Unit economics under pressure - what operators need to know
A deep dive into costs, margins and profitability across the sector, and what separates the sites still making money.
The gap between the best and worst performing sites in a franchised estate has widened. The reason is rarely the brand; it is almost always the cost base a particular site was signed into.
Rent remains the decision that cannot be undone. A site taken at the top of the market in 2021 is still carrying that number, and no amount of operational discipline fixes an eight per cent rent-to-turnover ratio in a format built for five.
Labour has stabilised but at a higher base. The operators holding margin are the ones who redesigned the shift pattern around actual trade curves rather than shaving hours evenly across the week.
Energy is now a line worth managing actively. Retrofit programmes that looked marginal three years ago now pay back inside two.
Get this weekly
Opportunities, data and analysis, once a week.