What to do when milk goes up

Price rises rarely come with a warning. The invoice just says 6p more a litre, and unless someone checks, you keep selling at the old margin. Here's how to see what a rise really costs and what to do about it.

1. Turn the rise into a weekly number

6p a litre sounds like nothing. A cafe selling 400 milky drinks a week, using around 0.2 litres each, goes through 80 litres. That's £4.80 a week, or about £250 a year, from one line on one invoice.

2. See which drinks it hits hardest

Big milky drinks feel it most. A large latte with 300 ml loses more GP than an espresso, which loses nothing. Work out the new GP on your top sellers in the free GP calculator.

3. Choose how to respond

• Absorb it if GP is still on target. Not every rise needs a price change.
• Nudge one or two prices, starting with the drinks that use the most milk. 10p on large lattes often covers a whole milk rise.
• Cut waste first. Steaming the right amount of milk for each jug can save more than the rise costs.
• Shop around. Ask your supplier to match a competitor's quote before you switch.

4. Keep an eye on it

Milk, beans and butter move several times a year. Note the price on each invoice and compare it with the last one. If that sounds like a job nobody will do, that's the job Quokka does: snap the invoice, and it flags the rise and shows what it does to every recipe.