With rent soaring, finding ideal (or even sufficient) commercial real estate can be the most challenging part of your business. For new businesses and established companies alike, these competitive prices have left many owners with smaller spaces at higher prices. In general, the square footage of many businesses has decreased.
Buying your dream space may feel completely unachievable, but you do not need a large establishment to run a highly profitable food business. If you are currently working in a limited space, all you need to do is make smart investments. Prioritising the most important machinery and opting for more compact models will allow you to make the most of your space.
Your facilities should not hold you back. They should fuel your productivity and profits. We will highlight some simple but costly mistakes that business owners often make when curating the layout and machinery of their food processing business.
Designing Your Workspace
Do not design your workflow around your space. When dealing with a strangely shaped room, or not much room at all, prioritising the position of your large equipment comes first. While this may seem like the only feasible option, it will result in slower productivity. Designing your workspace around you and your employees will result in a much more efficient kitchen.
When curating the layout of your workspace, centre your workspace around your daily tasks.
Create a space where you can conduct the majority of your frequent tasks with minimal movement or effort. Keep all of the equipment you need within arm’s reach and organised based on frequency of use. When applied to a small-scale deli or butcher shop, this can transform a frustrating space into a productive one.
To do this successfully, it can be helpful to map your workspace into three separate “zones”. Organise your employees into stations, where you can instate these zones around them.
Zone One.
This zone is the immediate area around you. This will be comfortably within reach without moving.
This is the zone for the most repetitively used objects for those constant, high-frequency tasks. In a deli or butcher shop, this may consist of:
- A central cutting board.
- A universal or frequently used knife.
- A portioning scale.
- Packaging materials, such as trays, butcher paper or twine.
Zone Two.
This area will still be close to the operator, but may require stretching or a step to reach these products.
Items in this zone will be frequently used throughout service, but not continuously. Placing these “secondary” tools here will keep Zone One clutter-free. You will increase your productivity by having them close but not constantly in your way. Typical items could include:
- Mechanical controls.
- Marinades and spices (wall-mounted).
- Knife racks (wall-mounted).
- Feeding trays of table-top machinery.
Zone Three.
This is the furthest perimeter within the operator's station. It will require minimal movement to reach, such as one step. This area should be designed for storage, raw ingredient sourcing, and preserving prepped food.
You should place any frequently used stationery or bulk equipment here that may take up more space. This area is designed for production after you have completed prepping in zones one and two. This could consist of:
- Refrigerators.
- Waste bins.
- Large table-top machinery.
- Floor-standing machinery.
Spatial Architecture
When your workspace lacks the physical space to accommodate your standard equipment, you need to get creative. If you are dealing with a space that is too small to accommodate the machinery, counter space and storage that you require, there are some quick fixes.
Using the height of your room.
There are specific safety guidelines that you should follow regarding the number of walkways and the stability of stacked items. However, integrating your storage onto your walls is the easiest way to clear up space. Utilising the space under your countertops will also boost your space efficiency. For example, opt for two smaller refrigerators that fit underneath your counter instead of one large one. By doing so, valuable floor space for your machinery will be free, and you’ll have a better walkway.
Using the vertical space outside of eye-level in a kitchen is very important. This space can span across the three zones, allowing you to use it for a vast range of equipment.
Multi-functional spaces.
If your space is much smaller than is ideal, then do not just use one counter for one thing. Create multi-functional areas where you can easily swap out tasks and equipment. Use your prep station to package orders throughout the day, after you have completed your prep. Tidying away your one-use equipment into organised storage will make this simple.
Mobility.
If your space needs to accommodate a variety of functions throughout the day, then investing in mobile equipment will be very useful. This way, you can move equipment in and out of your zones depending on what you need at that specific moment.
If you have limited space in your work area, but a large, separate storage room, this is ideal. Moving machinery into a storage space may take more time, but it will be invaluable in keeping your immediate workspace active throughout the day.
Health and Safety
When dealing with a challenging small space, you may be creative with the layout of your machinery. However, there are certain health and safety regulations that need to be considered to ensure your business produces safe-to-eat food.
The Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) legally require a strict “raw-to-ready” linear flow of ingredients. If you are exclusively processing raw meat, be careful of the cross-contamination risk in your workspace when creating multi-functional areas.
If your business covers both raw, processed and cooked ingredients, then ensuring a workspace layout that consistently moves from raw to ready-to-eat ingredients is vital.
What Equipment Is Worth the Investment?
When dealing with a small workspace and maybe a tight budget, it is very important to priortise certain equipment. Some investments will make your situation significantly more manageable, whilst others will take up valuable space for minimal profitable production.
The equipment you need will differ from every food processing business. We have broken it down into delis and butcher shops to help you get a valuable idea of what to invest in to benefit your business.
The Butcher Shop.
Butcher shops tend to be high-yield meat processing businesses. This means you need to maximise the throughput of raw cuts of meat into processed, buyable items such as mince, burger and sausages. For a business like this, prioritise investing in:
- Compact Bandsaw: A bandsaw may seem like an unavoidable consumer of space; however, most compact models use the same motor power and blades. This means you will not be sacrificing any cutting power while significantly saving space. If you have a large storage area, a mobile floor-standing machine will be perfect for multi-functional workspaces.
Shop the Mainca BC-1800 and the Italmans 72.
Choose the compact models wherever you can. A trap that many butcher shops fall for is investing in a large floor-standing meat bowl cutter. Unless your business is mostly processing emulsified products like pâte, an oversized meat bowl cutter will consume more floor space than the convenience it returns.
The Deli.
For deli counters to uphold a good reputation and have loyal, returning customers, your product needs to look as good as it tastes. Equipment that helps you to achieve precise cuts and uniform portions will increase your profits. Therefore, invest in:
- Compact Gravity Slicers: Meat slicers are a necessity for deli businesses, but you do not need a grandeur flywheel slicer to get great results. When working with a small area, investing in a premium but compact gravity slicer will take up minimal space on your counter. Many of these slicers are easy to operate and have built-in sharpeners that will speed up your production rate significantly.
Shop the Berkel Pro Line XS25 and Berkel Pro Line XS30.
- Integrated Scale-Label Printers: Making the simple switch to scale with an integrated label printer will not only be more efficient, but will also save an unnecessary second machine. Some processing machinery, such as slicers and mixers, can feature an integrated scale, which could save you a lot of space.
Shop the CAS CN1 Weighing Scale and the Berkel Suprema PEG 350 Auto Slicer.
- Vacuum Packers: If utilising multi-functional workstations is very important to your workflow, a vacuum packer will allow you to do all of your prep and portioning in the morning. You can then safely seal these ingredients and set them aside whilst you use the space for other tasks.
Shop our collection of vacuum packers.
Do not fall into the trap of buying multiple cheap slicers to separate your raw and cooked meats. By doing so, you will not save much more production time and will use double the space. Instead, take the time to clean the slicer between ingredients and invest in one robust machine that will last you throughout a busy service.
Checklist
Having limited space for your business does not have to limit your throughput; you just need a little extra planning. Before investing in any equipment, make sure you:
- Map out all of the equipment in your space before buying. This will let you ensure it works effectively within your layout.
- Prioritise multi-functionality (in both your workspace and your machinery).
- When buying large equipment, opt for mobile models.
- Use the walls and undercounter space for storage.