Have you met Peter Francis, co-owner of Picotin Express?
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Picotin Express first came to life in 2007 at the old stables of the Turf Club Road. From the French word for a ration of horse feed, the name “Picotin” has been promptly adopted. We are one of the first food and beverage establishments at the old Turf Club. Rapidly, Picotin became a neighborhood bistro where everyone gets together.
Tell us a bit about you, Picotin and the story behind you and the restaurant:
I started with Picotin 2008 as a part-timer employer and rose through the ranks and became General Manager by 2015. In 2017, with the backing of a private equity firm, I had an opportunity to take over the business. We expanded and launched on the East Coast in 2018. It has been a long journey with the company but I feel in my heart that the journey has just begun.
What does ‘service’ and ‘hospitality’ mean to you (in these uncertain Covid-19 times)?
Throughout our history, Picotin has always been known as the friendly neighbourhood restaurant. We stand for family, we stand for friends, we stand for neighbourhood. We like to think of ourselves as a hub. At this moment, we are trying to reassure our clients and maintain our clientbase by offering takeaway. We are trying to adapt and reconsider our marketing strategies, how we can engage with our members directly, and support them throughout the pandemic. At Picotin, both the staff and management, engage in personal communication, and assure all our customers that we are still here.
Hospitality has not changed that much for us. Hospitality to us means what we do extra, and that is what makes us stand out from the crowd. Especially now. Everybody does the usual things – but how can we go the extra mile for our customers? Considering our promotions, and packages. Our members are still supporting us, and they are showing immense understanding for the situation. From a business perspective, we are all competing, but we are still in the same field. We include our passion, and combine it together with service and hospitality.
We have also become more flexible in our service. There are no restrictions. Any time our customers need us, we will be there. We love our customers, so service is important. Our regular customers who came to sit and eat before, still come and order takeaway. We have to stand together, and try. Support is crucial.
I don’t know what is going to happen. Everybody is struggling – business wise, and financially – all we can do is do the best we can.
What impact has COVID-19 had on your business?
Revenues are down. We have also experienced limitations as to delivery and takeaway. Even though we push our limits, we have lost a vital part of our business. For example, family time spent in our restaurants during the weekend is gone. We were not prepared for this. But now, we are adapting ourselves to this new measures, and we are changing every day to try to accommodate the requests. But, also, there are limitations in terms of manpower.
Picotin is a family. We have nearly 28 full time staff, 16/18 part time staff. Up until now, we haven’t resorted to any salary cuts or retrenchments, it’s always our staff – the Picotin family first! To be honest the only focus and prayers are to survive through this. We are forever grateful to our suppliers, service providers and landlords for their willingness to fight this together with us by supporting us. We already know we will open with limited seating. The situation is very uncertain, with little visibility. It is hard to plan, but we have to. The impact is pretty bad, for all of us in the F&B industry. How can we survive for the next 6 months? It’s crucial and critical to pull together.
What steps are you putting in place to help your business during these times?
Again, no staff on unpaid leave – staff is family. I have grown up with them, I have been working with them forever. It would be a painful process to have them leave. But we are standing together, and we fight together, in effort to survive.
We have come to realise that we need to plan for different strategies, and change our business model, that goes with prepared meals, take away. Every business will start thinking of new business strategies – but how long can they last? When the circuit breaker started, I came up with a plan, we mapped what we could and wanted to do, and took initiative. When it first started, it took us one week to implement measures, and we were surviving on very small margins. Without volume, you cannot cover costs. But now, we run a call centre. I trained staff, and got them in line. Now, we have a smooth call centre which receives our clients orders, which are then handed on to delivery and so forth.
We adapt and improvise everyday, with minimal cost. We use our existing team, and they try different things. Revising our system everyday, trying to achieve the best results. Previously, we were running separate, stand alone restaurants. Now, we try to connect our restaurants, set up a platform of collaboration when it comes to our call system, and so that we can better automate our orders, inventory, and so on. To summarise, we are increasing our reach, we are staying close to our customers, we are internalising our processes, we are increasing our accountability, and we have digitised our business model.
How do you see the industry after this is all over?
It is difficult to know! We don’t know how long this will last. Nobody can give an answer. It might take a few years. This might be the future, so we will develop a healthy system that communicates, delivers, executes perfectly. We will be prepared. We will get a system in order, and it needs to be perfect. Now, you have to be able to think out of the box, and improvise, at a low cost. Every penny counts now, and will in the future. You have to be sharp, cunning and calculating! We have no idea what is going to happen. For anybody, in any business.
What is the dish/ drink that will be most popular for your customers? / is most ordered now?
Last month, we launched a new deal that was incredibly popular! Our pizza and beer deal! We almost lost money, our customers asked us “how are you making money?!” But it covered expenses, looking at the mass market of customers who ordered. It was a successful promotion. We also did a BBQ menu, which is still going incredibly well. All packages have been so successful. But, ala-carte deals are obviously not going that well. We are all promoting such deals now. Customers today, the majority, 80-90 % look for a deal, as they are working from home and growing conscious of costs. We can’t blame them, we simply need to capture more market share. Which means taking a pay cut.
It’s not that that people don’t want to support us. But the market is flooding with offers and deals. Every now and then, we have to remind our customers that we are still here. And then they remember, and order. Most important to me, is that we can support our team. We are fighting, and we are still standing!
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