From the founder of Restaurant Secrets Inc. comes Cornerstone61 Consultancy – the region’s first and only F&B firm designed to offer all-round support for continued success in mature restaurants through business strategy, operating and marketing solutions
Born determined to help restaurants succeed, Cornerstone61 Consultancy (C61C) has launched in the UAE today. A new, next-gen F&B firm established by Gabrielle Mather, the founder and CEO of Restaurant Secrets Inc. – a company dedicated to creating and launching new restaurants, C61C was built to support entrepreneurs and existing, mature F&B businesses in achieving continued success through business strategy, operating and marketing solutions.
After opening over 300 new restaurants across the UAE since 2001 and continually being asked, “what does it take to make a restaurant successful?”, Mather realised a gap in the market for restaurants requiring post-opening support to help them survive and thrive through the first crucial, difficult year, and beyond.
“Over the last two decades at Restaurant Secrets, we have built brands from blueprint to incubation, developing our clients’ dreams with passion, cement, mortar and our expertise. C61C promises to take the journey of success into the next level post-opening. It specialises in 360 degrees’ solutions support to critical key areas of attention while running your restaurant – operations, financials and marketing,” said Mather.
C61C offers complete solutions related to everything a great restaurant needs to operate successfully – full marketing solutions including social media, digital marketing, brand development, websites, brand audits and strategy, in addition to financial management and full operational management with brand guardianship programs.
“All our engagements are built on trust and a level of mentorship. We bring skin into the game by getting involved in the solution stage and not just in auditing problems. C61C has been a dream of mine for the last three years, and the pandemic only re-enforced the urgency of the need for a firm of this caliber that strategizes our expertise into real solutions for our clients,” Mather commented.
Adding that having a strategic partner on board who understands F&B and provides a synergistic, value-based solution to operating, marketing and strategizing growth can help more restaurants survive and make a success of their first year in operation, and for many more years to come.
“Our solutions are always based on applying knowledge and mentoring entrepreneurs to lead independently. The learning curve of the first year with our expertise behind them prepares them for the sometimes rough ride in this competitive landscape, and the ability to handle this daunting challenge with the right tools. After having conceptualized over 300 concepts, feasibility studies and assisted hundreds of established restaurants achieve improved operations and profits, I have learned through real-life case studies and rising from every challenge that our industry has faced over the last two decades, including the recessions of 2008 and 2018, and the pandemic of 2020, that success is an intentional journey of learning fueled with grit, strategy, faith and wise alliances”.