Grand Forks, Nd - 20 July, 2005 -

When Melanie Church first bought Mason's Bar and Grill in Bemidji, she had a liquor loss of more than 30 percent. Now, with the use of a laptop computer, scanner, scale and a little expertise, that number is down to less than 5 percent. But that's only after she did a lot of research and started a national franchise, Bevinco, with her father, Rollie Church and David Delisle. "I do cardiac ultrasounds, so I knew this wasn't a place I'd spend a lot of my time," Melanie said of her bar. "So, I started to research different companies that dealt with systems for inventory and pour control." She found many systems, but she wasn't enthused that she would have had to do all the work herself. Then she found Bevinco, a franchise based out of Toronto, which stands for Beverage Inventory Control. There was just one problem. Bevinco didn't have a franchisee in the area. So, Melanie and her partners created Northland Bar Consulting, a Bevinco franchise. Now, she and David serve the Grand Forks, East Grand Forks and Crookston areas, and Rollie serves the Bemidji and Grand Rapids areas. The Audits One of the first things Bevinco does when they are called into a bar is a specific inventory audit. "We weigh every bottle open on the bar, and count every bottle as far as bottled beer," she said. "We also count the stockroom and weigh the keg beer." Bottles are weighed within one-thousandth of an ounce; kegs within one-hundredth of an ounce. Then, they compare all those weights and numbers with the receipt tabs on the sales receipt. Initially, three confidential audits are completed over the course of two weeks. With this information, they can tell a bar owner what's not accounted for down to the specific brand or ounce of liquor. "We show them what disappeared, and what potential revenue didn't show up in their cash register," Delisle said. Then, they have a meeting with the owner, and if the owner decides to continue using Bevinco's services, they have what's called a "coming out party." There, every item that was short in the audit is displayed on a table, so everyone can see just how much revenue was lost. Then, they work with the owner and staff to help eliminate those losses. But auditing is just the first step. "The core of our production is auditing, but this is a full-on bar service," Melanie stressed. They continue to audit the bar every week, and can work with the owner or manager to organize the stockroom and even make up purchase orders every week to make sure the inventory is at a manageable level. "What you're buying is the services of someone unbiased coming in and doing a full inventory that's going to be more accurate than any system you can buy out there if you do it yourself," Delisle said. In addition to the audits, Melanie said there are many things they've learned both through experience as owners and through national trends that they can use to help the bar owner eliminate those losses. They also educate the employees about tap beer, wines and how to pour beer accurately so there is less spillage. Stopping 'shrinkage' Although the audit may seem like a simple process, Melanie said bar owners they have worked with are often afraid that if they find theft during that audit, they'll have to fire everyone. But she stressed that their philosophy to educate the staff to be conscious of what's going on and often encourage rewarding employees off of the Bevinco reports. Delisle said "shrinkage" is the result of many things, but can include theft, overpouring, free drinks (again, theft), comp drinks, keg spillage, broken bottles, or even the wrong drinks being poured. Bevinco estimates the average shrinkage rate for bars and restaurants nationally at 20 percent of gross national sales - that's a range of 10 percent to 30 percent. "A well run bar where an owner has good help, he's still gonna be in that 10 percent range," Delisle said. Bevinco has a guarantee that they'll get their client's shrinkage rate to 5 percent, which can increase profits by an average of 10 percent. "Bar owners think these losses are par for the course," Melanie said. "I think it will revolutionize the bar industry."

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