Food Service Management Report: The Ledbury - Performance and Strategy

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of food service management practices, focusing on The Ledbury restaurant. It begins with an introduction to the hospitality industry and food service management, then delves into various approaches to the food supply chain, including banquet, Russian, and French service styles. The report examines key stakeholders, such as suppliers, consumers, and government entities, and discusses the principles of effective procurement, emphasizing cost control, ethical values, and environmental sustainability. It further explores the use of analytical tools like SWOT, PEST, balance scorecards, CRM, and benchmarking to support management strategies. The report also covers different management practices, including ethical considerations, and concludes with an improvement plan for a specific organizational challenge. The report provides a detailed overview of the food service industry and offers practical insights into enhancing operational efficiency and ethical conduct.

Food Service Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART A...........................................................................................................................................3
Various approaches of food supply chain and key stakeholders.................................................3
Principles of effective procurement and how they improve organization effectiveness. ...........4
Use of various analytical tools to support strategies of management..........................................6
Different practices of management that assist business operations. ...........................................8
Various ethical practices in food service organization. ..............................................................9
PART B..........................................................................................................................................12
Determine management practices using performance review techniques.................................12
Management solutions to improve the performance..................................................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry involves various fields such as food and drink service, lodging, event
planning, travelling etc. Food service management refers to the utilization of various types of
practices that are used by FBO for ensuring the safety of various types of food items. It can also
be described as the method that helps organization to control the hazards related with food in
order to ensure that food is safe for consumers to eat (McEachern, 2017). The Report is based on
The Ledbury. It is a restaurant that was founded in year 2005 by Brett Graham. It is located in
London, England. The organization is one of top ten restaurant in year 2014 in the list of World's
50 Best Restaurants. The Report will outline different methods of food supply chain, principles
of the process of procurement. Further, it will explain use of analytical tools to support strategies
of management, various management practices that support business operations. Moreover, the
Report will describe ethical practices that are used in organization and its impact on success of
business. At last, the Report will outline improvement plan for a specific organization challenge.
MAIN BODY
PART A
Various approaches of food supply chain and key stakeholders.
Overview of different food service context - There are various styles for food service. These
are described below-
 Banquet French Service : Under this type of style, food is cooked in kitchen then,
servers place the plates to the table of guests. Here, guests are served from left. Such as
sauce on dessert etc (Bavec, Bouroullec and Raynaud, 2017).
 Russian Service : Under this, the food is cooked on side of the table. Servers place the
food on platters then pass the plates at table side. Food is served from left (Berman,
2015).
 Cart French Service : Under this, food is cooked on table side. Hot food items are
cooked on hot plate and cold food items are assembled on small table. Food is served
from right (Parmenter, 2015).
Approaches of food supply chain -
Food supply chain refers to the process that explain the way in which food items come
from a farm and are placed on our tables. The food supply chain is an extremely complex chain
and there are a series of steps that are involved since there are a lot of small numbers of activities

that are required to be completed under the food supply chain. The process extends from
collection of primary raw materials to that of making the finished product available. It includes
various stages such as production, distribution, processing and consumption etc (Ross, 2017).
There are various methods of food supply chain that are used in food service industry. One of the
major approach that can be used by The Ledbury is short food supply chain method. It is
considered as most suitable method for supplying organic food items and local products to
consumers. There is a close relationship between consumers and producers that help to promote
transparency in communication. Another major approach that The Ledbury may use is food
systems approach. It is a framework that aims to provide sustainable ways for supplying healthy
food items. It focuses on non-linear procedure in food system (Faour-Klingbeil, Kuri and Todd,
2015).
Key stakeholders -
Stakeholder refers to individual, organization or group who is affected by actions of
another. Food supply chain involves various stakeholders. They play an important role in
promoting accountability and transparency. Another main stakeholder is competitors. They are
firms that compete with others for attracting large number of consumers. Government is
responsible for developing legislation and policies that provides marketing standards and food
business that must be met. (Sebastian, Siew and Orimaye, 2017). Owner of business must ensure
that food business should comply with all standards code related with food.
Transportation is an important part in food supply chain. Before transportation raw
material is packaged by farmer then it is supplied to wholesaler. Raw material is transported with
the help of lorry and bus. Then, food items are transported by wholesalers to organizations like
restaurants etc (Sitek, Wikarek and Nielsen, 2017).
Farmer is responsible to ensure that there must be ethical practices in respect of growing
crops and only uses natural things and not the use of pesticide etc. The major role of
manufacturer of food items is to combine raw material from farmers with different nutritional
additives. One of the major stakeholder of supply chain is consumers. Government is responsible
to influence food supply chain by developing various regulations and rules related with health
and safety of consumers etc.

