Crafted within a working pub.Designed for restaurants, bars, and cafes.
Retriever is the decision layer for independent hospitality. It brings supplier invoices, recipes, stock and sales together, then shows you what has changed, what matters and the practical options for what to do next.
Talk to Retriever
Have real conversations with your business to understand what’s happening. Ask plain questions about stock, costs, service, labour and estimated profitability, or talk through your stocktake. Retriever reads across the records you already use and gives you a clear answer with the evidence behind it.
Stock drift example selected.
Draught lager shows the largest variance this week, based on deliveries, sales and the latest completed stock count.
Example coverage: records included through the latest completed stock count.What if your venue could answer back? Ask about stock, revenue or estimated profitability, in plain English. You can talk through your stocktake. Retriever prepares each count. You confirm it, review the tally, then submit. Where is stock drifting? Draught lager shows the largest variance this week, based on deliveries, sales and the latest count. Why is revenue down? Lunch is eight per cent behind last week, mostly between Tuesday and Thursday. How is profitability changing? Estimated gross margin is down one point seven, mainly from supplier prices not yet reflected on the menu. Every answer shows the records used, what is missing and where a manager needs to decide. Ask your venue what’s happening. Retriever. The art of hospitality, made clearer.
Decision layer technology
Retriever sits between the systems that record what has happened and the people accountable for what happens next. It retrieves the relevant evidence, adds venue context and makes the next decision clearer—without taking it away from your team.
Read Peter's thinkingDecision layer
Manager action
Where Retriever helps
Price rises, usage changes and a busy diary tend to show up in different systems. Retriever brings the relevant records together so teams can deal with them earlier.
Supplier invoice to recipe cost
Retriever matches an invoice change to the recipes and menu items it affects, before a slipping margin becomes this month’s surprise.
Bookings, prep and cover
Bookings, stock and rotas are checked together so kitchen and floor teams can adjust before guests arrive.
Stock count to real usage
When stock use moves, Retriever shows the sales, recipes and count records behind it so the next check is clear.
It started at The Old Dog
Retriever was created when Ross, after trying a string of tools that each solved only one part of the problem, asked Peter to build an AI-driven system for independent venues. Peter wanted it to connect the whole working journey—from bookings and ordering through to stocktaking, inventory and recipe management—without forcing venues to replace the tools they already trusted. They shaped and tested it together at The Old Dog, a working Derbyshire pub.
Keep the tools your team knows
Start with one live problem
We agree one important question, look at the source records that answer it and show how Retriever could help. No long software project.
Straight answers
No. You can keep the systems you already rely on and Retriever will work alongside them. If you prefer, Retriever also has its own EPOS and finance systems. Either way, your team stays in control.
No. Retriever can prepare a recommendation, but your team reviews the records and decides what changes. You set the boundaries.
We agree one important operating question, look at the practical source records and show the most useful place to start.
Independent pubs, cafés, restaurants and clubs. It helps managers stay on top of supplier cost, stock, recipes, sales, labour and service.
Start with the issue you need to fix