Hello, I am one of the owners of restaurant chain ‘Two Forks and a Spoon’ and we would like to hire you to help us decide where we should locate our next restaurant.
We are looking for opportunities to grow. Market research supports locating a new restaurant in your local area, but our lack of knowledge of suitable locations means we are unsure of where best to locate the restaurant.
This is why we would like to hire your team to make a decision on the best location in the area, where future profits can be maximised.
Our restaurant has won awards for its quality food and innovative menu. Working with local suppliers is important to us so that we can serve authentic cuisine from the local area. We are however, prepared to work with suppliers further away and import any items we need that cannot be sourced locally. We are working to a tight budget.
You will be provided with a map of the local area with three possible locations to choose from.
We would like you to consider all of the factors which are likely to influence your decision on the best place to locate. These will be given to you as part of your business information pack.
As you will already know, you will need to adopt six thinking roles between you, to help determine the positives and negatives of each influencing factor in relation to the locations in your local area that are being considered as suitable sites for the restaurant.
You will need to weigh up these factors, drawing conclusions from your team’s thinking to reach a justified conclusion on where the restaurant should locate.
If you have any questions, now is the time to ask your teacher. Before you start, make sure you each have a thinking role card and you know what you thinking role requires of you. Your teacher will facilitate you throughout.
Let’s begin- the clock is ticking - you have 45 minutes until you need to present your justified final decision on where we should locate
I can see lots of discussion and thinking going on - this is encouraging.
Have you thought about how visible the location is to car and foot traffic? Remember you want to be easily seen and attract people walking past
Keep up the good work.
Do you know how well other businesses are doing in each of the three locations? This could be an indicator of the potential success each location could bring to us.
I’m just checking in to see how you are progressing.
Have you thought about how convenient each location is for customers? How convenient is each location for them? What are the transport costs for customers?
How easy is it for them to reach the restaurant?
20 minutes has already gone by, keep up the great work.
Have you thought deeply enough about the size of local market? How many residents within a 5km radius of each location are there? How close would the customers be to the restaurant?
Don’t forget we’re working to a tight budget.
Are premises affordable in all locations? How much will it cost to rent or buy?
We’re looking for opportunities to grow the business. Which location has the best opportunities for future growth and development?
Only 10 minutes remain.
Remember we like to source as much locally as we can. How close are equipment and food suppliers? We also need skilled chefs and people to serve customers – how close are potential workers to each location?
Last five minutes everyone. You should be making your final decision now and noting down on your location recording sheet, your reasons for your chosen location and the reasons why you rejected the other two.
You have between 5 and 10 minutes to prepare yourself to present your solution to your teacher.
Good luck everyone and thank you for your hard work and knowledge of the local area to help us find the right location for our new restaurant. We hope to see you on opening night.
Resource Plus for learners4 Operations management for learners
Video transcriptHello, I am one of the owners of restaurant chain ‘Two Forks and a Spoon’ and we would like to hire you to help us decide where we should locate our next restaurant. We are looking for opportunities to grow. Market research supports locating a new restaurant in your local area, but our lack of knowledge of suitable locations means we are unsure of where best to locate the restaurant. This is why we would like to hire your team to make a decision on the best location in the area, where future profits can be maximised.