Principles of effective procurement and how they improve organization effectiveness.
Procurement can be described as the process used by food service organization to ensure
that consumer receives products or service at right price by comparing various aspects like
quality, quantity, time etc. There are various principles that should be followed by The Ledbury
regarding effective procurement are as follows-
To control direct and indirect cost, restaurant should use controls for tracking and
managing inventory to ensure cost control for food items. It may adopt stock and inventory
management system for controlling direct and indirect cost like cost of raw material etc. The
business should select and formulate an appropriate budget for these procurement costs by
analysing factors such as social responsibility, service of supplier, quality and safety of raw
materials etc.
 Reputed suppliers - They are the person that meets out present regulatory requirements
and standards of the food and beverage industry. Restaurants should firstly check the
creditability of suppliers before giving them order supplying inputs. The management of
the restaurant should look reliability of the supplier, quality of raw material that supplier
supplies to other organizations. Further, the price should be checked to get value of
money paid by management of restaurant to buy inputs from suppliers. This will help
management to save the cost of purchasing inputs.
 Ethical values of supplier: The firm purchase raw material from those suppliers who
share commitments and ethical values. The Ledbury expect the suppliers to follow
similar ethical standards as followed by the restaurant. Therefore, organization uses only
pre-approved suppliers. The Ledbury also comply established rules that assist the
commitment of company to develop sustainable supply chain (Gerrish, 2016).
 Health and nutrition :
o Food service organization should promote well-being and health of consumers.
The Ledbury should include healthier options that will also help to tackle
childhood obesity and other health related concerns. Business should make efforts
for making the meals healthier.
 Valued workforce :

o Food service firm should provide healthy and safe working conditions and fair
wages to the workers during all the stages of food supply chain. Further, employer
must provide opportunities for full-time employment to workforce.
 Environment sustainability :
o The Ledbury should source food items from those producers who minimize the
use of fertilizers and avoid antibiotics. Organization should serve less meat items
and promote dairy free options in the menu of restaurant. Moreover, food service
organization should make efforts for offering more vegan options in the menu.
organization should track the negative impact on environment (Sitek, Wikarek
and Nielsen, 2017).
o All the above principles related with procurement of food items will provide
various benefits to The Ledbury. It will help to reduce the negative impact of
hazardous substance on environment and also on the health of consumers. In this
way, it will improve the reputation of business. Business should include healthier
food options in the menu that will help to attract more consumers towards the
products of restaurant.
Use of various analytical tools to support strategies of management.
Operations management can be defined as the field of management which is related with
developing, monitoring and controlling the process of producing goods. Operations is considered
as one of the major function of the business along with marketing, supply chain, human resource,
finance etc.
SWOT Analysis-
 Strength- The Ledbury serves the best quality of food and beverages to the customer's. It
has hire skilled and talented workforce. Another strength of the Ledbury is that the
quality of service that they provide is extremely well synchronised which reduces the
waiting time and satisfy the requirements of the visitors thus creating goodwill.
 Weaknesses- One of the weakness of the restaurant is that there is lack of organic food
items. It does not get consistent supplies due to which menu items are not available to
customer's on time. The major weakness however is that the menu of the restaurant is not
innovative or dynamic and this can act as a potential threat since is fails to attract new
customers to the restaurants.

 Opportunities- There is an opportunity for Ledbury restaurant to expand the business in
other countries also to serve the food items to target segment of consumers (Berman,
2015). The restaurant can increase its services by beginning online services as well.
 Threats- There are various restaurants that are offering food items at an affordable price
to customer's. This can be a threat to sales of The Ledbury restaurant. Additionally, the
restaurant needs to make itself more remembered and recognizable in a buzz of emerging
restaurants and their news.
PEST Analysis- It is a tool that helps companies to identify and evaluate the impact of factors
that are existing in macro environment.
 Political- Political factors such as rule and regulations of government such as rules in
respect of food production and safety etc. will impact the operations of the business.
 Economical- It includes factors such as rate of interest, purchasing power of customer's
etc. If purchasing power of clients is low then they will not buy the items of the business.
 Social- It includes the opinion and views of the customers towards the business. This
may also impact the business of The Ledbury restaurant (Gerrish, 2016).
 Technological- It includes changes in the technology for producing and distributing food
and beverage to the customers. This will affect profitability of the organization.
Analytical tools – It refers to the tools that helps to perform analysis of something. It includes all
the controls, systems, applications etc. that are used by the management to cope up with
changing markets. These tools will help The Ledbury to secure competitive position and also
assist in improving the performance of business.
Balance scorecard :
It is one of the major analytical tool that helps organization to manage the
implementation of a strategy. The Ledbury should use balance scorecard for measuring the actual
performance of the business. It requires various things such as choosing data to measure,
management of the restaurant should have ability to perform corrective intervention. Th tool will
help The Ledbury to track the performance of business in respect of selling food items to clients.
Customer relationship management :
It refers to the the approach that helps business to manage the interaction between firm
and its present or potential customer's. It is another important tool that will assist management of
The Ledbury to promote retention of loyal clients and ultimately helps to improve chances of

