British Family Business
Established 1868
British Family Business
Over £2million of Stock
Cost-Saving Strategies for UK Pubs & Restaurants in 2025
The UK hospitality industry has been battling against rising costs over the last decade, and these challenges haven't been easy to navigate. Sadly, a lot of independent businesses have been hit the hardest from these hikes in prices, whether that's increased energy costs, staff wages, or simply losing out on sales as their customers also face a rise in general living expenses.
Unfortunately, 2025 doesn't appear to be getting much easier, but that doesn't mean all hope is lost. With some smart cost-saving strategies, UK hospitality businesses can reduce wastage and increase their profit margins without having to put customers off with scary price increases or an inferior customer experience.
Below are some creative suggestions on how you can adapt to reduce operating costs and increase profits, all whilst keeping your customers satisfied.
Tweak Your Menus
One cost-saving tactic for restaurants and pubs to explore is engineering their menus and making clever and creative choices about their food offerings. Below are some suggestions on how you can do this:
- Reduce your offerings: A good place to start is assessing your menus and see what your best-selling items are. Cut out dishes that are unpopular, especially if they use relatively expensive ingredients. Customers might prefer to pick from a smaller menu rather than being overwhelmed by choice, too.
- Highlight more profitable dishes: As well as focussing on the most popular menu items, also consider options that will be the most profitable. These are dishes that will be relatively low-cost to make (vegetarian curry, pizza, or chicken pie, for example), and pushing these as part of your main offering.
- Focus on using seasonal ingredients: Consider revamping your menu throughout the year based on what seasonal ingredients you can source. These tend to be cheaper and abundant, and it also keeps your customers on their toes as your menu changes throughout the year.
Adjust Your Portions
Another option to explore to help reduce your food waste and boost profits is to adjust your portion sizes. It's important to make sure that your customers don't feel as though they aren't getting their money's worth, but here are some clever ways you can achieve this whilst keeping them happy:
- Focus on presentation: A creative way to trim portions without making it obvious is by presenting food on the plate in a way that still makes it look full. This can be done by using slightly smaller plates to serve your food on. You could also use chip cups to help control your portion sizes, rather than piling fries and other sides on the plate.
- Smaller cuts of meat: Meat can be one of the more expensive ingredients to buy, but rather than reducing the quality of meat your serve, consider offering smaller cuts instead. For example, instead of a 16oz steak, change to a 12oz on the menu. Although it's not as big, the quality is still up to the standards your customers are used to, and many people would rather pay for quality than quantity.
- Consider minimising garnishes: Garnishes can add some artistic flair to your food presentation, but are these little touches always necessary? If your salad garnishes, lemon wedges, sprigs of herbs, etc., often go untouched, consider removing them or minimising their use to save money on otherwise perfectly good ingredients that end up in the bin.
Repurpose Surplus Food
Another excellent and easy way to reduce food waste is to repurpose left over food. For example, if you offer Sunday roasts, any left-over meat can be used to make a stew or curry special the next day. Vegetables can be turned into a puree or soup, and fruits can be made into a sauce or compote. There are many creative ways to make food go further in the kitchen.
Supplier Negotiations
Another cost-saving strategy pubs and restaurants can explore is negotiating better terms with suppliers or searching for better deals elsewhere. Here's a few ideas on how you can get better deals for your business:
- Team up with local suppliers: This option might find you better deals and could help reduce shipping costs, but it can also reduce supply chain risks that can result in financial losses and other stress (though this isn't always guaranteed). Saying your food is 'locally sourced' can be a draw for customers as well.
- Consider community sourcing: Some pubs in the UK have even contacted locals in the area with allotments and have struck a deal by using their excess fruit and veg in exchange for a free meal or discounted drinks, and this also inspires a sense of community that people want to support.
- Consider buying groups: This option might be best for independent businesses who are struggling to compete with big chains who will make large bulk orders and get the better discounts as a result. Buying groups can help smaller restaurants and pubs pool their purchasing power so you can negotiate bulk rates from suppliers, and this can be everything from food to kitchen equipment and cleaning supplies, helping you make savings across the board.
Hospitality in the UK will continue to face challenges and rising costs throughout 2025, but by exploring cost-saving strategies like those listed above, there is hope that these businesses can weather the storm. Although consumers might be tightening the purse strings now, there is still the desire to go out and enjoy a great meal and drinks in their favourite dining spots and drinking holes. If you can find a way to use some of these cost-control tactics to try and make your menu price increases less intense, hospitality businesses can still encourage their customers to pop in an enjoy what's on offer.