New manager
Purchasing stock management hardware and software can represent a significant capital outlay for a small hotel or restaurant. It is also a daunting task if you are not familiar with the infuriating language of acronyms used in the computer industry.
Despite these initial drawbacks, sales of cellar management software are booming, and many restaurants say it gives them significant savings in time and money. But, does it follow that every operation will benefit from installing sophisticated stock management software?
If your wine list runs to a few dozen bins only, most cellar software will create an extra step in stock management, thus increasing your workload. Weekly stocktakes are keyed into a computer which then tells you what you already knew - you need to order another case of Chablis.
Simon Young, proprietor of Oxford's Cafe CoCo, the Daily Telegraph's Cafe of the Year, appreciates the quandary: "We have done manual stocktakes for the past four years with no problems." But he adds: "We are looking at computerised stock management now because we are developing more sites."
Controlling costs
Whether you have 50 sites with centralised distribution and a bonded warehouse, or a public house in a sleepy village, the main requirement from any system is that it saves time. But new cellar management software can do much more than just save time. It can also control shrinkage, produce management accounts, control costs to within pennies, and provide a wealth of management information - including instantaneous stock levels.
And that's not all. Cellar software can also provide ready-made tasting notes on thousands of wines, suggest when a wine is at optimal maturity, and link the purchase price to fluctuations in sterling. If you think this sounds too good to be true then you're probably right - not every system offers all these benefits.
Cellar management software broadly falls into three groups: software designed for the private wine enthusiast; software designed for importers and distributors; and stand-alone systems designed for the on-trade. Each system has advantages and disadvantages, therefore it is essential that all the pros and cons are evaluated before investing in a system which can cost anywhere from £40 to £40,000.
The simplest stock management is that which targets the private consumer. The two most popular are Bacchus (tel: 0171-793 9999, cost £40) and VinData (tel: 0161-973 0144, cost £32). Each offers an impressive range of features, including extensive information on different wines, regions, and producers, food and wine matching, and the opportunity to append personal tasting notes.
Neither system claims to be designed specifically for restaurant use. Features such as classification by country, region, sub-region, appellation, and type are clearly superfluous for commercial application. These systems, the least expensive in our survey, offer basic inventory capabilities and are ideal for an independent establishment which has an extensive cellar.
The next category of stock systems is designed specifically for the wholesaler or distributor. These include Vintner (01494 792539), Trinity (0161-406 6223), Oasis (0115 941 0996) and many others. Price depends on the level of specification, but expect to spend at least £2,000. Additional staff training can cost up to £400 per day.
Most of this type are PC-based but warrant consideration only if you ship a high percentage of your wines directly and distribute from a bonded facility. They are good for monitoring multiple locations and pricing tiers, and cope effortlessly with currency conversions, duty, excise, and the like. They are less efficient when interfacing seamlessly with existing on-trade EPoS.
The last group of cellar management systems is unquestionably the most useful, and include those specifically designed to meet the changing needs of the on-trade. They are often bespoke, often use their own hardware, modified for the client, and can cost up to £40,000. For large or multi-site operations they are indispensable, and the best examples meet the special requirements of efficient cellar management.
Nightmare
Faced with the administrative nightmare caused by more than 1,200 stock lines sold through a pub, restaurant, and off-licence, Susan Wilson, general manager of The Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow, installed a bespoke system four years ago. Her view is unequivocal: "I simply could not do without it."
This sentiment is shared by Ian Weddington, the assistant manager of Le Pont de la Tour's wine shop in London: "Our organisation stocks between 700 and 800 wines, all distributed to a number of sites from a central warehouse - it just would not be practical to handle that volume without integrated stock management."
Investing in such a system can make your operation more efficient in a number of ways. Key players in this market include Karpads (01483 208 388), Clarity (01722 422420) and Remanco (0181-891 6453), all of which will customise a system to meet the specific needs of the client. As sophisticated as this software may be, it is still advisable to make sure it meets your specifications.
The following features should be regarded as essential:
l Differentiate between locations where wine may be stored or sold, including the producer's cellar, in-bond, duty-paid, stockroom, kitchen, and on the floor;
l Set different values for each wine in each location;
l Drill down and across from an invoice or purchase order to a particular supplier or product;
l Explode menu items such as cocktails by ingredient, then stock will automatically be updated;
l Integrate stock and EPoS so minimum order levels are maintained and ordering is triggered automatically;
l Add additional sites with no complications;
l Provide user-defined management reports.
And where does the future of cellar management lie? Increased efficiency, of course, predominantly through the use of palm-tops and electronic data interchange (EDI). This will allow manual stocktakes to be input directly to a palm-top and downloaded to the main system. Suppliers will be notified electronically of consumption figures and deliver replacement stock before the client even knows they are running low. Although this may sound far-fetched, most software companies now admit that this is the future of stock management. n
