what's becoming common in cafés now!

追加: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Hello everyone. This is Arisha again with a new topic. What's becoming very common in cafes now?

[00:00:08]Outsourced food production.

[00:00:10]A lot of cafes today don't actually produce everything in-house anymore.

[00:00:15]Their desserts, sauces, breads, frozen items, gravies, and even complete menu components are coming from third-party vendors or external production kitchens.

[00:00:25]And honestly, from the outside, it sounds like a very smart operational move. Because running a proper production kitchen is expensive. You need [music] trained kitchen staff, prep teams, storage management, inventory control systems, equipment maintenance, production scheduling, [music] hygiene monitoring, wastage control. The back-end becomes operationally heavy very, very quickly.

[00:00:53][music] So naturally, cafes start outsourcing.

[00:00:57]Less kitchen stress, less prep workload, less staffing pressure, faster service execution, [music] and easier expansion. And for small cafes starting out, outsourcing can genuinely help stabilize operations initially.

[00:01:15]But here is where the financial side gets interesting.

[00:01:19]>> [music] >> A lot of cafe owners think outsourcing automatically reduces costs. When in many cases, it actually increases the final cost significantly. Because the [music] vendor producing your food is already running a business themselves.

[00:01:35]Which means, before the product even reaches your cafe, it already carries raw material costs, vendor labor costs, production overheads, packaging costs, [music] utility expenses, transportation costs, and vendor profit margins. Then that same product enters your cafe, Where another layer of operational [music] overheads get added again. Your rent, your staff, your electricity, your marketing, your aggregator commissions, your branding expenses, [music] your operational losses, and your profit margins. So, technically, one menu item starts carrying two separate business infrastructures financially at the same time.

[00:02:24]And eventually, the customers absorb all of it through menu pricing.

[00:02:30]That's why some cafes slowly become unintentionally overpriced. Not because the ingredients are expensive, but because too many operational layers are stacked on one product before it reaches the customers.

[00:02:47]And this becomes even more dangerous in economies where customers buying power is very sensitive. Because customers today analyze value much more aggressively.

[00:03:00]People may visit once for aesthetics or hype, but repeat business depends on perceived value consistency. [music] If customers start feeling the food don't justify the pricing, retention [music] drops very fast.

[00:03:15]Now, this is where I think scaling cafes intelligently becomes really, really interesting. If a cafe has multiple branches, [music] outsourcing forever honestly stops making sense financially.

[00:03:29]Because at that stage, the smartest move is usually [music] building your own commissary kitchen.

[00:03:36]A centralized production facility.

[00:03:39]Why?

[00:03:41]Well, let me tell you why. [music] Because now your production overhead gets distributed across multiple branches [music] instead of paying vendor margins repeatedly forever.

[00:03:54]One central kitchen [music] can produce sauces, desserts, prep items, bakery products, marinades, frozen inventory, and distribute them internally [music] to all branches.

[00:04:05]Now, suddenly your operational control improves. [music] Consistency improves, margins improve, inventory forecasting [music] improves, quality control improves, purchasing power improves because bulk procurement becomes stronger. [music] And most importantly, you stop paying somebody else's profit margin on your own menu.

[00:04:31]>> [music] >> That's the real long-term operational gain.

[00:04:36]Because outsourcing helps survival in early stages, >> [music] >> but centralized internal production creates scalability.

[00:04:44]And honestly, [music] cafes that understand this transition usually build much stronger business models over time.

[00:04:53]Because at the end of the day, hospitality is not just about making food.

[00:04:58]It's about understanding systems, economies of scale, operational control, and customer psychology >> [music] >> all at the same time. But anyways, what do you guys think?

[00:05:11]Would you rather see cafes making everything fresh in-house, outsource for consistency, or build centralized commissary systems once they scale?

[00:05:24]Think about it. Till then, take care, and goodbye.