Belle Harbor native Robert Allen has recently purchased a Bevinco franchise, with plans of bringing the bar inventory control system to establishments in Queens.

Belle Harbor resident Robert Allen has recently begun operations with Bevinco, an inventory control system for bars and restaurants, servicing Queens. Allen, after spending 13 years as a commodities futures trader, decided he wanted to be his own boss and felt that his skills and expertise created the perfect opportunity.

"I had been a commodity trader for 13 years and wanted something a little different," Allen said. "I like dealing with different types of people and thought it was a great opportunity."

Allen, who bought the franchise this June, says that Bevinco is a company based out of Toronto which sells franchises assigned to specific areas. The company specializes in increasing the profits of bars and restaurants. It compares, through audits, the amount of liquor or beer used in comparison with what was actually sold.

It makes the bartenders very accountable. Allen says most bars experience in a given month, a 20-30 percent shrinkage rate. But with Bevinco most bar owners are capable of turning that into under 5 percent, potentially saving thousands a month on wasted inventory.

Bevinco uses a system that tracks inventory and sales using a computerized process that compares the exact amount of all liquor the bar uses during a specified reporting period matched against the amount of liquor that its bartenders have recorded as being sold during that period.

The system records every single drop of liquor, beer and wine that is poured and reports any variance between what is reported and what is actually used to its clients. This is done by weighing all bottles of liquor, wine and kegs of beer on scales, which are connected to laptop computers running this proprietary software program.

Losses, Bevinco representatives say, are incurred from sloppy bartending, over pouring, free drinks and even theft.

"My job is to convince bar owners to see how much they are actually losing. We set up a database of everything in the bar and weigh all bottles. The cost of this service is nothing compared to the money [bar owners] save."

Bevinco was formed in 1987 by the current CEO, Barry Dreidger, as a developer and marketer of liquor inventory auditing equipment and systems.

To date, Bevinco says they have franchise partners and customers in most major cities and approximately 30 countries worldwide.