Does the Borders Railway bring evening diners into Galashiels?

Carlton Scott | Scottish Borders Business | 29 October 2026

It brings people in, but the timetable decides whether they eat with you. Transport Scotland’s evaluation found 39% of Borders Railway users travelling for a day trip or an overnight stay. Day visitors eat early and commuters arrive from late afternoon, so a kitchen that opens at six misses both. Set the service hours by the trains, and price an early menu that carries its own margin.

Galashiels has a weekday trade most Borders towns would envy. Borders College’s Galashiels campus and Heriot-Watt’s textiles school put students and staff in the centre through the week, and the Great Tapestry of Scotland brings visitors to Tweedbank and the town. The station’s own footfall rose 19% in a year. That’s three kinds of customer, each spending differently at a different time of day, and most kitchens price and staff for all of them as though they were one.

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. The restaurants that survive the thin years read those numbers every week, and don’t wait for the year-end accounts.

Is Deliveroo worth it for my restaurant?

For covers you’d never otherwise serve, sometimes; as a habit, rarely. Commission runs to around a third of the order value, and restaurant owners have gone public about what that leaves on a £30 delivery. Price a separate delivery menu that carries the fee, so your dining-room prices aren’t going out through somebody else’s app. Keep the best-margin dishes for the room. Then count what each channel earns per order, and don’t go by what it adds to the turnover figure.

In Borders restaurants, we usually see a menu that’s grown dish by dish with nothing ever taken off, and a rota built for a busy Friday that gets run on a quiet Tuesday. 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. If you’re 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.

How do I turn January into a busy month?

Make it a cheaper month to run before you try to make it a busier one. The trade’s January advice is consistent: shorten the menu and close the days that lose money, then give regulars a reason to come in midweek. Galashiels has students and commuters that smaller Borders towns don’t, so a small, well-priced weekday offer fills tables that would otherwise sit empty with the heating on. Work out last January day by day before deciding anything.

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. The bill runs for as long as the coaching does. The price of any advice comes down to 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, with nothing to pay after that.

In Galashiels the first change is usually the service hours, because people are in the town centre at times most kitchens aren’t open.

Where can a Galashiels restaurant owner get help with the numbers?

Carlton Scott’s Profit Clarity Framework™ is a 30-day diagnose-and-fix process on your real numbers at the fixed fee above. It’s 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 Galashiels 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. For the same numbers at work in a commuter town, read our Galashiels café article, and for a business across the street, our Galashiels 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 © M J Richardson, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph (geograph.org.uk/photo/5255123)