【Customer Success Story】Hi Tea Café: How AI Manages Food Costs Across 5 Branches & 2,500 Monthly Invoices

Introduction

In Hong Kong's fiercely competitive F&B industry, maintaining profitability isn't just about front-of-house quality—it hinges on mastering back-end cost control.

Today, we share the success story of popular local chain, Hi Tea Café. Faced with a deluge of over 2,500 purchase invoices monthly across 5 branches, how did they use Coreway AI OCR technology to solve staffing challenges and turn passive data entry into proactive cost monitoring?

About Hi Tea Café

Hi Tea Café is a beloved local restaurant chain in Hong Kong, currently operating 5 branches. As the business expanded, the daily need to procure large volumes of ingredients and consumables to keep shops running smoothly grew exponentially. More branches meant a geometric increase in invoices from various suppliers.

Pre-Transformation Pain Points: Invoice "Gridlock" & Cost Blind Spots

Before implementing Coreway AI OCR, Hi Tea Café's back office was battling an "invoice storm":

1. Overwhelming Volume, Limited Staff
The team had to process roughly 2,500 supplier receipts every month. For a small office team with limited resources, simply inputting this data into the computer consumed all their time, leaving no room for analysis.

2. Severe Information Delays
The traditional workflow was: supplier delivers receipt to shop → shop collects them → batches are sent to the office. This process often took days or even a week. By the time invoices reached the office, information on ingredient price fluctuations was already "old news," preventing management from gaining real-time insights into purchasing across branches.

3. "Data Entry, No Review" – Missed Chances to Cut Losses
Staff tasked with data entry often focused solely on completing the work quickly, inputting numbers mechanically. Even if the unit price of certain ingredients spiked suddenly, or if purchase prices differed between branches, it was nearly impossible to spot. The lack of a review mechanism kept the company in a passive "pay-the-bill" mode, making it extremely difficult to control Food Cost effectively.

Before, we only knew money was spent. But we wouldn't know which ingredient got more expensive or which branch over-ordered until the month's end, or even the next month.

The Solution: Coreway AI OCR for Intelligent Recognition & Data Analysis

To break this administrative deadlock, Hi Tea Café adopted the Coreway AI OCR (Optical Character Recognition) solution, revolutionizing their procurement process.

1. AI-Powered Auto-Entry, Freeing Human Resources

Staff no longer need to manually type data from each invoice. Coreway AI OCR quickly recognizes key details on receipts—supplier name, date, itemized list, and amount—and auto-populates the system.

The Impact: Even facing 2,500 invoices monthly, the system handles them with ease, drastically reducing manual entry time while achieving exceptionally high accuracy.

2. Real-Time Cloud Sync, Ending Information Delays

Now, after receiving goods and invoices, branches simply scan or take a photo to upload them. The information syncs instantly to the cloud system. The office team can now see each branch's stock intake in real-time, no longer bound by the physical logistics of paper invoice delivery.

3. Intelligent Cost Monitoring for Proactive Management

This feature was the most significant for Hi Tea Café. The system transforms unstructured invoice data into analyzable insights.

• Price Monitoring: The system clearly logs the purchase price of every ingredient. If a supplier quietly raises prices, or if price discrepancies for the same item appear across branches, management is alerted immediately.
• Frequency & Quantity Analysis: It's now easy to track the usage frequency of consumables at each branch, preventing over-purchasing and waste.

Results Summary: From "Passive Entry" to "Proactive Management"

Through Coreway AI OCR, Hi Tea Café successfully maximized the value of its back-office operations:

• ✅ Efficiency Boost: Manages a massive monthly invoice volume with minimal human resources.
• ✅ Cost Transparency: Gains real-time visibility into ingredient price fluctuations, enabling more informed purchasing decisions.
• ✅ Data Accuracy: Eliminates human typing errors (Typos), ensuring precise financial data.
• ✅ Management Upgrade: Transforms staff roles from "data typists" to "data analysts," focusing on reviewing cost anomalies rather than repetitive labor.

The Hi Tea Café case proves that even SMEs with limited resources can access enterprise-level data management capabilities with the right AI tools, safeguarding every cent of profit.