How do I make race days and the Border Union Show pay in my Kelso restaurant?
Carlton Scott | Scottish Borders Business | 12 October 2026
Treat each one as its own trading day rather than as a busy version of an ordinary one. A shortened menu, deposits taken, staff set for the peak hours and prices set for the day: that is the difference between a surge that pays and one that just exhausts the kitchen. At a UK average net margin of 4.2% there is no room to serve a crowd on ordinary pricing and hope the volume covers it.
Kelso’s calendar does half the work. Kelso Racecourse runs National Hunt racing between September and the end of May, the Border Union Show brings the farming county into town each summer, Civic Week fills July, and Floors Castle’s grounds and gardens send day visitors into the Square. The rest of the year, one of the handsomest squares in Scotland keeps a steady local trade going past the door, much of it older and remarkably loyal.
What is a good profit margin for a restaurant in the UK?
Thin enough that the detail decides everything. Sage’s April 2026 guide puts the UK average net margin at about 4.2%, with full-service restaurants at 3% to 5% and quick-service at 6% to 10%, on gross margins of 60% to 75%. At 4% net a £10 main leaves you 40p, which is why one dish costed wrongly or one table that never arrives takes a whole evening’s profit with it. Restaurants that survive the thin years are the ones that read those numbers weekly rather than at the year end.
Does an older clientele change how I price the menu?
It changes when they eat more than what they will pay. Around 30% of Kelso’s residents are over 65, which fills lunch and early evening rather than nine o’clock tables, and those customers return weekly when the food is consistent. Price the early sitting to carry its own costs instead of treating it as a loss leader that fills the room, and the quietest hours of the day turn into the steadiest income the restaurant has.
What we see in Borders restaurants is a menu that has grown by adding dishes and never by taking one away, with the rota built for the Friday it hopes for rather than the Tuesday it gets. Costing the ten dishes that actually sell, and staffing to the bookings, does more for the margin than a busier weekend.
What percentage should labour cost be in a restaurant?
Between 25% and 35% of revenue depending on service style, on the 2026 UK guidance, with full table service at the top of that band and counter service at the bottom. Above it, the cause is nearly always a rota written for Saturday and repeated through the week. Build each day from that day’s covers by hour, start the quiet shifts later, stagger the finishes, and move prep to the slow afternoon. The percentage falls without anyone losing the shifts that actually pay.
Can my Kelso restaurant get the licensed hospitality relief?
If you are licensed, check it. The Scottish Budget for 2026-27 set 25% non-domestic rates relief for eligible licensed hospitality and music venues, alongside 15% for retail, hospitality and leisure generally, with a combined cap of £110,000 per business. Confirm your rateable value and which band you are in with Scottish Borders Council. Then look at the menu, because most restaurants are losing more to mispriced dishes in a quarter than the relief is worth in a year.
How much does a business coach cost in the Scottish Borders?
Between £500 and £3,500 a month plus VAT for one-to-one coaching, depending on the coach’s experience, according to Alan Wick’s May 2026 guide to UK coaching fees, and the bill runs for as long as the coaching does. What moves the price of any advice is how much of the work the adviser does for you: coaching talks you through it, and a fixed-fee diagnose-and-fix piece of work goes through the numbers with you and makes the changes. The Profit Clarity Framework is the second kind: a fixed £1,495 + VAT for 30 days on your restaurant’s real numbers, and nothing after that.
For a Kelso restaurant the 30 days usually start with the surge days and the early sitting, because both are busy and both are usually underpriced.
Where can a Kelso restaurant owner get help with the numbers?
That’s exactly what the Profit Clarity Framework™ does: a 30-day diagnose-and-fix process on your real numbers at the fixed fee above, built for owners who are on the pass every service, and it leaves you with a more profitable restaurant. We’ve set out how it works for the town’s restaurants on our Kelso restaurant page, including how little of your time it takes and what we’d need to start. There’s also an overview of the framework for restaurants, and the same numbers at work in a commuter town in our Galashiels café article, and the same numbers across the street in our Kelso beauty salon article. Most clients who commit to the framework and follow our recommendations see a full return on the fee within 90 days.
Photo © David Hawgood, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph (geograph.org.uk/photo/5790535)