Bevinco franchise-owner Mark Manson helps stop painful profit leakage from restaurants and bars by monitoring their most precious asset.

By Sarah Cox

Imagine throwing open the doors to your bar or restaurant and saying “Come one, come all; pay is on a sliding scale.” In essence that’s what many restaurateurs experience through theft, unauthorized giveaways and over-pouring of their most precious asset: liquor. Mark Manson of Bevinco says he can stop this flow of liquor losses and slow the attrition of lost sales to less than 5 percent through an auditing method developed about 20 years ago. Users report this proprietary method of auditing liquor sales has plugged the loss that restaurateurs experience significantly.

Kevin Clark, the operations director of Macado’s restaurants says the Bevinco method is “worth its weight in gold.” Macado’s has 16 restaurants; Manson is auditing liquor sales in 10 of them, and Clark says that despite initial skepticism, he is now completely convinced that the cost has been paid back in profits.

The loss that bars and restaurants experience is called shrinkage, and when this loss hits an average of 20 percent, then owners and managers are willing to listen to what Manson has to offer, especially in the current economy. Bevinco is a profit control and revenue enhancement service that involves extensive auditing and weighing, and then developing corrective strategies. Manson and his auditors will work with owners, managers, and staff to show them how to stop losses and enhance profits.

Manson conducts an initial silent audit that inventories the operation and inputs this information into Bevinco’s software. He does this after the staff has closed up for the night, in the wee hours when only Bevinco and the last drops of liquor are left. He analyses usage versus sales and pinpoints discrepancies, then meets with the manager or owner, and eventually the staff, to go over ways to improve their bottom line. “It’s a two-way street,” says Manson. “We provide a service, but you need to work with us and take steps to counteract losses.”

Another client, Awful Arthur’s uses its reports to provide objectivity and consistency. Restaurant owner Todd Lancaster says that when Manson first approached him, they had their own inventory procedure. “At the time I politely declined, but as time went on, it became something I felt that I needed to look into,” says Lancaster. He compared Bevinco reports versus Awful Arthur’s in-house reports and realized that Bevinco’s were “more thorough and complete; his software is better. In the restaurant industry Bevinco has a pretty good reputation for being on top of things and on the forefront of bar recipes.” And that, says Lancaster, is where Bevinco has really come into play.

With the software that Manson uses, he can provide a consistency in bar recipes so that Lancaster is assured that the same mix and ratio is being used in each of his four locations. “The recipe function was invaluable to me, having multiple stores- if I was going to sell an xyz shooter, I wanted the recipe to be the same. And, there is something to be said about someone outside lending credibility to it, too. This is well worth the money to me.”

Manson says that the return on owners’ investments should be two to three times what they spend for Bevinco services. If they are not saving that much, then “You don’t need us, “he says.

While Manson’s hours of operations are unobtrusive- from 2am to 8am- the results are not. He knows all about loss in restaurant and bar business- he had been on the management side of the industry for 18 years when he heard about Bevinco. He says that he become an auditor at first, and has now purchased a franchise that encompasses Southwestern Virginia. He now audits about 20 restaurants and bars.

Despite the recession, Manson is only three accounts off his business projection and intends to hire one to two more auditors to free him up for more sales and marketing. “My background made the transition easier for me,” he explains. He will work with barkeepers, teaching them how to measure shots more exactly and develop drink recipes with them,” he adds. “Here’s a toast to plugging sales loss ultimately, increasing profits.