Jimmy John’s Franchises Increase Efficiency with ClearCOGS
Sep 19
Jimmy John’s Franchise Results
Jimmy John’s is a sandwich chain serving sub-style sandwiches around the clock.
They bake 100% of their bread in house, ensuring customers fresh bread with every sandwich. They also pride themselves on serving the freshest produce, meats, and cheeses, quick turn around times, and exceptional service.
POS: PDQ
Hear how Steve Honner, VP of Operations at 83 subs – a JJ’s franchise – has increased efficiency by using ClearCOGS in his operations.
In the over 250 Jimmy John’s franchised locations that use ClearCOGS, there has been an average of
53%
Reduction in Bread Waste
as well as a reduction in labor hours, smoother staff and management training, and increase in available managementtime.
“ClearCOGS is almost dummy-proofed to where, if we follow this game plan, we should not run out of bread but we’re not going to waste multiple trays at the end of the night either. It’s pretty crazy how its projections are right on the money.”
Kyle Roadle, General Manager
Sample ClearCOGS Prep Sheet for Jimmy John’s Location
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“ClearCOGS gives us a system for each store to make decisions in the exact same way. If we have a manager that is out sick, we can have another manager step in and know the products they needed to prepare for that day.”
Steve Honner, VP of Operations and Operating Partner at 83 Subs
Jimmy John’s is a sandwich company with a simple mission: serving sandwiches fast and fresh. Since 1983 they’ve kept up a similar level of excellence by delivering customers sandwiches on fresh baked bread, allowing them to expand to over 2,600 franchised locations.
83 subs is one of these Jimmy John’s franchise businesses operating 17 locations in KY, IN, and OH. While the commitment to freshness is a major factor in ensuring excellent customer experiences, a lot of work goes into it.
Steve Honner, VP of Operations and Operating Partner, found that at the end of the day, many loaves of bread were being tossed across locations. In addition, if something like an event caused a fluke jump in demand, his store managers would be preparing for their busiest day for weeks, ending up with unused product and slim margins. They were often left scrambling to solve high food cost problems.
On the labor side, Steve saw his locations struggling to train and hold onto new staff and managers. “We have a few seasoned managers who have been with us for a while, but people come and go more often than they used to. Bringing new staff or new management up to speed as fast as possible is so important.”
“It’s a great tool for our seasoned managers to use while talking to the rest of our team. It helps them walk through management decisions they would make, and gives the young managers a real developmental tool that helps their retention and growth into future positions, which helps us as we’re growing as a company.”
Steve Honner – VP of Ops and Operating Partner
Solution
As part of a wholistic effort to streamline operations by 83 Subs, Steve brought on ClearCOGS to provide accurate prep and production guidance. The main goal was to limit the amount of bread wasted at the end of the day, while also ensuring there was plenty of fresh ingredients at every prep station.
Getting started was an easy process. ClearCOGS had worked with Jimmy John’s franchises in the past, so onboarding was very quick. Once ClearCOGS pulled the historical data from their POS, Steve was able to start seeing sample reports and make tweaks to customize them to his store’s needs. “The customization they have is really fantastic. We’ve made tweaks and adjustments that we still have momentum to gain from working with their team,” said Steve.”They’ve never told me, ‘That’s all we can do’ – they really work with us.”
The solution was daily automatic prep sheets that told managers, among other information, exactly how much bread they would need to have on hand a few hours to closing time. This told managers whether or not they should bake one more cycle of bread, curbing the source of bread waste.
Additionally, the reports were designed in the terms that Jimmy John’s managers are already versed in. This made them essential tools for training new staff and management. The ClearCOGS solution boiled down the key decision points Jimmy John’s managers make throughout the day to accurate numbers to guide them.
Results
Within the first month of using ClearCOGS, 83 Subs already began to see positive results. Overall, those results were a considerable decrease in wasted labor and food, meaning lower COGS and lower labor costs.
On average, ClearCOGS decreases bread waste in Jimmy John’s locations by 53%. It also improves staff training processes, decreases time spent making decisions, and increases staff retention.
“With ClearCOGS a manager can come in and have the numbers and the data right in front of them, communicate and execute,” said Steve.
“The biggest value ClearCOGS has offered us to date is the Clear Partnership. You can feel that they want us to succeed and want us to be better. When you find partnerships like that, it’s rare. It’s someone you want to work with directly for a long time.”
Steve Honner – VP of Ops and Operating Partner
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