'It's a great time to be in hospitality' - Lightspeed

“It’s a great time to be in the restaurant business,” says Peter Dougherty, GM of Hospitality at Lightspeed. “And it’s a very good thing to be owning a bar during an economic downturn.”

Data from Lightspeed Restaurants detailing revenue across 10,000 bars, restaurants and cafes in Australia, says October was the most prosperous month for Australian venues to date. Revenue was 35.7 per cent higher than October 2021, and 7.8 per cent higher than in September. (Lightspeed started releasing its data in January 2020.)

Honing in on Victoria where lockdowns were toughest, the growth is predictably more pronounced but still stunning with average revenue for venues 60.8 per cent higher than in October 2021 and up 8 per cent compared with September. Looking specifically at bars in Victoria, revenue is up 90 per cent compared to last October and 9.5 per cent up on revenue in September 2022.

Even as cost of living pressures increase, venues continue to perform well. At least, for now.

Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Canada, Lightspeed arrived in Australia in 2019 when it acquired Kounta, an Australian cloud-based POS platform. It now supports 10,000 bars and restaurants around the country with clients including Lion Brewing, Carlton & United Breweries, Maybe Sammy, Nomad, Jane and Carlton Wine Room.

A sample of 10,000 is a pretty strong data offering and next year Lightspeed will roll out a data insights service in Australia, says Dougherty, when it will be able to share insights into consumer behaviour in the on-premise space. Lightspeed says it can segment data between pubs, bars and restaurants, identify average transaction spends at the table or bar, identify food and beverage consumption trends and who is drinking what with which food.

“In North America, economists come to us for data,” says Dougherty, “We are a bellwether for the global economy.”

At the moment Lightspeed’s data is being used to help its sales pitch in Australia. Two years ago, 8 per cent of venues using Lightspeed technology were using QR Codes. Today, 26 per cent of its venues are using QR Codes and those QR Code orders are a quarter to a third per cent larger than credit card transactions, says Dougherty.

Dougherty says that Lightspeed estimates that venues using its technology and QR Codes can reduce staffing costs by 20 per cent.

The cloud platform combines POS, contactless integrated payments, online ordering, advanced inventory and analytics. Lightspeed integrates with platforms like Mr Yum and SevenRooms. They are not their competition. Lightspeed connects the front of house with the kitchen and the payroll and can be used in multi-room venues and hotels.

“My biggest competitor is the cash register,” says Dougherty.

“This technology is not intended to take away from the magic of the restaurant,” he says. “Rather, it is about leveraging the technology to improve the guest experience and enabling the staff to focus on more important guest interactions.”

But, he says, when the data is demonstrating that the labour costs will go down and that the venue's revenue will lift, it makes for a pretty compelling business case.

Lightspeed Australia operates out of Sydney and Melbourne and is staffed by a team of 200 people.