Alex’s Bar (Long Beach, CA)

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"No advertising or promotion could have impacted our bottom line the way inventory controls have"
~Vivian Hernandez, Bar Manager, Alex’s Bar

"True Blood" fans know it as Fangtasia, the Shreveport, Louisiana vampire-friendly and vampire-owned bar in the critically acclaimed HBO show. In reality it is Alex’s Bar, a popular punk venue in Long Beach CA. It is also one of the many bars and clubs in the Los Angeles area that is serviced by Bevinco Franchisee Karl Blatt and his team of top-notch liquor auditors.

Vivian Hernandez, the bar manager, says she and owner Alex have had on-going discussions for over ten years about the need for smarter inventory controls. The fact that Bevinco brings those controls along with strategies for profit management and staff accountability made it appealing for her to have a chat when Patti-Hulsey-Gill, the Marketing Associate, from Bevinco called. The next step was to have Patti drop by with sample reports and get a trial benchmarking audit set up.

"No advertising or promotion could have impacted our bottom line the way inventory controls have" says Hernandez. "This system is almost effortless, you provide the data, sales and purchases, Bevinco takes inventory and provides the analysis. How you use the analysis is up to you, they provide tools and make suggestions however it is your business, your bottom line."

From the first in-depth audit, Bevinco's Karl Blatt could see that the results at Alex's were going to be impressive; the weekly loss was substantial and he knew from experience Hernnadez would be incredulous.

"I have to admit the first few months we were stuck in "Sticker Shock" mode. We couldn’t believe how much revenue we were losing every week," remarks Hernandez. "Since then we have taken the bull by the horns, used the analysis to isolate specific problems and worked with our staff to correct them."

She adds, "Regularly the analysis showed that we could not account for up to 3 cases of Bottle/Can Beer (per week). This one should be a "No-Brainer" you bring in a case of beer; you should be able to identify what happened to it. You sold it, spilled it, or gave it away. After working on it for 3 weeks daily and comparing inventory to sales we are now at 100% accountability (for beers bottle or can). Employees are notified when inventory does not match sales, they are accountable. Now we have a regular weekly status of our business, accurately monitoring our "Waste Shrinkage and Theft". When I say theft it was not money, or bottles of liquor but by over-pouring liquor, spills (not being reported) and the "free" beverages."

"Maintaining optimum profitability is an on-going concern, we consider Bevinco profit protection. They take the facts and translate them to a valuable tool for Bar Managers. There is no going back in time, we should have done this years ago. "