Patrons of Texas Roadhouse are accustomed to the “Legendary Food, Legendary Service” that the popular restaurant chain provides and, in at least one respect,  the competition is experiencing  that “Legendary Service” as the Louisville Kentucky-based company shares one of its most effective secrets for keeping the industry safe.

“Keeping the restaurant industry safe is good business for everyone,” says Dave Bujol, Texas Roadhouse’s Director of Loss Prevention.  That is why he routinely invites competitors to visit his restaurants to see a safety innovation that has significantly reduced robberies and theft throughout the more than 300 restaurants that Texas Roadhouse operates in the United States.
In 2003, Texas Roadhouse began installing Garda’s CashLINK cash management system in its restaurants and the impact was immediate and dramatic.

“Before we moved to the CashLINK system, we experienced more than 18 robberies per year in our 100 restaurants,” Dave recalls. “In the five years since we began using CashLINK, we’ve had only four robberies in more than 300 restaurants.”
CashLINK is a closed-loop system that controls cash from the point of sale to the bank deposit. Garda provides Texas Roadhouse with secured armored transportation, deposit consolidation, equipment maintenance and reconciliation information, as well as equipment for each restaurant location. Once money is placed in the CashLINK smartsafe, it can only be removed by a Garda Cash Logistics officer and the restaurant manager together unlocking the safe. Garda then transports the funds to the bank for deposit.

“Our company is a lot more than serving steak and potatoes,” explains Texas Roadhouse CEO GJ Hart. “It is about making a difference in peoples’ lives and that starts with us taking care of our people who then ultimately take care of the almost 5,000 guests per week per restaurant.

“The Garda CashLINK product is something that I’d recommend to anybody because I don’t believe we’ve had a real bad thing happen to us since we installed them system-wide.”

“Keeping our staff and guests safe is the most important contribution that CashLINK makes to our success,” Dave agrees. “When crime occurs, managers and staff quit in fear of their safety and you lose experienced personnel and the investment you’ve made in those people. Replacing a manager is a costly process. With CashLINK, our people and our patrons know we are committed to keeping them safe. That is a commitment we would love to see the rest of our industry make.”