Food, Drink & Hospitality 

Food, Drink & Hospitality 

Five anonymised engagements across artisan food, drink and hospitality businesses show a common thread: owners doing everything themselves, and the capacity that opens up once that starts to change. 

€131,360 

Combined savings identified 

7–25% 

Capacity increase range (4 of 5 cases) 

€26,000+ 

Average value per engagement 

5

Engagements completed 

In food and hospitality businesses, the busiest person in the building is almost always the owner — the fastest win is usually getting time back into their week. 

– Jigsaw Better Business 

SECTOR

Food, Drink & Hospitality 

ENGAGEMENTS

3 completed projects 

SERVICE

Lean for Business  

REGION

Leinster 

In their own words

Sector Overview

Across five food, drink and hospitality businesses — an artisan food producer, a brewery and pub operation, a herb grower, an artisan honey producer, and an events catering business — the same pattern kept showing up: owners absorbing production, admin, sales and scheduling themselves, with little structure to fall back on as the business grew. All five engagements below are anonymised. 

The Challenge

Each business had reached a point where informal, owner-led ways of working were starting to limit growth rather than support it.

•  Artisan food producer — a geographically limited customer base and marketing spend spread across channels with no clear read on what was actually driving sales 

•  Brewery & pub operation — no prioritisation system across two businesses, limited delegation, and a team not empowered to make day-to-day decisions 

•  Herb grower — reactive ordering and administration regularly spilling into weekends 

•  Artisan honey producer — one owner handling all production, packing, dispatch and admin, with no delegation structure 

•  Events catering business — informal staff rostering and onboarding, and an unstructured enquiry process slowing down quoting and conversion 

Our Approach

We worked one-to-one with each business, applying Lean fundamentals — the 8 Wastes, value mapping, 5S/6S workplace organisation and standard work — to the specific bottleneck holding each one back, from marketing ROI analysis and production flow to delegation planning and standardised rostering and enquiry handling.

The Outcome

Every engagement produced a measurable result:

•  Artisan food producer — a redesigned call-to-action and a new direct-sales channel delivered €57,200/yr in identified additional revenue 

•  Brewery & pub operation — a task prioritisation system and visual management delivered €24,000/yr and a 25% capacity increase 

•  Herb grower — 5S, batch traceability and monthly ordering delivered €4,320/yr and 7–8% additional capacity 

•  Artisan honey producer — delegation, a standard calendar and improved review visibility delivered €22,880/yr and 10.7% additional capacity 

•  Events catering business — redesigned rostering and enquiry handling delivered €22,960/yr and an 11% capacity increase