Gross Profit
Contribution Margin: The Number Most Operators Ignore
Learn which dishes genuinely contribute towards overheads and profit.
July 23, 20256 min readRuben Ashworth · Ex-restaurant operations director
GP % tells you how efficient a dish is. Contribution margin tells you how useful it is. A 72% GP starter that sells 4 times a night contributes less than a 65% GP main that sells 40 times.
The formula
Contribution per dish = Selling price ex-VAT − variable cost. Total contribution = per-dish × units sold.
Why it changes decisions
It stops you cutting the wrong dish. Bestsellers with slightly weaker GP often carry the venue. A high-GP hero with low volume is fragile. Both matter.
A quick way in
Take last quarter's item sales report. For each dish, multiply units × (price ex-VAT − recipe cost). Sort descending. The top 10 are your business. The bottom 10 are your homework.