CUSTOMER STORY
Powered by Sauce, Cuban Guys is able to serve customers at an affordable rate
Jorge Llapur, co-founder and managing partner at Cuban Guys, opened the doors to their first restaurant in Hialeah, FL in 2012. Ten years later, they have five locations in South Florida, serving customers with a curiosity for exploring Cuban cuisine.
LOCATION
5 Branches, Miami, FL
CUSTOMER SINCE
2019
RESULTS
140%
Increase in Online Sales in 12 months
Jorge Llapur
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Cuban Guys
“If I have 10 different orders going to 10 different places, Sauce can get me 10 different drivers and execute those orders flawlessly.”
Pivoting the Business
When the pandemic hit in 2020, restaurant owners had to pivot overnight in order to survive. Dining in was no longer an option, so a strategic delivery & pickup operation was imperative. Before 2020, dine in customers made up 70% of Cuban Guys’ business. By the end of March 2020, delivery & pickup made up 100% of their business. “The Pandemic taught us… how to adjust our business model to be able to serve our guests” explains Jorge.
Delivery Fleet
When coming up with a pickup & delivery operation strategy, there are lots of factors to consider. Cost, liability, workforce, bandwidth, and marketing, to name a few. All of which are costly factors to consider. As Jorge was weighing out these costs, he realized a huge benefit of Sauce’s services, “With Sauce having the ability to have drivers at your fingertips on a per order basis rather than having a driver on payroll is very… beneficial for the P&L.” Managing a delivery fleet can be a full time job in itself, and a costly one at that. But with Sauce, “if I have 10 different orders going to 10 different places, Sauce can get me 10 different drivers and execute those orders flawlessly.”
Beyond just the delivery of the order, Sauce’s customer service arm is a huge time saver for the team at Cuban Guys. “When there is any problem with delivery: a late driver, a missing order or missing item, a refund requested, we get the support of Sauce to be able to deal with that and not having to spend an hour on the phone,” explains Jorge. Sauce makes the entire operation seamless. The online orders integrate into their POS, a delivery driver is automatically dispatched, and the Cuban Guys team is able to focus on what they do best; cooking delicious Cuban food.
Bottom Line
Sauce’s commission free model has made offering pickup & delivery affordable for Cuban Guys. No matter how large the order, there is only a small flat fee per order. “With the rising cost of food… [and] labor, the profit margins of a restaurant are very very thin… Sauce allows us to serve our customers at a very affordable rate,” says Jorge.
Since launching with Sauce, Cuban Guys has seen a 140% increase in takeout & delivery sales in 2021. Jorge hopes to continue this trend and eventually convert all their third party customers into direct customers through Sauce.
“My tip for other restaurant owners: learn how to do delivery, figure out the way of doing your order taking and delivery with a Sauce-like system,” says Jorge.