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MENU ENGINEERING AS A STRATEGY FOR REPOSITIONING FOOD SERVICE BUSINESS IN NIGERIA.

Dept: HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT File: Word(doc) Chapters: 1-5 Views: 1

Abstract

Food service business in Nigeria is fast developing. The rate at which people invest in the sector in recent years is highly encouraging. However, it is surprising to know that only very few among many of these establishments being established yearly could be sustained. However, the very view that exists continues to suffocate as the industry profitability is badly squeezed because the prices of food service products are forced down while the customers service expectation increases. The finding shows that application of menu engineering principles can enhance organization efficiency, maximize profits, and improve sales. Thus, it was recommended that workshops, Seminars should be organized by the professional association concerned to train Nigeria food service operators on the contemporary food service system. Graduates of hospitality management should be employed to work in food service centers.

• INTRODUCTION

Menu engineering is an interdisciplinary (involving more than one branch of knowledge) field of study devoted to the deliberate and strategic construction of menus.

It is also referred to as menu psychology.

 

• BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Since the advent of the industrial revaluation, the world has seen pronounced charges in the size, structure, and complicity of the organization.

The positive changes have led to drastic (strong effect) increase in division of labour and segmentation of management responsibilities in many organization including Hospitality organizations (e.g hotels, hospitals). As man cannot be jack of all trades there is now a conscious effort to organize human resource into specialized function to optimize the organizational objective.

This research work therefore geared towards practical application of the purchasing concepts and techniques in solving these management problems as it concerns the organization of Restaurants and Juicy classic hotels.

For example, the surest way of measuring the success of a business enterprise is by the profit it makes, Drafting a menu is the first thing to do in any business concern; if the cost of input is very high, invariably the cost of input will also be very high.

In this note, menu here is defined as a list of food or drinks available or to be served in a restaurant or at a meal, it is a presentation of food and beverage offerings.

A menu may be a lacerate, which guests use to choose from a list of options or Table d’hote, in which case a pre-established sequence of course is served. Engineering is the branch of science and technology concerned with design, building and the use of engines, machines and structures. It is the science, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, economic, social and practical knowledge in order to design and also build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes.

On the other hand, menu engineering is used within the hospitality industry (specifically in the content (circumstance) of the restaurants), but can be applied to any industry that displays a list of product or services offerings for customer choice. Typically the goal with menu engineering is to maximize a firm’s profitability by subconsciously encouraging customers to buy what you want them to buy.

As we are Aware that almost 60% of an organization expenditure is incurred by what is produced in the establishment.

In food and beverage sector therefore, becomes the biggest spending department of the organization as such, It should be economical in its performance, its primary aim is to improve profit by actively searching and implementing new ideas for improving the company’s product and service by reducing cost.

Finally, the establishment has an increasing impact on the management of government and non-government organization in recent years. On this note, the objective and scope of the topic (menu engineering) gives room for effective use of resources within its use in the industries or hospitality industry and Juicy classic hotel Lagos in particular.

 

• STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Menu engineering as a strategy for repositioning food service business in Nigeria according to the staff and management of juicy classic hotel help to serve their customers well and also to maximize their profit.

Apart from this, juicy classic hotel has reported handsome profit to justify their good management.

However, in recent time in spite of the profit. There is still some problems and disadvantage in the level of service. Hence, the understated are the problems facing the organization, which lead to urgent attention of the management.

• The need to draft an effective menu for steady rise in profit.
• The need to emphasize more on the concept of service for growth of the organization.
• The problem of enticing non-customer to the organization.
• The problem of effective application to the customers in the organization.

 

• OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

This research work has its intention to know the impact of menu engineering as a strategy for repositioning food service business in Nigeria particularly in Juicy classic hotels.

On the other hand, to know how this concepts (menu) is been used in the hospitality organization Apart from this objective there are also many other objective of this study or research work and they include the following.

• To examine critically, the functions of the menu list in Hospitality industry
• To know the impact and application of menu engineering in Hospitality industry
• To determine areas of weakness and make available possible solutions.
• To compare its effectiveness with similar organizations
• To determine whether the application of menu list will help the industry/organization to serve its customer well
• To know whether it will help to attract more customers in the sector. To find out or study the modalities of menu engineering the organization management adopts.
• To find out the importance and advantages derived from employing this concept.
• To maximize the firms profitability by subconsciously encouraging customers to buy what you want them to buy.
• And lastly, to proffer solution as what to do if the menu concept is not applied effectively.

 

• SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY.

This project is based on the repositioning of food service business in Nigeria.

The study is therefore limited to juicy classic hotel lagos, through problems relating to the topic is peculiar to all establishment in general.

In the course of carrying out  this research. Certain problems were encountered along the line. It should be recalled that the data collection embraced the  distribution of  sets of questionnaires to both customers and staffs of the establishment.

The following were some of the factors that constraints to scope and validity of the project

1. Time factor: The time limit allocated for completion of the project made it impossible for completion of the project made it impossible for the researcher to travel far to be able to gather information that will make for more comprehensive and indepth study.
2. communication Barrier: During personal interview with some respondents, the researcher experienced a lot of communication problems. Some of the respondents did not understand English language. The views of these people are important, this is because they constitute the food service customers.
3. Respondent prejudice: it is also, probably that respondent prejudices would influence their responses to the questionnaires and this would affect the validity of the research finding.
4. Finding Resources: This made it difficult for the researcher to get enough information for the study. Traveling to the study firms to gather enough information for the study involves lots of money. Also, buying complete materials that is needed for this study, and for the study to be carried out in a bigger scale will require much money.  Not withstanding, these constraints, the project was well packaged and conceived to serve the purpose for which it is intended.
5. finally, menu engineering is relatively a new concept, hence unavailability  of  enough related literature posed a problem to the study.

 

• DEFINITION OF TERMS

Calc Menu : it’s a recipe and menu management Software featuring recipe costing, menu planning, nutrient calculation and more.

Food Business: it’s a business, enterprise or activity (other than primary production) that involves handling food intended for sale.

Menu engineering: it is an interdisciplinary field of study demoted to the deliberate and strategic construction of menus.

Profitability: is the quality of affording gain, benefit or profit.