growth and success of the business. CRM compile information from various sources such as live
chat, website of company, marketing material, email, telephone etc. The Ledbury may
implement various types of customer relationship management in the organisation like strategic
CRM, operational CRM, analytical CRM etc (Sumaedi and Yarmen, 2015).
Benchmarking :
It refers to the process of comparing best practices that are adopted by other organisations
and the process of business and performance metrics to industry. The tool can be used by The
Ledbury for measuring the performance of business with the help of particular indicator such as
productivity per unit, cost per unit etc. With the help of benchmarking, management will be able
to evaluate different areas of the process related with the process of the best companies for the
aim of comparison.
Recommendation -
It has been recommended that, The Ledbury should use Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) as it will assist the organization to provide efficient customer service and
also help the management to identify key customer's of the business. Further, the tool will assist
the manager to retain loyal clients for long time.
Different practices of management that assist business operations.
Management practices can be defined as the methods of working and innovations that
assist management to improve the efficiency of the organization. There are various types of
management practices that should be adopted by the manager of The Ledbury that will support
the operations of business. These are as follows - Quality management : It refers to the activity of looking at all the tasks and activities that
are essential to maintaining an adequate level of excellence in the business. It involves
determination of policy related with quality of products, quality assurance, quality
improvement and control. This practice will help management of The Ledbury to offer
high quality of food items to consumers and also assist to exceed the satisfaction of the
clients. Business may adopt different practices to manage the quality of the products such
as Total Quality Management (TQM) etc. There are various dimensions of quality such
as durability, features, serviceability, safety etc.

 Stock handling: To remove the above weaknesses as described under SWOT analysis,
The Ledbury should adopt management practices for offering organic food items to
consumers. Tesco should adopt various management practices such as adopting stock
control techniques. For offering fresh food items processing additives and chemicals
should be avoided and there must be proper management of flow of raw materials. This
will help the restaurant to produce organic food items with better quality (McAdams,
Deng and MacLaurin, 2018). For getting consistent supply of raw material restaurant
should focus on lead time. Further, it should modify the plan regarding purchasing raw
material from suppliers according to demands of customer's. Inventory management : It refers to the component of supply chain management that
includes the activity of supervising the inventory of the organization. One of the
important role of inventory management is to maintain the record of every item in detail
regarding every type of new product or product returned by customer. It will help the
management of The Ledbury to control the excess stock of raw materials and at the same
time also help to meet out the demand of consumers.
Recommendation - It is recommended that the management of The Ledbury should use the
practice of quality management. The implementation of quality management practices like Total
Quality Management will help management to retain loyal customer's, satisfied employees etc. It
will also assist the business to manage its operations.
Various ethical practices in food service organization.
Ethics can be described as the study related with moral values of conduct of human
beings and these are principles and rules that defines standard of behaviour. Ethical issues in
food service organizations happen daily and management have to make efforts for addressing
these issues. The code of ethics defines the behaviour of the business to uphold the ethical
standards of the business. Corporate Social Responsibility refers to different types of actions
that organization make from donating funds to charity to ethical trading. One major focus of
Corporate Social Responsibility is environment. Ethical environmental practices of The Ledbury
Restaurant in respect of environment are as follows-
CSR related to environment:
 Recycling practice : Companies should design the product and its packaging by keeping
in mind the practice of recycling. The inclusion of recycled raw material is a better way

