Ken Burgin

Restaurant Productivity

Coffee

Profitable Cafe

How Can Automation Make Your Cafe More Profitable?

June 23, 2022 No Comments

You’ve seen the videos – hot, fresh pizza from a machine, a robotic arm that cooks perfect fries, or a cocktail robot with flashing lights. No people = no wages – sounds like a good move, but what will the customers think? If their priorities are consistent quality, speed and value, more automation can help you achieve that. I talked with cafe owner Matt Lucas of the Coffee Pedaler cafes in Gundagai and Tumut NSW

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Coffee Retailing

How to do Coffee Retailing properly if you sell Speciality Coffee…

January 4, 2020 No Comments

I highly recommend you follow Dublin café owner Colin Harmon on Instagram, and in this short video he shows off all the Christmas gifts you can buy at his cafe – a master at coffee retailing. I heard him speak a couple of years ago in Sydney, and he was fierce on the value of adding good retail to your mix if you sell specialty coffee – he said up to 25% (!) of their

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cafe failure

Watching the Decline of a Cafe Under New Owners

March 13, 2018 1 Comment

It’s painful to watch the decline of a favourite cafe – it’s been under new management for the last 2 months. It was probably not an easy business to sell, as the menu is complex and standards high – that would make it intimidating for many potential purchasers. The previous owners set it up ten years ago, and it has a passionate following – for the product and for them as people. But new owners

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How to tell if your Job Ads discourage female or male applicants

November 6, 2017 No Comments

We’re all keen to avoid bias against females or males, and sometimes the language we use in job advertisements will subtly discourage one or the other. The Gender Decoder is a great tool to check your ads – it picks up words we commonly use but may not realise have an inbuilt bias. I checked this typical ad for a Barista (below), and it highlighted the words in red as ‘masculine’ – it would not

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Dublin Cafe Owner Rocks Australia – reminds us to put profits first!

September 8, 2017 No Comments

250 enthusiastic cafe owners, managers and baristas packed the Sydney warehouse of Toby’s Estate Coffee last night to hear Dublin’s rockstar cafe owner and roaster Colin Harmon – the author of What I Know About Running Coffee Shops. It was another one of the Toby’s Estate Knowledge Talks – they draw quite a crowd.  Previous events with Colin were held in Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne. His book has now sold 10,000 copies – in hard back! It’s different to the usual, dry

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