Jack ApplebeeWhatsApp →

I help get your costs under control through simplifying your systems

Hands-on, risk-free margin work for small independent businesses in and around London. Things get smoother, and more profitable. You only pay a share of what I save you.

Let's chat →

Or scroll for case studies.

Jack Applebee reading the menu outside Applebee's, his family's fish restaurant at Borough Market

The proof is on my own P&L.

Real numbers from restaurants I run. Last full year's gross profit against where each site is running now.

70.2%→75.5%

Gross profit

£132k annualised margin gain

Case Study A

Independent London restaurant turning over £2.5m a year. GP up 5.3 points on last year.

74.13%→80%

Gross profit

£161k annualised margin gain

Case Study B

Independent London restaurant turning over £2.75m a year. GP up 5.9 points on last year.

The terrace outside Applebee's Fish at Borough Market
Borough Market since 1999
A dish being finished at the pass
The pass
The dining room at La Gamba on the Southbank
La Gamba since 2023

Is this you?

  • You run a small independent or family business, in or just outside London, turning over somewhere between £800k and £3m.
  • Your GP sits around 65% to 72% and you reckon it should be higher.
  • You can never quite trust the numbers. A miscount in the stock take. A leak you can't put your finger on.
  • On paper you should be at 76%, but you're sitting at 70% and can't work out where it goes.
  • Your team spends hours every week on tracking that never turns into a decision.
  • You've tried back-of-house systems before, and most of them made it worse, not better.

That is what I find and fix. It usually adds up to thousands a week in cashflow.

How it works

£500 Scope Call
What1-hour paid call and a written diagnosis
FitsYou want a read before committing
Margin Sprint
What3 months, fee is 25% of annual margin gained, invoiced monthly
FitsYou want it done, not advised on. It comes out of the cashflow I generate, so beyond the 3 months it's all extra
Lock-in Retainer
What£1,500 a month, ongoing discipline
FitsYou want to hold the gain after the sprint
Group Partnership
WhatMulti-site, 12 months, embedded
FitsYou run two or more venues

About

I'm Jack. At 22 I took over Applebee's, my family's fish and seafood restaurant at Borough Market, when it was struggling and had no systems in place. I later founded La Gamba, a modern Spanish restaurant at the Southbank Centre. Over 11 years I've dealt with just about every margin problem an independent restaurant runs into, and I know how hard the lean years can get for a family business.

I've also paid for hospitality consulting that didn't work. What I sell now is the engagement I wish I could have bought back then. It pays for itself out of the cashflow it earns. I come in and do the work, rather than sit on the sidelines telling you how. The whole point is to take complexity out of an independent operation, not pile more on.

The last couple of years have squeezed restaurants harder than anything I've seen. Tight cost control is no longer something you can put off. For a lot of independents it is now the difference between surviving and closing. I've been through it in my own rooms, found a simple system that actually works, and I would rather use it to help other operators get back to profit than watch good places go under.

  • Managing Director of Applebee's Group, Borough Market
  • Founder of La Gamba, Southbank Centre
  • 11 years running independent London restaurants
  • First Class in Maths and Economics, Loughborough
Let's chat →

Message me on WhatsApp and I'll reply the same day.