Sales and stock reports just some of features of Lisini Pub Co’s EPOS
TECHNOLOGY is playing an increasingly important role in Lanarkshire-based Lisini Pub Co.
From the comprehensive group website showcasing its four outlets and their individual and diverse offers, which span food and drink, weddings and corporate functions, hotel accommodation and a nine-hole golf course, to online booking and gift cards and social media activity, the family-run firm is utilising technology in a number of ways to market the business.
And it’s not just in a front-of-house capacity that technology is impacting positively on the group, whose outlets include Angels and The Castle Rooms, both in Uddingston, Dalziel Park hotel and golf course on the outskirts of Motherwell and The Parkville in Blantyre.
The firm has invested in an EPOS system from Zonal in recent years, which Lisini’s purchasing GM Alex Quinn said aids the smooth and efficient running of each of the four outlets, and the group as a whole, which employs 250 staff.
It’s a system that Lisini has built up over the nine years since it first introduced Zonal EPOS at its Angels bar and restaurant business in Uddingston.
“We had a system in place but as time went on and technology developed so quickly, it was time to change it,” Quinn explained.
“We called Zonal for a demo and basically did our own case study in Angels. We ran it in here for about a year and it worked really well for us.”
It marked the beginning of a process that saw Lisini roll out Zonal EPOS to all four outlets.
The system enables Lisini to access detailed stock and sales information and reports for each of the outlets at the touch of a button; it provides a basic breakdown of food and wet sales, each of which can then be broken down by category and product, displaying details like GP and yield.
Quinn said the features give managers a “very clear idea of how their venue is running” and are used by the group’s chefs when making changes to menus.
The system is also designed to be easy for staff to use, with Quinn choosing different layouts for the touch screen to suit the style of outlet.
“The Parkville is a good example,” he said. “The bar does food but it’s mainly wet sales so there’s a bigger space on the screen for drinks compared to the restaurant, where the bigger space is for food. I know all of the outlets really well and I consult with the managers to see what their needs are and then I programme it.
“We’ve got a lot of world beers in just now for the World Cup so I can just go in and effectively change the ‘buttons’ depending on what we’ve got going on.
“With cocktails, we’ve programmed in the recipes so it will pull off 25ml of gin, 50ml of whatever fruit juice it is, for example. It gives a very accurate picture of stock and tells us how much each cocktail costs us to make and so on. From a stock take point of view it’s much easier and if there are any problems we can spot them much more easily and quickly.”
Detail like this enables head office to ensure each outlet is operating as efficiently and profitably as possible and make any adjustments quickly, easily and, if necessary, remotely.
Quinn said the cloud-based system, for which Lisini purchased the hardware and pays Zonal a monthly contract fee for the software, plays a key role in the business.
“We’ve had Zonal in for nine years now and it’s great; I’ve yet to find a report we can’t do something with,” he added. “They keep adding different programmes and features, which are updated overnight when we’re not trading, and I work closely with Dave Banks at Zonal and he keeps me up to date. Lisa [Wishart, managing director of Lisini] can dial in remotely from anywhere at any time and see how the business is running.
“It gives you a snapshot anytime, anywhere of what each outlet is doing. I don’t think we could be without it.”
