The Brewery Labor Key Metrics Tracker provides a simple way to monitor labor efficiency across three key areas of the business:
- Taproom Front of House (FOH)
- Kitchen / Back of House (BOH)
- Brewery Production
Each month, enter your sales, labor dollars, labor hours, and production volume.
The tracker calculates key metrics such as labor cost as a percentage of sales, sales per labor hour, and production labor hours and dollars per BBL.
Compare Your Numbers Four Ways
A labor percentage by itself doesn’t tell you much. The value comes from putting the number in context.
The tracker allows you to compare:
Actual vs. Historical: Are we more or less efficient over time?
Actual vs. Industry Benchmarks: How do our results compare to general brewery and hospitality guidelines?
Actual vs. Budget: Are we hitting the labor targets we established in our financial plan?
Labor % vs. Productivity: Is labor high because we’re overstaffed or because sales are lower than expected?
A Note About Industry Benchmarks
Industry averages are useful, but they are guidelines, not rules.
Labor costs can vary significantly based on your market, brewery location, local wage rates, service model, food program, brewery size, package mix, and the percentage of beer sold through the taproom versus wholesale.
That’s why one of your best benchmarks is often your own historical performance.
Start with the industry ranges, look at where you’ve been historically, establish a realistic target for your brewery, and then track it consistently.
The goal to understand what good labor efficiency looks like for your business and get a little better at it over time.
Watch the short explainer video below and download the brewery labor tracker here.
