Memphis - 13 June, 2003 -

Michael Mosteller's day begins as the Memphis nightclub scene winds down and the bars close their doors. Five days a week at 4 a.m. Mosteller is on the job, weighing, measuring and counting bottles of wine, liquor and beer for Memphis area bars. Mosteller is a local franchise owner of Toronto-based Bevinco, an alcohol inventory company whose to-the-last-drop inventory system is becoming more popular because it significantly reduces "shrinkage," the euphemism for alcohol that bartenders spill, overpour, give away or outright steal. "You still have human error, and it's not a perfect world, but even in the worst case scenarios, I can increase profit," Mosteller said as he weighed bottles of liquor in the dark, still smoky Club 152 on Beale Street. His client list sounds like a bar-hopping agenda - Blues City Cafe, Alfred's on Beale, the Gibson Guitar Lounge - and with the volume of alcohol the bars sell, it is no wonder their owners were concerned about shrinkage. "It's been a large improvement," said Jay Uiberall, general manager of Alfred's, which has used Bevinco since January. "The service has been very helpful - we can monitor much better even by shift to shift." Mosteller calculates - down to a fraction of an ounce - exactly how much liquor, wine and beer was dispensed by bartenders since his last weekly audit. The national shrinkage average computed by Bevinco is about 20 percent. Mosteller's goal, which he said he usually accomplishes, is to get that number below 5 percent, possibly saving the client thousands of dollars a week. The process is simple enough. Mosteller scans each bottle of liquor with a Palm Pilot, on which its name registers. Then he weighs each bottle on an electronic scale attached to a computer. The computer tells him how much the bottle weighed last time he did inventory, how much it weighs now and what the difference is. That number is then compared with the amount the bartenders charged. If there is a discrepancy, there is a problem. For beer, Mosteller counts the number of bottles, comparing them with the number sold. The whole process takes an average of three to four hours per bar. The process starts with three secret visits to a new client. Then comes a surprise meeting where Mosteller and the owner show the staff how much alcohol is being lost. "He gives us a complete breakdown of what's missing," Uiberall said. "It keeps all the bartenders in line, even if it's just with accuracy (of pouring)." Of course, Mosteller often runs into owners who think they do not have a problem, so he offers a money-back guarantee to increase a bar's revenue by at least three times his average fee of $200 per week. He has yet to return a check. "I was a nonbeliever before he came," said Ty Agee, general manager of Blues City Cafe. "I didn't think we needed (the service), and I didn't think there was a way to track (alcohol shrinkage). Now I disagree. You can't beat it." At Blues City Cafe, where Mosteller has done inventory control for about a year and a half, the shrinkage rate is less than 2 percent, and last week he saved the bar $961. "It's great," Agee said. "You can really tell a difference. You know every ounce of liquor that's gone." Mosteller started his franchise about two years ago, when he found information about Bevinco (Beverage Inventory Control) on the Internet. He had been training horses for a living but was tired of being gone weekends and wanted to spend more time with his two children. From the franchise fee to the computer equipment, starting the company cost about $50,000, Mosteller said. But business is going well, and he said he plans to expand. Mosteller is the only Memphis franchisee of American Bar Systems Ltd., which trades as Bevinco. The company was formed in Toronto in 1987 as a developer and marketer of liquor inventory auditing equipment and systems. It started franchising in 1990, and now has 200 franchisees in 16 countries. It has recently expanded in the United States. The franchise fee is $34,900. Franchisees also must spend an additional $4,000 or so on a laptop computer, two scales, a Palm Pilot for full-bottle data collection, a printer and a bar-code scanner. In return, they are given software, a protected territory and a week or so of training in Toronto on how to use the system and how to market for new accounts. Mosteller has one employee but is looking to add more as his client base increases. He has six clients but said he will add four more in the next month. He also expects business to increase because Bevinco is becoming a pubic company and adding on food inventory services as well. "A lot of the clients we do liquor for wanted us to do food, too," Mosteller said. "And now we have a program for that. I expect it will be much bigger than the beverage side."

This article has been read 2140 times .