Every penny counts. In today’s challenging economic environment, managing rising prime costs for both food and labor is critical. Finding where you can save here and there can have a big impact on your bottom line at scale. That’s why many operators are turning to AI to help them identify opportunities for cost savings. 

Normally, you would have to pay an expensive financial analyst or consultant to analyze all of your data to find these opportunities. Even if you did have an analyst, they would have to manually run an analysis of your stores’ performance regularly which takes up time and costs money. Most store managers are not analytical and wouldn’t have the time to dig into this data, even if they were. This is where the power of AI comes into play: Artificial intelligence can analyze all of the data instantly and regularly in real-time. The beauty of AI is that you don’t have to wait for an analyst to finish building an Excel spreadsheet each week that is already stale the second you get it. 

Expo has been working with many Burger King franchisees across the country to help streamline and optimize their operations using our AI. Different operators are finding value in the various insights that Expo provides to match their current needs and challenges. They have so much valuable data that was barely being used until now.. From labor scheduling to inventory management to salesmanship, these operators are leveraging Expo to identify opportunities from this data to improve performance which translates into real dollars.     

Take for example PLV (product line variance) or waste management. Burger King franchisees like Viking Restaurants out of Minneapolis and IRMG out of Florida have been able to bring down their PLV significantly using Expo. According to RSI, the average PLV for Burger King Franchisees is 2.6%, while the average PLV for Burger King franchisees using Expo is 2.1%. Managing waste and loss control has yielded at least 50 basis points of improvement for these franchisees. At an average of $1.8M in AUV per store, that equates to $9,000 a year in cost savings. For 50 stores, that adds up to $450K annually to the bottom line from identifying opportunities on loss control alone.

Expo takes all of your real-time data and analyzes it instantly, giving you quantifiable and insights that you can take action on. It's as simple as asking a question. Think of Expo as your AI consultant or analyst.

Expo is the magnifying glass and exposes areas of concern. It allows you to investigate and dig deeper by asking more questions about specific stores. Managers have access to these insights as well, allowing them to take action and decrease their purchase orders in accordance.

Expo breaks down inventory purchases by each individual item which can be filtered into categories, to see where there are cost savings opportunities. Our dashboards provide actionable insights for managers that will make real impacts to the bottom line without having to get a district manager or area director involved. Store managers know exactly what they need to do.

Expo takes it one step further with predictive forecasting. Using machine learning, Expo can tell your team how many buns they need to order based on past data. This allows them to manage their purchases better and avoid waste. We use technology to make your life easier by saving you time and taking the guess work out of everything.

Viking Restaurants brought down their PLV by 30% since they started using Expo. A 30% improvement on waste would translate to 1.82% PLV and 78 basis points which is over $14,000 in cost savings per store. Here is Viking CEO Joel Aaseby, who was previously the CFO for Heartland Food which operated 225 Burger King locations and was one of the biggest franchises in the country, talking about how Expo has made an immediate impact on their business:

Waste management and loss control is just one of the many ways that Expo is making restaurant operators like Joel more money. We are translating their data into actionable insights that can move the needle for their business. Our AI analyzes labor scheduling, delivery sales, guest reviews, salesmanship and more. Interested in learning how Expo and AI can help move the needle for your business?

‍Schedule time to talk with our team.