Beyond the Sale: Helping New Owners Build on a Great Business

Published 3 September 2026

A successful business sale doesn’t necessarily end at settlement.

For me, a St Kilda café is a good example of the value of staying connected with purchasers after a transaction and sharing practical hospitality experience as they settle into a business.

The purchasers first approached me about this site. My role included some buyer-side guidance around the purchase and practical operational advice after settlement.

Since taking over, the purchasers have made a number of positive changes. Following the acquisition, I worked with them on presentation, menu structure, margins, suppliers and operations.

The credit for implementing those changes belongs to the new owners. They adapted the advice to their own vision for the business and carried it through.

Putting Their Own Stamp on the Venue

One of the first areas we discussed was how the café could be refreshed to reflect the direction its new owners wanted to take it.

This included repainting, modernisation and some light remodelling.

The result is a cleaner, more contemporary space that retains the character of the business while giving the new owners an opportunity to establish their own identity.

Improving the Menu — and the Margins Behind It

Another major area we worked through was menu structure and margin optimisation.

I provided recommendations around product mix, pricing and margin improvement, with the owners subsequently developing and implementing a refreshed food and beverage strategy.

This included a more strategic product mix, pricing better aligned with the underlying cost of goods and a stronger beverage offering designed to support improved margins.

For me, this is an important part of hospitality operations. A menu needs to work for the customer, but it also needs to work commercially for the business.

Getting the Supplier Relationships Right

We also looked closely at their coffee supply arrangement and the broader commercial relationship behind one of the café's most important products.

That included coffee pricing and rebate structures, product consistency, and the alignment between quality, brand positioning and margin.

Coffee can represent a significant part of a café's revenue, which means relatively small improvements to the commercial arrangement can make a meaningful difference over time.

Building the Team Around the Business

Another key focus has been establishing a stable and consistent team.

Since taking over, they have worked on improving staff structure and accountability, creating greater consistency in service and developing a more reliable operating environment.

The result is a business that is becoming less dependent on the owners being physically present every day.

For me, that's one of the most important measures of progress in any owner-operated business.

Advice Is One Thing. Execution Is Everything.

I can provide recommendations based on my experience in hospitality and business sales, but ultimately it's the owners who have to execute them.

And that's exactly what the owners have done.

They've taken the opportunity they acquired, listened to advice, made their own commercial decisions and continued improving the business.

The venue has been refreshed, the offering has evolved, margins and supplier arrangements have been reviewed, and they've continued building a team capable of taking greater responsibility for the day-to-day operation.

The Result? The Owners Could Travel. The Café Kept Running.

Six months after taking over, the owners were able to take a holiday in Antarctica while their team ran the St Kilda café.

That's a significant achievement for any hospitality operator.

The goal isn't simply to own a busy business. It's to create the systems, structure and team that allow the business to operate successfully without requiring the owners to be there every hour of every day.

The owners deserve the credit for taking the opportunity and making it their own.

For me, it's also rewarding to see the relationship continue beyond the transaction itself.

A successful sale gets the new owners through the door. What they build from there is what really matters.