been called critical, and 2026 salary guides show what a head chef now costs. A small restaurant competes on what a group cannot offer: a rota set a month ahead, two days off together, and a kitchen that closes when it says it will. Price the menu so that wage is affordable rather than hoping to pay less.

Between 25% and 35% of revenue depending on service style, on the 2026 UK guidance for cutting restaurant labour costs, with full table service at the top of that band and counter service at the bottom. If yours is higher, the cause is usually a rota written for Saturday and repeated all week. Build each day's rota from that day's covers by hour, and the percentage falls without losing the shifts that pay.

Yes, and earlier than most people expect: a new food business must register with the local authority at least 28 days before it starts trading, and Scottish Borders Council sends a food hygiene information pack when you do. Registration is free. Build it into the opening plan alongside the licence, because a delayed inspection can cost more in lost trading days than the fit-out overrun does.

Between £500 and £3,500 a month plus VAT for one-to-one coaching, depending on the coach's experience, according to Alan Wick's May 2026 guide to UK coaching fees, and the bill runs for as long as the coaching does. The Profit Clarity Framework doesn't work that way: a fixed £1,495 + VAT for 30 days of work on your Jedburgh restaurant's real numbers, and nothing after that.

£1,495 + VAT, fixed, whatever the size of the restaurant. That covers the full 30-day diagnose-and-fix process on your Jedburgh restaurant: menu costing and pricing, the rota, wastage, deposits and no-shows, supplier terms and cash flow, with the changes implemented rather than left in a report, and it leaves you with a more profitable restaurant. Most clients who commit to the framework and follow our recommendations see a full return on the fee within 90 days.

No. Honesty and your numbers as they are: six months of business bank statements, supplier invoices, the menu with whatever costings exist, and the booking records, plus a one-hour onboarding call. Untidy numbers are usually where the missing profit is hiding, so do not wait until things are perfect. You stay on service; we work around it, and the diagnosis starts almost immediately.