13-02-08 Zonal's hospitality EPoS solution brings order to Mayhem

Mayhem, the award winning nightclub (BEDA Club of the South 2006), and its two sister nightclubs, Storm and Escape are the venues of choice when out and about in Essex. Close to 10,000 people frequent these nightclubs weekly so the group’s general manager, Gary Stokes thought he would have had his work cut out trying to find an EPoS solution that would be up fast and efficient enough to ensure the smooth running of all nightclubs in the group at the same time. However, it didn’t take him long to discover the power of Zonal’s EPoS solution.

All three of the nightclubs are open Friday and Saturday night, with Mayhem, the flagship and largest of the three nightclubs, also open on Monday and Thursday night and Escape open on Wednesday night.

To ensure that his EPoS solution could meet the needs of the group and provide vital information to staff and management at all times Gary chose Zonal to supply 31 of its colour touch screen EPoS terminals in the group’s 11 bars along with its powerful Aztec back office management software.

Zonal’s EPoS solution streamlines all operations from the bar to the cellar and this benefit was of utmost importance to Gary. He said that Zonal’s “EPoS gives the clubs a number of advantages, in particular speed of service to the customer is quicker which is vital in a busy club environment. It is also fast and efficient when it comes to stocktaking and makes re-ordering simpler and less time consuming.”

Speed of course is not the only factor Gary considered, it is also essential for managers to have instant access to key business information and Aztec ensures that “club managers are able to see which drinks are and aren’t selling, which is useful for them when they are making decisions about the drinks to stock and those, for example, to delist. It is also good for promotions as prices can be changed on the system within seconds. For example, if one of the clubs wants to promote a certain drink, then the price can be adjusted on the terminal for the duration of the promotion and revert back to the original price when the promotion is over.”

It was vital for Gary to be able to oversee the operations of all nightclubs and the control offered by Zonal’s system allowed him to “see the overall picture across all three clubs centrally, which [he finds to be] a great benefit when managing the satellite businesses.” The system also handles the staff rotas and payroll, so Gary and his team are able to use Aztec to manage “most aspects of the business”.

The power, speed and control of Zonal’s EPoS solution leads Gary to conclude that Aztec is “a great asset to the overall success of the individual clubs and the business in general.”