Tohana

Tohana is the result of the merger of the two successful brands Toasushi and Pokevaïana, the result of Toane Group know-how. The brand aims to consolidate the growth of its 12 branches and double the number of franchise contracts to 15 by 2024 and 20 by 2025. OIivier Gérardin, Associate General Manager of the Toane Group, shares with us what he has put in place to achieve these objectives:

A new concept to develop mainly through franchising

"The advantage of Tohana is that we don't need to test the concept, as it's a fusion of existing know-how. We've reworked a short range in both segments and added a third: gyoza. Sushi is prepared in front of customers, using raw ingredients delivered each morning and prepared on site to ensure optimum freshness. Hot pokés and gyozas are made to order, mainly using ingredients of French origin. After the menu, we created the identity and a new architectural concept that puts the customer at the heart of the kitchen, offering a unique experience.

As far as operations are concerned, the Toane Group benefits from excellent purchasing control, with prices per kilo equivalent to those of the major chains. Tohana's strength lies precisely in the quality and freshness of its products, as well as the specific operational processes surrounding rice: washing, cooking, sushi preparation...

We've managed to combine premium positioning and a highly competitive food cost throughout the network, and there's still room to gain margin points by optimizing inventory management and operations. But above all, we need to equip our future franchisees with a tool that enables them to accurately manage their margins. 

The context is more difficult, with increases across the board: the minimum wage has risen by 4.2% in two years, and energy inflation has been catastrophic. Fortunately, sushi doesn't need much energy. The old business models were not tested in such a crisis. We've rethought our model in this context, and we're equipping ourselves with the best tools to optimize our operations as much as possible. That's why we've chosen Inpulse software to help our franchisees rapidly achieve their objectives."

Structure your network head to give yourself the means to achieve ambitious goals

"I learned a lot from the internal audit I launched when I arrived, particularly on HR and financial policy. We didn't have sufficient, precise visibility of our operating results. We used to wait until the end of the month with the balance sheet to see the discrepancies. Today, we have to manage our restaurants on a daily basis.

Inpulse enables us to optimize our bottom line to ensure the long-term viability of our business. It's a tool that makes a major contribution to the company's sound management and anticipatory decision-making. Thanks to AI, we know exactly how much to produce each day. Restaurants are keeping up with food cost and improving it by reducing losses throughout the processing cycle. 

If we can't control our margins, we can't control our future investments. Inventory is cash, and in times of crisis, we need to pay particular attention to WCR. Thanks to Inpulse's artificial intelligence, we're able to work just-in-time and keep our margins under control. "

Reassuring franchisees and motivating teams to perform 

"At the beginning of the year, we met with all our managers to communicate our objectives: gross margin, food cost, labor cost, known and unknown markdowns, google reviews, inventory accuracy...

Inpulse enables us to reassure our franchise partners at food cost, and is a considerable management aid. A first-time entrepreneur is dead if he loses too much and can't recharge financially on a personal basis. As a franchisor, we have a duty to provide effective optimization tools. Franchisees need to be helped to get to grips with management codes, so that they can get to grips with the game and improve their ratios on a daily basis. The more reassured they are, the better their management, and the higher their sales - it's a virtuous circle we need to create.

The advantage of Inpulse is that it federates teams around objectives. It enables a manager to understand how to order, to anticipate purchases, and the CFO to retrieve the data he needs for day-to-day control. Then, operational staff see the impact of their efforts, they understand where they are losing margin, and this motivates them. And finally, at head office, we transmit the data sheets, centralize the information, and highlight the network's best practices and shortcomings. If a particular restaurant is performing well, we draw inspiration from it. If they don't, we can see exactly where the problem lies and take immediate corrective action.

We're franchisors, we're in the centimier business, our aim is maximum optimization and to do that, we have to get everyone on board with cost control."

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