When to Upgrade Your Tech Stack: A Framework for Scaling Restaurant Groups
Interview by Supy
Timing is everything when you’re growing a restaurant group.
Invest in technology too early, and you risk burning cash on systems you don’t fully use. Move too late, and you’ll drown in inefficiencies, manual errors, and unnecessary headcount.
To help operators get this balance right, we created this simple guide.
Tech stack maturity isn’t just about number of sites
A common mistake Mo Reshard (Restaurant Consultant & Founder of Preshift) sees is operators tying their tech upgrades purely to site count. But it’s rarely that simple.
“It’s not just about how many locations you have. It’s about how complex your operations are becoming - how busy your sites are, how big your teams are getting, and how much data you’re managing.”
Volume, headcount, and operational strain are often better indicators that it’s time to rethink your systems than simply hitting a magic number of units.
Site 2–3: Systems vs Middle Management
The first critical decision point often comes earlier than operators expect - around site two or three.
At this stage, many founders feel the pressure to add middle management, such as an area manager or ops lead. But Mo suggests thinking differently:
“One of my first clients was opening their third site. Instead of hiring another layer of management, they invested in the right systems and a systems-savvy team member. It gave them visibility, accountability, and saved them from unnecessary head office bloat later on.”
Key advice:
Before you hire more people, ask yourself if better systems could create the control and visibility you need.
Site 10–25: Automate Before Head Office Growth
As you scale into double-digit locations, the temptation is to start building a full head office team: finance, HR, ops coordinators, area managers.
But without strong systems, that back office can balloon - and bleed profit.
“Between 10 and 25 sites, a lot of groups start hiring more and more head office staff. But that doesn’t necessarily make you more efficient. It just increases the number of people who can make mistakes.”
Instead, it’s often preferable to invest in tools that automate critical workflows before you invest heavily in people:
Inventory management with accurate, real-time tracking
Labour management with forecasting and scheduling tools
Digital invoicing, ordering, and supplier integrations
The goal is simple:
Use technology to replace manual processes - before you replace them with expensive headcount.
Revenue-driven inflection points
It’s not just about site count. Revenue spikes often expose system weaknesses before location growth does.
If your average weekly sales per site are growing significantly, it’s worth assessing:
Can your current systems handle the new volume?
Are you manually patching problems (Excel reports, workarounds) instead of solving them?
Are you still relying on reactive management, or do you have real-time visibility?
“It’s not the number of locations that breaks you. It’s when your operations get busier, your teams grow faster, and suddenly Excel doesn’t cut it anymore.”
Watch for operational volume - not just expansion - as a trigger to upgrade.
What functions to scale first
If you’re planning your next wave of tech investment, Mo advises focusing on three key areas first:
1. Inventory Management
Real-time food cost tracking
Accurate stock control
Variance and wastage reporting
2. Labour Management
Forecasting vs actual tracking
Smart rota planning and compliance
Real-time wage cost visibility
3. Finance and Procurement Automation
Supplier integrations
Invoice digitisation and reconciliation
Credit note matching and cost control
“When you automate inventory, labour, and finance early, you can operate like a much larger group - with fewer people, fewer errors, and more trust in your numbers.”
Conclusion: Use tech to delay (or replace) head office costs
Growing a multi-branch restaurant group shouldn’t mean building a sprawling back office.
If you time your tech upgrades right, you can:
Delay expensive hires
Maintain operational agility
Improve profitability
Build a scalable, data-driven culture from the start
As Mo puts it:
“The right systems give you visibility, accountability, and confidence. They let you grow without growing your overhead.”
