Inception Group Boosts Margins with Sage Intacct & Percipient
Sage Intacct drives dynamic planning and underpins profitability for innovative London-based bar and restaurant group.
About Inception Group
Founded in 2009, Inception Group is a creative and dynamic London-based hospitality company. Operating high-end bars, restaurants, and clubs, including Bunga 90, Mr Fogg’s, Control Room B, and Cahoots, its venues are renowned for delivering some of London’s most innovative, quirky, and immersive nightlife experiences. The group’s vision is to bring people together and entertain them with unique, memorable concepts.
Having reported a 9.4% year-on-year revenue increase in its latest results, Inception Group anticipates that group revenue will exceed £30 million in 2025.
Navigating a Challenging Landscape
With National Insurance (NI) hikes in the last budget adding further strain to an already challenging post-pandemic, post-Brexit world, the UK hospitality industry continues to operate under intense pressure.
“In this environment of rising costs, maintaining healthy margins requires a completely different approach,” explains Govind Raghwani, Group Financial Controller at Inception Group. “Dynamic planning, underpinned by real-time data, has become essential. The days of planning year-on-year, or even month-on-month, are gone. We now need the ability to plan daily, sometimes even hourly, to optimise profitability.
“Unpredictable factors such as tube strikes, extreme weather, and fluctuating footfall can quickly derail staffing and promotional plans across our venues. And while return to office (RTO) mandates are bringing more people back into London, the cost-of-living crisis means we have to work harder for our share of spend,” he adds.
Against this backdrop of rising costs, food and drink inflation, and waning consumer demand, margins have become razor-thin, and planning on the fly has become the norm, as Govind continues.
“If we know there is, say, a transport strike, political protest or storm incoming, all of which might impede footfall, certain venues may not be able to justify full staffing. Conversely, if there is a big sports game or event, we may need to capitalise on this to increase promotions or resourcing. Using Sage Intacct, we can evaluate variables, assess potential impacts, and make informed decisions to prevent cost leaks and maximise margins. That kind of live insight isn’t possible without a modern financial management platform.”
Percipient has been a hugely valuable partner throughout the deployment and beyond. Because they understand hospitality inside and out, as well as finance, they truly grasp the challenges we face, which is key as Inception Group looks to open more venues and continue its growth trajectory.
Looking Ahead
Sage Intacct has been truly transformative for Inception Group, streamlining reporting, improving efficiency, and enabling faster, more informed planning. Month-end reporting has been reduced from three weeks to just ten days, with this figure expected to decrease further over the next 12 months.
Next, the Group plans to work closely with the Percipient team to integrate Sage Intacct with its EPOS, procurement, and payroll systems, thereby gaining an even more comprehensive and real-time view of performance.
Using the system, each venue within Inception Group will be able to access data to inform key decisions, from staffing and budgeting to promotions and event planning, while adjusting variables to protect profitability.
This ability to understand how variables affect revenue across different venues will enable Inception Group to identify its margin ‘sweet spots’, judge the success of new initiatives, and focus investment where it delivers the greatest return.
“Percipient has been a hugely valuable partner throughout the deployment and beyond,” Govind concludes. “Because they understand hospitality inside and out, as well as finance, they truly grasp the challenges we face, which is key as Inception Group looks to open more venues and continue its growth trajectory.
“We can’t change the volatility that’s become the new normal for hospitality, but with the right digital platform in place, we can see, understand, and plan to a far more granular degree, and that represents a massive competitive advantage for us moving forward.”
Sage Intacct Industry Specialist
Inception Group’s journey highlights what’s possible when hospitality businesses replace outdated processes with a modern, insight-driven financial platform. With Sage Intacct and Percipient’s sector expertise, the group now plans with confidence, reacts in the moment, and protects margins in an increasingly unpredictable market.
If you’re ready to build a more agile, profitable future for your venues, get in touch today and discover how Sage Intacct can transform your operations.