Company takes on the invisible job of keeping the spirits flowing
There’s a lot more behind bar operation than bottles and booze. One company, Bevintel, has the nearly invisible job of making sure alcohol and its related profits keep flowing in the right direction. The company, a national franchise, has been featured on Spike TV’s “Bar Rescue,” a reality TV show that sometimes shames bar owners into cleaning up their acts.
It’s a little more low-key in the Upstate, said Bevintel franchisee Mark Miller. He and his small staff cover the geographical area from Hartwell to Rock Hill, and down to Greenville. Bevintel visits up to 25 clients a week, from small businesses to franchises with multiple bars on site. They do everything from count inventory to act as full-service bar managers, quietly shaping our experiences at some of the area’s most popular places to grab a drink.
Up Time
Bars conjure up images of nightlife; Bevintel’s hours are early and quiet. They wake up around 4 a.m. and hit the bars first thing in the morning. They have keys to some businesses. At other times they’re accompanied by the lone employee who lets them in. Despite the hours, Miller said the job is fun and he enjoys a behind-the-scenes look at the variety of businesses in the area.
Consistency Is Key
Part of the secret of accurate inventory is doing it the same way every time – the same exact way. Team members enter each business with a mental map of the place and a plan for how to move through it. Behind one particular bar, Miller always moves left to right, top to bottom, back to front. At another spot, Head Auditor Rakan Draz always moves through the back room in a specific pattern before going behind the bar to complete the exact same motions as he did the week before.
It’s like a choreographed dance, and a fast one. Almost in one fluid movement Miller snatches up a bottle, turns around to scan and weigh it, then swoops back to replace it and grab another. All the while he takes note of empty bottles and other anomalies.
“Each bar is unique. You get to know what’s out of place, what’s missing,” Draz said.
Crunching Numbers
It’s a somewhat physical job, but the real heavy lifting comes after the bottles are put back. Bevintel performs an audit and generates reports for every visit to show where and how money is being earned or lost. That can take up to two hours.
“It’s the difference between having the cash on the shelf or having the cash in the bank,” Miller said.
Every action behind the bar affects the bottom line. Over-ordering – a common problem – can cost 15-25 percent profit loss. Miller has seen “heavy” pouring, say an extra quarter of an ounce per pour, cost an extra $1,000 per week.
“If they ran their kitchens like they ran their bars, they’d be out of business,” Miller said. “Eyeballing is not a good method.”
Miller said growing Bevintel’s business is simply a matter of showing the business.
“If I can get my foot in the door, the numbers don’t lie,” he said. “Either they need me or they don’t.”
Secret Weapon
Sometimes their work for a company begins in secret. For two or three weeks the owner or manager might be the only person who knows that Bevintel is tracking the alcohol sales and creating perhaps the first clear picture of the bar operations.
“Anyone can clean up their act for a week or two,” Miller said. But bars don’t tend to keep organized on their own, and problem areas are quickly identified when people don’t know there is a monitor. After the clandestine period, Bevintel is invariably asked to stick around. At that point, they review their findings with the bar staff and counsel them on how to improve. Theft can be an issue, but more often it’s small oversights that add up, Miller said. Or sometimes the problem is employees who simply can’t get the count right.
The company also offers software that can provide real-time monitoring at the point of sale so employers and managers can understand their situations even faster.
Community (Bar) Service
Miller see Bevintel’s job as saving more than money.
“I know we’ve helped keep doors open, and that’s one of the big things for me,” he said. They’re also able to alert companies to trends they might not be aware of, such as letting Greenville bars know that a hot new product has been flying off the shelves in Spartanburg. They’ve had some customers for close to a decade and often operate as an extension of the staff. At its best, it’s a partnership everyone can raise a glass to.
