How Much Should a Restaurant, Cafe or Bar Budget for Disposable Supplies Each Month

Ask a restaurant owner in Tbilisi how much they spent on disposable supplies last month and you will usually get a rough number followed by 'but I'd have to check.' Containers, cups, napkins and bags tend to get paid for in small pieces, from the till, from a courier, from one invoice here and another there, so the real total rarely shows up anywhere.

That matters more than it used to. A dine-in guest might use a couple of napkins. A Wolt or Glovo order leaves with a container, a lid, a bag, cutlery, napkins and maybe a sauce cup. The more delivery grows, the faster this line eats into your margin.

Start with the cost of one order, not a monthly total

The easiest way to build a budget is from the bottom. List everything that goes out with each type of order: dine-in, takeaway, delivery, coffee to go. Then write down what each item costs you on your last invoice.

As an example only, suppose a delivery order leaves with a container at 0.50 GEL, a kraft bag at 0.30, cutlery at 0.20 and napkins at 0.05. That is about 1.05 GEL per order. If you send out 1,200 delivery orders a month, packaging alone comes to around 1,260 GEL. Use the prices from your own invoices, because the gap between a careful estimate and a careless one is usually bigger than people expect.

Compare it with what the order earns

Once you have the cost per order, put it next to your average order value. One lari on a 30 GEL order is about 3 percent, which most places can live with. One lari on a 12 GEL coffee and pastry order is closer to 8 percent, and that is where the margin quietly disappears. Some Georgian restaurants add a small packaging charge, others build it into the menu prices. Both can work, but you need to know your number before you choose.

Seasons move the number more than you would guess

A Tbilisi cafe in August is not the same business as the same cafe in February. Places in Batumi can double their volume in summer and go quiet by November. Weddings and banquets cluster in certain months, the New Year rush lands in December, and the ski towns, Gudauri and Bakuriani, run on their own calendar.

Instead of one monthly figure, set three: a normal month, a peak month and a slow month. Last year's invoices are the best guide. If this is your first year, ask a neighboring business which months are busy for them.

The small items add up

Straws, canape sticks, skewers, parchment paper, foil, tape, till rolls. None of them looks expensive on its own, so they slip out of the budget. Put them on a separate line, something like 'kitchen and counter consumables', and look at it once a quarter. It is often the line that surprises people.

How wholesale changes the maths

Running to a small shop every time something runs low costs more per unit and eats staff time. Buying by the box brings the price down, and since Yans delivers within Tbilisi the same day, you don't need to tie up cash in months of stock. Two to four weeks of the fast movers, meaning cups, lids, containers and napkins, is usually enough.

One practical point when you compare quotes: check whether the price includes VAT, which is 18 percent in Georgia. A price without VAT next to a price with it is the most common reason two suppliers look further apart than they really are.

A one-hour monthly routine

At the end of each month, pull your packaging invoices and sort them into containers, cups and drinks, napkins and paper, kitchen consumables and hygiene. Divide the total by the number of orders. Compare it with last month and with the same month last year. After three months you will have a budget built on your own numbers rather than on anyone's rule of thumb.