With digital orders dominating the restaurant landscape, kitchen efficiency has become more than an operational concern—it’s a strategic priority. That’s why Curbit uses Revenue per Kitchen Hour (RPKH) as a core metric to help enterprise restaurant brands improve profitability, streamline operations, and make smarter decisions at scale.
Revenue per Kitchen Hour measures how much revenue your kitchen generates per active hour of food production. It accounts for:
What you need to calculate it:
From POS, segmented by hour, daypart, or channel
More than just open hours—includes:
When food is actively being produced
Number of make lines running
Labor adjustments for breaks and downtime
For example: If a kitchen runs from 11am–9pm (10 hrs) with 2 make lines at lunch and 1 at dinner, your true kitchen hours = more than 10.
Unlike generic sales metrics, RPKH is operationally grounded—giving you a precise view into how efficiently your kitchen turns time and labor into revenue.
There’s no one-size-fits-all target. That’s where Curbit comes in.
Curbit doesn’t just show you a number—we help you understand what’s driving it and how to improve it. Each brand gets customized benchmarks based on:
All of this comes together in the Kitchen Efficiency Report — a real-time, visual scorecard that reveals exactly how your kitchens are performing across time, channels, and locations.
You also get leaderboards that show:
💚 Top performers to replicate
🟡 Stores with untapped capacity
🔴 Locations that need operational support
Store Location (names redacted)
Curbit dynamically manages kitchen flow to optimize throughput—without sacrificing guest experience. Here’s how RPKH drives real business impact:
Challenge |
How RPKH Helps |
Result |
|---|---|---|
|
Kitchen bottlenecks |
Reveals overload patterns |
Faster prep and fewer delays |
|
Inconsistent store performance |
Store-by-store analysis |
Better coaching and staffing |
|
Lost revenue |
Surfaces idle kitchen hours |
Capture more orders, avoid burnout |
|
Executive blind spots |
Normalized brand-wide view |
Smarter growth and investment |
Let’s walk through four real-world examples:
Current RPKH: $220/hour
Benchmark: $300/hour
Kitchen Hours/Week: 70
Annual Revenue Opportunity:
$80 x 70 hrs x 52 weeks = $291,200 per store
One underperforming store could leave over $290K on the table annually. Curbit helps close that gap.
Optimized RPKH: $310/hour
RPKH when overloaded: $250/hour
Overloaded Time: 15 hrs/week
Annual Revenue Loss:
$60 x 15 x 52 = $46,800
Curbit’s throttling tools keep operations in the “sweet spot” and protect revenue during high-demand times.
Current Off-Peak RPKH: $120
Potential RPKH: $180
Off-Peak Hours: 30/week
Annual Uplift:
$60 x 30 x 52 = $93,600
Smart orchestration during slower hours = higher revenue without increasing labor.
If Curbit boosts RPKH by just $40/hour across 50 stores with 10 peak hours/day:
$40 x 10 hrs/day x 365 days x 50 stores = $7.3 million/year
Even after platform costs, the ROI is clear: more revenue, better timing, and less chaos at scale.
Revenue per Kitchen Hour (RPKH) is a strategic lens for executive decision-making.
For CFOs, it delivers clear, store-level ROI insights that support better forecasting and financial planning. COOs rely on it to optimize labor and kitchen throughput, identifying where operations are thriving or underperforming. CEOs use RPKH to gain high-level visibility into operational efficiency across the enterprise, enabling smarter growth and resource allocation. Meanwhile, CMOs benefit from more consistent guest experiences and on-time order fulfillment, helping protect and elevate the brand’s reputation.
In short, RPKH gives every leader in the organization a clearer path to profitability, performance, and guest satisfaction.
Curbit gives enterprise restaurants a smarter way to run digital kitchens. With RPKH at the center, you’ll finally have the data — and tools—to improve performance, protect your teams, and unlock scalable revenue.
Let’s talk. - Kevin
📧 kevin.pidduck@curbit.com