Food & beverage
28–35%
Indicative range
The fastest margin to recover. The gap between theoretical and actual food cost is where most kitchens quietly lose points — portioning, waste and yield, not headline supplier prices.
The report
The GGB Restaurant Economics Report.
A plain-spoken read on what actually decides whether a restaurant makes money — the cost lines, the traps and the discipline — across the UAE, the GCC, India and Singapore. Where we cite a range, it is an indicative industry indication, not a promise. Where we have a point of view, we say so.
The anatomy of the number
Four lines decide most of it.
A restaurant's P&L looks complicated. In practice, four lines move the outcome. Here is how to read each one — with the typical range it sits in and where the margin tends to leak.
Labour
25–33%
Indicative range
Scheduled to comfort, not to covers, is the most common leak. The number to manage is sales per labour hour by daypart — not a blanket headcount cut.
Rent
8–12%
Indicative range
Largely fixed at signing, so it amplifies every other mistake. A great location cannot save weak unit economics; it can only delay the reckoning.
Prime cost
under ~60%
Indicative range
Food plus labour — the operator's north star. Hold prime cost and the rest of the P&L has room to breathe; lose control of it and no amount of revenue rescues the month.
Ranges are typical industry indications for full-service operations — not targets, benchmarks or promises. Your concept, market and channel mix set your real numbers; run the Profit Leak Audit to see yours.
The GGB view
What the survivors do differently.
They see the number weekly, not monthly
Profit erodes a point at a time. Operators who read a one-page P&L every week catch the drift while it is still cheap to fix. By month-end, the money is already gone.
They manage prime cost, not vanity revenue
Revenue flatters; prime cost tells the truth. The discipline is holding food + labour as a percentage, daypart by daypart — not chasing covers that lose money.
They price the channel, not just the dish
Delivery changed the math. A dish that is profitable dine-in can lose money after aggregator commission and packaging. The survivors price and engineer the menu per channel.
They build systems that outlast them
A turnaround that depends on the founder being in the kitchen is not a turnaround. The gains hold when SOPs, targets and a reporting cadence are documented and owned.
Coming to this report
GGB proprietary benchmark data — published as our dataset matures.
We are assembling anonymized, classified benchmark data from real engagements across our markets. When it meets our evidence bar, it will be published here — attributed, checkable, and never inflated. Until then, this report stands on method and clearly-labelled industry ranges.
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