Simple POS integration – it’s Salt Meats Cheese’s secret ingredient!
What began in Alexandria in 2012 as a simple, family-run business importing salt, meats and cured cheeses has grown into a multi-state empire. After deciding to skip the middle-man and start cooking their own ingredients in-house, they hit it big with Salt Meats Cheese and set up shop in some of Australia’s most iconic neighbourhoods including a home base in Circular Quay.
Now, more than a decade later, business is still booming for Salt Meats Cheese. They’ve opened new venues with varied service offerings in New South Wales and Queensland – with a little help from Doshii’s streamlined app-to-POS venue integration.
Offering authentic Italian food with sterling ingredients served in a family-friendly atmosphere, the Salt Meats Cheese venues have quickly become a popular option for locals and tourists alike. They’ve even started offering cooking classes, so you can sharpen your pasta, pizza and Italian sweets-making skills to impress your friends!
Quality over quantity
When asked about the secret to the group’s success, co-founder and director Stefano De Blasi answers promptly. “Simplicity is the main thing,” he says. “Keeping it simple with good quality, simple ingredients. It never goes out of fashion.”
This love of simplicity extends into everything De Blasi and his team do, so the addition of tech to help cut the fat on admin time and money was a natural fit, leading the business to grow exponentially at just the right time.
“Everyone embraced QR code automation and everyone in the hospitality industry was suddenly ready for it. So a lot of IT companies started investing in hospitality and improving hospitality. And so, for us it was great. We were a little bit skeptical at the beginning about having QR codes and automatic ordering but then it was something that was really good and saved as well, time and effort.”
Salt Meats Cheese uses Doshii to connect
To keep ahead of the curve during COVID, Salt Meats Cheese adopted Square POS withUber Eats, Menulog and DoorDash delivery apps, all connected via Doshii’s integration. “Time is money in hospitality,” says De Blasi.
“When you need to spend an extra hour or five minutes… It all adds up.”
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Time is money in hospitality.
Stefano De Blasi
Co-founder and Director
Integration with Doshii between Salt Meats Cheese’s apps and POS means, for De Blasi, “saving time and mistakes. You can have staff just focus on service and not focus on having five different tablets and five different reports. Everything is consolidated into one, so it makes things a bit easier. Way easier.”
From frazzled to finesse
Prior to Doshii’s POS integration, simplicity in technology seemed a far-off prospect for the fledgling business. Multiple apps – including the venue’s own – meant multiple tablets and multiplied opportunities for re-keying orders. “We have different tablets, different menus and updating and upgrading menus, prices and photos, it was very time consuming,” explains De Blasi.
“It was something that I, as the owner had to do. Chase down the managers all the time and remind them of things. New products, new specials. They hated updating the prices, or the photos, or ‘did you check that tablet or that platform?’
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And now it’s all from one so there are way less mistakes from staff but also way less chasing, so I spend more time doing important things rather than chasing staff members and managers.
Stefano De Blasi
Co-founder and Director
Unexpected bonuses
App integration has also led to other unexpected boosts to Salt Meats Cheese’s bottom line, thanks in large part to putting ordering capability directly into the hands of customers. De Blasi notes that he has seen “bigger spends” from customers ordering via QR code directly from their table, adding that the ability to include photos of dishes and to highlight special offers has contributed significantly.
“I believe the individual spend per person went up because, instead of a customer looking at the menu and then having to wait for a waiter and then maybe having the waiter forget to explain the specials, they can see what’s available and order right from their table,” he explains.
The Salt Meats Cheese brand continuing to expand, with ambitious plans to widely extend their business throughout Queensland. “We have a very good product, which families enjoy,” De Blasi says, adding that these new venues would help service the state’s massive population boom of ex-Sydney-siders and Melbournites hoping for a cheaper cost of living as they move their families to the sunshine state.
The bottom line
As their business continues to grow, De Blasi and the team at Salt Meats Cheese group are taking full advantage of the streamlined approach to tech that has helped them expand quickly and efficiently.
With Doshii’s seamless integration ferrying data from his venues’ apps to their POS, things have gone from frazzled to finessed at Salt Meats Cheese. Because, like his favourite food pairing – the timeless combination of fresh-from-the-forno pizza and a glass of wine – it just works.