to increase the demand of recycled material and it helps to promote recycling. This is a
good way for optimum utilization of the resources (Sebastian, Siew and Orimaye, 2017).
 Reducing environmental impact : As, The Ledbury also offers dairy products due to
which there is both positive and negative impact of the business on the environment.
Further, management of the restaurant is committed to mange the negative impact of
activities on the environment such as production, distribution etc. Company will also
adopt practices of waste management.
 Waste management- The aim of waste management practice is to reduce the negative
impact of the wastage on human health, aesthetics and the environment. This practice of
the restaurant helps to create employment, conserve energy etc.
CSR related to people-
 Workplace health and safety: One of the major Corporate social responsibility followed
by The Ledbury restaurant is to maintain proper health and safety of workers.
Management communicates the prioritization of safe conditions to the employees in
effective manner.
 Nutrition and exercise: The organization also provide funds and time to promote health
and safety of people by building on site gym and provide fresh meals to workers.
 Good manufacturing practices : The organisation follows the practices related with the
procedure of control that are used in storage, packaging and processing of food items.
Further, management of the restaurant has developed the policies related with personal
hygiene. Moreover, clients of the restaurant have to follow same standards related with
food hygiene and safety.
CSR related with food-
 Nutrition labelling for menu items : Other than ethical marketing practices other two
major issues regarding obesity epidemic is nutrition labelling and portion size for menu
items (Roseman and et.al, 2017). The Ledbury restaurant make efforts to minimize
portion size. It also encourages consumers to choose nutritional food items and to do so,
organization provides necessary information to the customers regarding the nutritional
content in food items. Complying all rules and regulations : It is necessary for every organization to follow
some type of rules and regulations of the authorities. The Ledbury follows different

regulations of the government such as related with food safety etc. It prevents the
restaurant from the liabilities and penalties that may occur due to non-compliance of laws
and regulations. Marketing of the products : Another corporate social responsibility of The Ledbury is to
provide accurate and informative packaging of the food items. The Ledbury expect from
employees to remain truthful at the time of advertising or selling the products to the
customer's (Sulaiman, 2016). Further, in case client have any problem that product is
wrongly labelled or the food item is sold by misrepresentation, in that case customer can
contact the Code of Ethics helpline.
The impact of ethical practices of The Ledbury on the success of organization -
Ethical practices will provide various benefits to the organization. These are as follows - Improvement in reputation of company - The code of practice will help to develop
positive image of the restaurant in the minds of customer's. Further, it also assist the
management to attract new clients towards the products of company (Hanks, and Mattila,
2016). Building customer loyalty - The use of ethical practices such as maintaining health and
safety of customer's will help The Ledbury to retain existing customer's as well as to
attract potential buyers towards the organisation.
 Retaining loyal employees - Company who is fair in the dealings is capable of attracting
new skilled workforce and also to retain loyal workers for long time period. Management
of the organization should make efforts for bringing clarity in the minds of employees
regarding the opportunities that are available to them for advancement of their career.
Other than the above, there are various other benefits that the restaurant will gain by
following ethical practices. Such as improvement in the profitability of firm, improvement in
customer satisfaction etc (Wynen and Verhoest, 2016).
PART B
Determine management practices using performance review techniques.
Management practices - The practices of management can be defined as the innovations and
method of working and that are utilized by the management for improving the efficiency of the
business. Currently, The Ledbury is using the practice of Total Quality management. It is
described below :

Total Quality Management : The term quality can be described as the parameter that helps to
determine the inferiority or superiority of a particular product or a service. It can also be defined
as the attribute that helps the organisation to differentiate its products from the products of
competitors. Total Quality Management refers to the philosophy of management that focuses on
combining various functions of the organization like customer service, design, marketing etc.
Management of The Ledbury should make efforts for continuously improving this process with
the help of skills and knowledge of employees. TQM helps The Ledbury in different ways such
as meeting out the requirements of customer's, reduction in the cost of products or services, focus
on improvement plan etc (Giombelli and Triches, 2019).
There are various principles related with TQM such as commitment from management of
the organisation such as planning, supporting, reviewing and communicating. Whereas, other
principles are employee empowerment through training, recognition, excellence teams,
suggestion scheme etc. Continuous improvement through improvement in standards, systematic
measurement and focussing on CONQ. Another major principle of TQM is focus on customer's
by never compromising the quality of the products, maintaining customer driven standards,
improvement in supplier partnership etc. The practice of total quality management focuses on
bringing an improvement in quality of products offered by The Ledbury. It leads to continuous
improvement in work from the point of high level execution planning up to execution of all the
elements of work. It is based on the belief that mistakes can be avoided and defects can be
prevented by the organisation.
Assessment of Total Quality Management with the help of Performance review techniques
Performance appraisal or review refers to the process that helps firm to evaluate the performance
in terms of productivity and in terms of pre-determined objectives. There are various techniques
that will assist management of The Ledbury to assess the management practice that is Total
Quality Management adopted by the organisation.
Customer feedback : Under this method feedback is obtained by the management from various
visitors of the hotel. The feedback from different visitors will help management of The Ledbury
to assess whether Total Quality Management is really effective and is imopriovig the qualityof
food that they produce. (Gerrish, 2016). Major advantage is that, it provides completed picture of
the experience of customers. Limitation is that, if the manager does not go on board and is not