Pub stocktakers are a relatively recent invention in the pub industry. Arguably the first pub stocktaker was the founder of Venners, a man named Edwin Venner. He was an accountant from a brewing family who noted just how simple it was to pilfer stock from a pub. So he set out to find a way for pubs to have more control over their stock – the pub stocktaker was born. That was 1896, but now in 2015, pub stocktakers are more crucial than ever. The principals of stocktaking are simple and surprisingly haven’t changed much since Edwin’s time…
Find a way to stop your losses occurring and your gross profit will improve.
The challenge pubs face is that there are just so many ways to lose stock. In fact, unless you are an experienced pub stocktaker, there will probably be a hundred or more ways that you don’t even know about. This is why trusted and experienced external pub stocktakers are so valuable to the publican.
There are different types of pub stocktakers operating in the industry. Some are untrained and offer only basic reporting and little to no advice. Amazingly, some will even rely on your internal counts which we would never ever condone – it goes against every principle of good stocktaking.
Other types of pub stocktakers include those from franchised companies and those from professional businesses such as Venners. As a company we believe in trustworthy, reliable external stocktaking that makes a positive difference to your profits. It’s about protecting your revenue and stock from all angles – our stocktakers conduct all counts, process detailed reports and write you action plans filled with profit boosting advice.
So what do pub stocktakers actually do?
A pub stocktaker will visit your business normally every month, arriving at a suitable time to enabling your stocktake to be completed in one day or half a day, this would be dependent on your stockholding and trading levels.
Count
Experienced pub stocktakers will count all of your stock – commonly liquor (wet) and food (dry). The count should be methodical, well trained pub stocktakers will always be more precise. For liquor, pub stocktakers will perform counts in your bars and storerooms. They will count your wines, spirits, all packaged beers and soft drinks. They count your draught held in your barrels/kegs and then count your bar snack items. A food stocktake will consist of being given access to all of areas of your kitchen and storerooms and ideally being accompanied by one of your sites Kitchen team. Items will be counted by each, normally but for higher volume items it would be adapted to by the box. For meat, counts would be done by the kilo and valued in this way. All homemade items can be broken down, with the assistance of your Chef, into price per portion.
It is really important that you take the time to observe that the Stocktaker is counting everything. Sometimes, with prior agreement they will also count your tobacco products and cleaning products. In reality if you want something counted, a fully trained stocktaker should be able to count it!!
Paperwork
Your Pub Stocktaker will need all your delivery notes and or invoices, inclusive of any credits you have received and they will need your takings for the period inclusive or exclusive of VAT. It is important if you do Food and Drink, that your takings are split between your departments.
Accurate Gross Profit
Your Pub stocktaker will ensure your own stock file is maintained with up to date cost prices and selling prices, ensuring you are given an accurate cost of sales and gross profit, additionally this assists you when renegotiating prices or even planning a customer price increase.
Calculate Allowances
Your Pub Stocktaker will need to know any promotions you do, what you put in your cocktails, whether you have a happy hour. They’ll ask whether you give any drinks away for free, how long your lines are for line cleaning and how often you clean them. This then enables the Stocktaker to calculate allowances – an allowance is given to you when you sell/give away any product for less than its actual selling price.
Sales Variance Report – aka a PLU.
Your Pub Stocktaker should get a print out from either your tills or back office computer which lists your individual sales of each product during the stocktake period. This information should then be used to be able to report accurate stock variances for you, for your site, on a line by line basis.
Operational Reporting
The stocktaker should provide you with a detailed result report complimented with a written overview and action plan for your site to assist the management of your site during the next period and ongoing.
Peace of mind
Additionally a Venners Stocktaker would test a random cross section of your spirits to ensure they are measuring to the correct Alcohol by Volume % expected, safeguarding you from wider authorities by giving you that peace of mind.
You can opt for your Pub stocktaker to count your cash on site, for verification purposes.
A set of sites meter readings can additionally be recorded and included in your report.
Feedback, Verify and Discuss
A good pub stocktaker should recheck/recount any high variances they find, and question any known reasons for them. They should also be putting aside at least 15 minutes and upto an hour to discuss the result in full with you, dependent on the size of your business. It should then be clear to you what you need to do during the next period to maintain or improve your result before the pub stocktaker leaves your site.
We hope you have found this article useful. If you are looking for a new stocktaker, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us – we’re sure our stocktakers will serve your business well.