Makar’s Mash Bar pays 80+ staff in under two hours
Makar’s Mash Bar is a much-loved Edinburgh restaurant known for elevating traditional Scottish comfort food. Tucked into the Mound, the business has expanded from just 7 staff to 73 staff who dish out 750kg of potatoes a day during peak season.
With growing demand came growing complexity - particularly around payroll. Each summer, staff numbers swell to 80 or more. And with that many people relying on timely wages, outdated- payment processes were simply not fit for purpose.
“It would take more than a day, day and a half, to pay 80 staff. You’d have to log into the bank, open the app, do face ID, approve one payment, then start again. For each employee. We’d have needed a full-time person just for payments,” says owner John Stamp.
John, who manages the business and runs the accounts, knew something had to change.
1-click
4-5 days
83%
Scaling up without scaling admin
Having previously run a global software company, John is no stranger to the power of smart systems. He’s long used BrightPay to manage payroll. But what transformed the game was discovering BrightPay’s integration with Modulr — an embedded payments platform that connects directly to payroll software.
“The integration between BrightPay and Modulr is one of the best things for us,” says John. “It means I can pay everyone in a couple of hours, from within BrightPay — no separate logins, no approvals one-by-one. It’s easy”
Modulr’s real-time payments and batch processing mean John can now process payroll in just an hour or two — even for 80+ employees. That’s a far cry from the multi-day slog he faced before.
“The integration between BrightPay and Modulr is one of the best things for us, It means I can pay everyone in a couple of hours, from within BrightPay — no separate logins, no approvals one-by-one. It’s easy."
Getting around the bank's £50k daily limit
Before Modulr, payments were also restricted by the bank’s; £50,000 daily payment limit — a huge barrier when total staff wages could easily exceed £100,000 per month.
“We’d have to stagger payments over multiple days, which just isn’t acceptable. Staff don’t understand why one person’s been paid and someone else hasn’t — nor should they. Now, I just preload the Modulr account with the full amount and pay everyone in one go.”
This solution has enabled Makar’s Mash Bar to continue growing without needing to change bank or adopt a more complex corporate banking solution. Modulr lets small companies behave like bigger companies.
“It’s removed a major bottleneck for us.”
Ready for the next phase of growth
Today, Makar’s Mash Bar operates three adjacent venues and is preparing to open a fourth — bringing the total headcount up to around 120 employees. That’s a scale of operation that would once have demanded dedicated payroll or admin support.
But not anymore.
“We simply wouldn’t have been able to expand to this level if we had to manage payroll manually. Modulr saves us from needing to hire someone just to do payments — that’s four or five days of admin work a month that we’ve eliminated.”
And the time saved isn’t just about cost — it’s about flexibility. John and his team can now finalise payroll as late as the night before payday. No need to lock down figures days in advance or worry about last-minute adjustments.
“If someone forgets to include holiday pay or if there’s a sick day, we can fix it right away. With outsourced payroll, you'd need to send everything off three days before. There’s no room for error.”
“We simply wouldn’t have been able to expand to this level if we had to manage payroll manually. Modulr saves us from needing to hire someone just to do payments — that’s four or five days of admin work a month that we’ve eliminated.”
A payment platform built for hospitality and growth
Modulr’s impact goes beyond efficiency. It gives Makar’s Mash Bar the confidence and agility to hire flexibly — even in a high-turnover, fast-paced industry like hospitality.
“We take on a lot of seasonal staff. Some are only with us for a few weeks. Modulr makes that manageable. We’re not limited by admin anymore.”
John’s journey from software entrepreneur to restauranteur is an unexpected one — but one that shows how digital solutions can make hospitality sustainable, even on Edinburgh’s busy Mound.
“I built and sold a travel insurance software company. After I sold it, I wanted a new challenge — something real. But hospitality is brutal. If you don’t get the systems right, you won’t survive.”
For John, Modulr is part of that system.
“It sounds simple, but if we didn’t have Modulr, I genuinely don’t know how we’d manage payroll at this scale.”
Make payroll the easiest part of your week
If your business is growing but your systems can’t keep up, it’s time to rethink payroll. Modulr helps you make real-time payments, directly from your payroll software — with no daily limits, no manual approvals, and no delays.
Save hours. Reduce stress. Scale with confidence.
