​Smarter thinking pays off for Shillingfords

Like many business during the pandemic, Shillingfords in Neath, Port Talbot Neath, survived by implementing a delivery service. Although the system was far from perfect — relying on Facebook for orders, BACCS for payments, handwritten receipts, and street-by-street deliveries — it got the job done. "It was hard graft," recalls owner Allan Shillingford, who, along with a small team, impressively managed to deliver 200 orders in just three hours each day.

Fortunately, things have progressed significantly since then. Initially, the takeaway partnered with the three major aggregators — Just Eat, Uber Eats, and Deliveroo — leveraging their extensive reach and advertising power to attract customers to the business. However, after numerous complaints about late deliveries and high commission fees, Allan took matters into his own hands. Two years ago, he launched the Shillingfords app, hired delivery drivers, purchased a car, and had it custom wrapped. Allan calls this one of his “smarter thinking” moves, as it has not only streamlined operations but also increased the business's profitability.

“The investment has paid for itself already because we are not paying the high commission fees any more,” he says. “And the prices we charge in-store are the prices customers pay online.

“What I did when I launched the app was have flyers printed out with a QR code to our app and explained to the customers, look, you’re paying 30% more with Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat. If you want to save money, instead of paying £26 for your normal meal, it'll cost you about £21 through the Shillingfords app. We poached about 95% of the customers who ordered our food from Deliveroo that way and they have stayed with us.”

The costs to run the delivery service are partly covered via a delivery charge: anywhere within a mile radius, it’s £3.50, after two miles it rises to £4.50 and after three miles £5.50.

“Offering delivery has been really good for business,” says Allan. “We’re selling a lot more fish and chips now and average orders are anywhere between £10 to £40, although we had one recently for £95. Having said that, we sometimes get orders for just a bag of chips and curry sauce and the delivery is more than the food, but people pay it.”

To make the service more profitable, Allan recently introduced an ASAP ordering time slot, explaining: “I'm finding a lot of people locally are booking an ASAP delivery, so we can hit out three or four deliveries in one go. The customer is getting charged for one delivery, and we're smashing three or four out in one go which is more beneficial to ourselves.”

Delivery has become an indispensable part of the Shillingfords business model, accounting for a third, if not more, of sales. Allan is even considering expanding his delivery radius by an additional mile.

Another savvy decision Allan has made is to reduce operating hours and streamline the menu, which has brought even greater efficiencies to the business.

“We used to do breakfast every morning but when I worked out the maths - the gas, the storage of the stock, the wages, the profit margins - it wasn’t cost-effective to sell them Monday to Thursday, which were our quieter days, so we just cut it out completely.”

With that, operating hours are now 12-9pm instead of 8am-10pm - a huge five hours less. “It has reduced our energy bills significantly, my wage bills even more, and freed up room for storage in the fridges, etc.,” says Allan. “And it's the head work it’s eliminated too that has made a difference - the requests to have bacon crispy, or beans instead of tomatoes. Now we sell a set breakfast of five items on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays only and customers choose what they would like.”

Allan has sacrificed more of his time to be involved in the business, a decision he is at ease with since it allows him to regain control while also reducing costs.

“There’s no revenue coming in while the shop doors are closed so it's more beneficial for me to come in and do the prep so that as soon as the doors do open, the staff can earn their crust through the customers coming in.”

Included in that prep are many homemade items - tartare sauce, mushy peas, garlic mushrooms, chicken curry, and two of the shop’s most profitable items: corned beef rissoles and cheese rissoles.

“We make a lot of items ourselves because of the profit margins they generate, plus I know what's in them,” says Allan. “The rissoles I used to buy in but when my supplier ran out of stock one day, I thought I’d make them myself and I’ve never looked back. They are a lot tastier and the profit margins are massive with a GP of over 90%.”

The batter Shillingfords uses across its menu is Ceres Natural Batter Mix which Allan moved over to in 2016. “We tried several batters, but the Ceres one works brilliantly. I find it easy to use, it’s easy to mix and it's not as yellow as some others on the market. It’s great for delivery too, withstanding the travel time and staying crispy. Plus it’s a natural batter mix: there are no nasties or anything artificial in it.”

Before dipping fish in batter, staff use a light coating of Ceres Pre Dust. “It just absorbs any moisture that might be on the product and helps the batter stick to it a little bit better,” says Allan .

Looking for ways to operate more efficiently, Allan has recently changed how he makes batter. “We’ve gone from mixing the batter really thick like double cream to a little bit thinner than double cream, and it's just lovely. It’s bang on and we don’t get that gloopy texture in between the fish and the batter that we sometimes got before. I've got the staff on board as well. At first they were all like, “Oh, the batter is too thin”, but the food cooks faster, we use less gas, and we use a lot less batter because it goes further. It's smarter thinking again.”

With 35 years in the industry, Allan has seen profit margins ever-squeezed but believes fish and chips is still a profitable business and can deliver a good income. “You have to be on top of your costs and your profit margins and try to be as efficient as possible in every aspect, so look at how you can make jobs easier and quicker and where you can save energy and time.”

It’s one of the reasons Allan remains loyal to Ceres, adding: “Ceres is the only company that has ever come to my shop and spent a day with me and the staff, showing us how to make the batter, fry the fish, make the mushy peas and fishcakes, and that, on its own, means a hell of a lot.

“Ceres ticks all the boxes and, on top of that, its ordering service is amazing. I can order everything I need from the Ceres Shop in the morning and have it next day, at the latest the day after. That’s invaluable to my business.”