From Gut Instinct to Data Confidence: How Bubala Scales Smart with Tenzo

1. Introduction: Bubala’s Rise in Modern Hospitality

Bubala has become one of London’s hottest restaurant groups, known for its vibrant, vegetable-focused menu and warm, community-driven ethos. Founded by Marc Summers, Bubala now operates three sites and was recently named one of the happiest places to work in hospitality.

As Bubala grew, Marc and the team knew that maintaining quality, consistency, and transparency across multiple venues would require more than instinct; it needed the right data foundation.

We recently had the chance to speak to Marc about his data journey. Read on to find out more about Bubala’s experience scaling the business with a tool like Tenzo.

2. The Challenge: Scaling Beyond Instinct

Moving from one to two sites brought unexpected complexity.

“You’re never going to have the systems in place because you’re just such a one-site operation where you’re there all the time and you can communicate all the time.”

But by the time Bubala was opening its third location, they had figured out those processes and learned the importance of data visibility. He wanted a single source of truth that could help him and his team make decisions with confidence, while avoiding the inefficiencies of manual spreadsheets.

“We spent a lot of time working on making sure that we were ready for the next jump, so going from two to three was definitely not as challenging as one to two.”

3. Finding the Right Fit: Why Bubala Chose Tenzo

Marc’s background in finance made him naturally data-driven. As Bubala added more technology across locations, the need to centralise data became clear.

“The idea was just to have something that aggregates all our data because as we were growing, the more tech we were using, so we started looking at how we got all the information in one place.”

Bubala adopted Tenzo at the two-site stage, seeking a cost-effective and reliable way to aggregate data across platforms.

4. Tenzo in Action: Centralising Data and Empowering Teams

Initially used by head office, Tenzo is now embedded across Bubala’s operations.

“It’s historically been mainly head office, but we are now seeing the GMs and head chefs using it… it’s used on a daily basis by any manager on site for the logs (daily report)” 

The daily report has become part of the rhythm of operations.

“Everyone gets it on a daily basis… the email comes around 8 a.m., and that’s when I look at it.” 

This consistency helps team members start their day with the same data-driven insight.

5. Saving Time and Building Trust in Data

Before Tenzo, weekly meetings required hours of manual spreadsheet updates, which weren’t always correct.

“Those weekly meetings would be based on inputting data into a spreadsheet, and it wasn’t always right. So, then we were having to check whether it was right during the meeting.” This slowed down the meetings and took away valuable time from looking ahead. 

“The flash report that we’ve developed on Tenzo has definitely saved a lot of time and has also given people within the company access to data which they wouldn’t have seen before, which has been really important.”

6. Transparency and Team Buy-In

Marc has made transparency a core part of Bubala’s culture.

“We want to be transparent, and that’s got a lot more buy-in from the teams.” 

By giving managers and chefs access to Tenzo data, Bubala has seen stronger engagement.

“[With Tenzo], they are seeing how they can affect the bottom line. If, for example, they see spend per head is lower than the week before, they can give us an answer as to why that’s happened and what they’re going to do to improve that in the next week.”

7. Smarter Decisions: From Gut Feeling to Data-Led Growth

Tenzo has helped Bubala replace assumptions with facts.

“People used to say, ‘We sold loads of that last night,’ and then you look at the data and see, we didn’t. It might have seemed like it, but the data shows the truth.” 

This clarity helps teams make more informed decisions about sales, operations, and menus.

“It just helps the teams realise, ‘Oh, right, this is the truth, and this is what we can build on.’” 

8. Conclusion: Empowering Hospitality Teams with Clarity

For Bubala, Tenzo has become a daily companion that keeps everyone connected and accountable.

From the early-morning daily report to the weekly catch-ups, Tenzo now sits at the heart of Bubala’s data-driven growth, helping the team continue scaling with confidence, transparency, and purpose.