Hello Kitty Café

About Hello Kitty Café

Hello Kitty Café is one of the most recognizable brands inside the Nice Like That restaurant group. And honestly, it is easy to see why. Since 2014, the group has been building dining experiences that feel like more than a meal. There is food, yes, but there is also design, nostalgia, pop culture, color, and that little spark that makes people pull out their phone before the first bite. The idea was never just to serve something pretty on a plate. It was to create places where people could feel something. A little joy. A little memory. A little “wait, I need a picture here” moment.

Over the years, that idea grew into a real operation. Today, Hello Kitty Café runs with six locations, events happening at the same time, and guests who are not only looking for coffee or dessert. They are looking for an experience. That is beautiful, of course, but behind all the cute details, pink corners, themed menus, and happy customers, there is a lot of serious work going on. Restaurants do not run on charm alone. They run on people, schedules, shifts, payments, suppliers, managers, and about one thousand tiny details that all need to behave at the same time. Like a very adorable circus, but with payroll. That is where the internal operation started to matter even more. With variable shifts, growing teams, and new openings, the company needed stronger processes behind the scenes. The guest experience had to feel smooth from the outside, but that only happens when the inside is under control. For leadership, it became clear that manual methods were not going to support the next stage of growth. “We had to evolve if we wanted to continue growing with order,” shares Carolina Castellanos. And that is when Runa became part of the story.

What challenges were they facing with payroll management?

Like many companies in the restaurant industry, payroll was not a small side task for Hello Kitty Café. It was one of those processes that kept coming back with a new surprise every time. The internal team handled everything, from calculations to payment disbursement. That meant long hours in Excel, last minute adjustments, shift reviews, and constant questions from staff about payment amounts, dates, and details. It was a lot. And in a restaurant operation, where everything moves fast and people are spread across shifts and locations, payroll can turn into a very stubborn octopus. “Accuracy was our biggest challenge,” explains Carolina. That makes complete sense. In this kind of business, one incorrectly recorded shift can create a problem. One missed incident can affect a payment. One late adjustment can turn into confusion for the employee and more pressure for the team trying to fix it. Payroll errors are not just numbers on a screen. They are personal. They affect trust. They affect mood. They affect how people feel about the company. And when the team is serving customers every day, that internal trust matters a lot.

The pace of the business also left very little room for mistakes. Payment delays or calculation errors did not only create extra work for Human Resources. They could also affect the work environment, employee confidence, and eventually the quality of service. In hospitality, people feel the operation. If the back office is messy, that pressure does not stay politely behind a curtain. It sneaks into the day. It shows up in conversations, schedules, energy, and sometimes in the look of someone who has already answered the same payroll question eight times before lunch. The Human Resources team was spending too much time putting out fires instead of building stronger processes. That was the real issue. The old model had worked for a while, but the company had outgrown it. Hello Kitty Café needed a payroll process that could keep up with openings, shifts, events, and a growing team without turning every payment cycle into a guessing game with snacks.

How has Runa helped them in their processes?

With Runa, the payroll process changed in a very practical way. The team was able to automate calculations, receipt stamping, and payroll disbursement, which removed a major operational burden from the administrative area. Instead of worrying about whether payroll had already gone out, whether a final settlement had been calculated correctly, or whether one detail was hiding somewhere in a spreadsheet like a tiny villain, the team could manage the process from one place with more confidence. Information now flows through a single platform, with updated data and clear reports. That alone changed the rhythm of the work. Recording incidents, managing hires and terminations, and processing special payments became much easier to handle. Tasks that used to take hours can now be resolved much faster. For a business with multiple locations and moving schedules, that kind of clarity matters. It gives the team fewer loose ends to chase and more time to focus on the operation itself.

“Today, we know that every payroll is done correctly and on time, and that gives us peace of mind to focus on what really matters: continuing to create unique experiences for our customers”

That peace of mind is not a small thing. Payroll should not feel exciting. Exciting payroll usually means something went wrong and someone is staring at a screen like it owes them an apology. What Runa gave Hello Kitty Café was a process that felt more reliable, more controlled, and easier to trust. The change was not only technical. It also affected the team culture. When employees have more certainty around their pay, when information is clearer, and when communication improves, trust gets stronger. And in hospitality, trust is everything. The team needs to feel supported so they can support the guest experience. A restaurant brand can have the best concept in the world, but if the people behind it feel confused or unsupported, the magic starts to wobble. Runa helped make the internal side more stable, which gave the team a better base to keep creating the kind of experiences customers come for.

Why did they choose Runa?

The decision to choose Runa was not made lightly. Hello Kitty Café was not just looking for a platform that could run payroll. They needed a partner that understood the pace of a growing restaurant group. The team needed something reliable, flexible, and easy to use. A system that could bring order without forcing the business into a stiff process that did not fit the reality of restaurants. Because restaurant operations are not neat little boxes. They are more like a busy kitchen during rush hour. Things move fast, and the tools need to keep up. Runa offered that balance. It gave Hello Kitty Café a platform that was intuitive and dependable, backed by a team that could respond quickly and explain things clearly. That support mattered. A payroll solution can have all the right features, but if the team feels lost every time there is a question, the value disappears fast. With Runa, the company found structure without adding unnecessary complexity. In Carolina’s words, “From the very first moment, we felt we were in good hands. Runa gave us structure without making our lives more complicated. Today, we can operate with agility and without fear that a payroll error will cost us internal trust.”

For Hello Kitty Café, that is the bigger win. Runa helped them manage payroll with more precision, better visibility, and less stress. But it also helped protect something that matters deeply in the business: the human side. Customers come for the experience, but that experience is created by people. When internal processes are clear, timely, and dependable, the team can focus more on service, creativity, and the details that make the brand special. In a business where experience is everything, solid payroll is not just admin work. It is part of keeping the whole thing standing, smiling, and ready for the next rush.