Overview
Prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mindsett partnered with a popular fast-food chain to trial our energy monitoring product in a portion of their estate.
The restaurant chain understood the importance of reducing energy consumption from a sustainability perspective. Throughout the trial, they also became increasingly aware of the additional benefits such as cost-saving and more time for staff to spend where it matters, with customers. The Mindset team installed our unique asset monitor at three locations and gathered data over a number of months.
The Challenge
The key challenge that was outlined on entering this trial was identifying areas the fast-food chain could reduce its energy consumption. This in turn would further their journey to net-zero, enable employees to redirect time to customers, and unlock significant savings on energy usage.
Another obstacle in this trial was finding a way to compare energy consumption between sites effectively. As not all restaurants in the chain’s estate had the same physical characteristics or the same customer volume and sales mix, making it a difficult task to get an accurate analysis on energy usage between sites.
The Solution
To address the issue of comparing energy consumption between sites the Mindsett team trained a model to predict the natural energy consumption for a given restaurant. This was based on its known characteristics: location, age, size, and average sales volumes. From this model, we were able to compare the actual energy performance to the expected performance for restaurants in the same class. The result is a ‘Normalised Performance Score’ which fairly ranks a restaurant’s energy efficiency in comparison to its peers.
The Mindsett team was not only able to identify areas in which the fast-food chain was unnecessarily consuming energy, but they were also able to guide the client on how to effectively reduce usage. This was done by analysing data collected by the asset monitor, approximately 2.5 million data points per day, and providing the chain with actionable insights.
Benefits of the Engagement
Mindsett were able to illustrate to the fast-food chain a potential energy saving of over 18% across their 50-site estate. This figure was generated by comparing the normalised performance of the three pilot sites to the wider population. The data we gathered also showed that at the trial sites just five asset classes were accountable for over 70% of the overall energy consumption. Identifying the top offenders for energy usage allows the chain to formulate a strategy for reducing those figures.
At the end of the trial, Mindsett was also able to give projected figures if the restaurant were to install the technology across their 50-site estate on a three-year contract. The commercial summary presented to them directly showed that they could be looking at a monetary saving of £797 per month per site. This amounts to a £1.2M operating expense saving over three years. The chain would start to see payback after ten months and could expect an ROI of 116%.
At Mindsett we are dedicated to helping businesses on their journey to Net Zero. With our unique asset monitoring device we can track energy usage down to the asset level and deliver it back to you in an actionable format. By investing in IoT with Mindsett we can also bring predictive maintenance to your business within a year of installation. See the case study in full below and get in touch with us at info@mindsett.co.uk.
