Unreliable equipment is 'biggest factor on hospitality workload'

The organisation found unexpected equipment costs and regular breakdowns were contributing to increased workloads, time pressures and a loss of monthly sales.

The Life is Better Filtered: The Collaborative Kitchen​ report​ found a quarter of businesses said downtime on equipment cost them up to a 10% loss of sales each month. Some 70% of employees said they felt stressed in the kitchen, citing faulty equipment and staff shortages​ as the two biggest contributing factors.

Unexpected repairs

Some 82% of employees said they had had to spend additional costs on unexpected repairs, causing additional stress.​

The report recommended operators consider the ability of equipment to meet its demands, invest in preventive maintenance solutions, and implement a cleaning and maintenance schedule.

Brita UK managing director Sarah Taylor said while the sector was booming, businesses were still experiencing challenges related to skills shortages and growing pressure from consumers.”

Pursuit of efficiency​

She added: “The kitchen is the backbone of any hospitality establishment and, for a business to succeed, it needs to be operating as efficiently as possible.

“At Brita Professional, our aim is to support businesses in their pursuit of optimum kitchen efficiency. Whether that’s through providing preventative maintenance advice and technology – in the form of our market-leading water filters – offering the tools to provide a consistent food offer through the use of filtered water in cooking, or providing insights into best practice and industry concerns via reports.

“While it’s a challenging time in the sector, it’s also an exciting one and we can’t wait to see what innovations hospitality businesses continue to implement to create the ultimate collaborative kitchen.”