Essence Premium Catering Business Plan — Key Performance Indicators
The meal volume, prime cost, retention and cash indicators monitored weekly, with thresholds that trigger action.
Key Performance Indicators
Jump to section
- Overview & contents
- i. Important Notice
- 1. Executive Summary
- 2. Why Ekurhuleni
- 3. The Market and the Segment Trap
- 4. Contribution by Segment
- 5. SWOT and Competitive Position
- 6. Winning and Keeping Contracts
- 7. Tendering Into the Public Sector
- 8. Unit Economics and Prime Cost
- 9. Working Capital
- 10. The Five-Year Build and Its Gates
- 11. Funding
- 12. People and Production
- 13. Food Safety and Compliance
- 14. Financial Projections
- 15. Break-Even
- 16. Sensitivity and Scenarios
- 17. Risk Management
- 18. Implementation Timeline
- 19. Returns
- 20. Key Performance Indicators
- 21. Key Assumptions
- 22. Conclusion
- A. Appendix A: Consolidated Financial Summary
- B. Appendix B: Capital Schedules
- C. Appendix C: Funding and Debt Schedules
- D. Appendix D: Risk Register
- E. Appendix E: Glossary
The following are the operating measures on which this plan should be managed. Four of them — food cost, largest client share, government share of meals and contract retention — are the numbers that decide whether the business survives, and none of them is visible in a revenue figure.
|
Indicator |
Definition |
Target |
Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Food cost by segment |
Food cost ÷ segment revenue |
Within 2 points of the costed menu |
One percentage point at Year 5 volume is R318 000 |
|
Prime cost |
Food, consumables and labour ÷ revenue |
Below 72.1% by Year 5 |
The control metric; the price is contractually fixed |
|
Meals per operating day |
Meals served ÷ operating days |
3 464 by Year 5 |
Kitchen utilisation; fixed cost per meal falls with it |
|
Largest client share of revenue |
Largest contract ÷ total revenue |
Below 25% |
Break-even is 84.3% of revenue; one client can breach it |
|
Government share of meals |
Government meals ÷ total meals |
Capped at one third |
R0.08 of contribution a meal; filler, never foundation |
|
Contract retention rate |
Contracts renewed ÷ contracts up for renewal |
Above 90% |
Retention is worth more than new business; no repeat bid or mobilisation cost |
|
Debtor days by sector |
Debtors ÷ revenue × 365, split public and private |
32 private, 68 public |
The debtor book reaches R3.05m by Year 5 |
|
Food safety audit score |
External HACCP-based audit |
No major non-conformance |
One serious incident ends the contract and contaminates every reference |
|
Bid win rate |
Tenders won ÷ tenders submitted |
Rising |
Disqualification on technicalities is the common failure, not price |
|
Debt service cover |
EBITDA ÷ interest and scheduled capital |
Above 1.30x from Year 5 |
Negative until Year 3 by construction |