03-03-08 SYGN style bars increase their margins by 5% thanks to Zonal EPoS

The SYGN style bar and its sister style bar Montieths are based in Edinburgh’s West End and the prestigious Royal Mile. As well established premium venues they attract thousands of customers every week. The two style bars are well known for their style and atmosphere and serve a superb selection of wine, cocktail, bottled and draught beers, as well as great food.

Because these style bars are so highly recognised for their quality (SLTN has been awarded the Style Bar of the Year award in 2005, 2006 and 2007), Michael Spink, the Managing Director of the bars needed to obtain EPoS terminals that both emanated style as well as delivering total control and flexibility.

Having spent many years in bar management roles in Edinburgh, Michael Spink knew the importance of an efficient and effective EPoS system for both management and staff and knew how it could maximise the revenue earning potential of your business. He simply said “ I wouldn’t consider operating the two bars without EPoS terminals and associated products”.

Michael needed a mix of fixed EPoS terminals, handhelds and kitchen printers for the two style bars and looked at a number of different suppliers. Having examined the competition he found Zonal’s EPoS Management System to be head and shoulders above the rest. He concluded that “In my experience it is the best EPoS system available”.

After using the system for the past six months Michael couldn’t be happier. “It has increased our margins by five per cent through tighter controls and monitoring of the business on a day-to-day basis. The EPoS package offers so much information for our individual bar managers as well as me to run the business more profitability.”

Michael now has complete control over his EPoS system, and being able to update products and prices in real-time is making life easier for management and staff. “We serve hundreds of different drink and food products and one of the main benefits is that a new product can be added to the terminals within a couple of seconds, so there is never any confusion amongst staff about what we are selling.” All this business information also “helps with the stocktaking, and more importantly enables both myself and the bar managers to make decisions about what we should be stocking, and also those products that might need promoting to the customers.”

He is also benefitting from the extensive reporting available from Zonal. “It is great that I can see the sales on the drink and food side of the business, on a minute by minute basis if I wish to. I can also see trends on how people are paying; for example, cash, credit or debit card.”

And it is not just management who are benefitting from Zonal’s EPoS system, staff find the new terminals very easy to use and the online help on each terminal offers detailed information about almost any problem at the touch of a button. Michael adds “The terminals are very user-friendly and fast and there is no limit to what they offer”.

“In my opinion the Zonal system gives us total flexibility, whether it is adding a new product or alerting staff, through the terminal at the bar or in the restaurant that a certain item is no longer available. This allows staff to keep customers 100 per cent up to date on any changes to the restaurant menu while they are taking an order at the table.”

The system chosen by Michael included printers in the kitchen, on which orders are printed automatically as soon as an order is entered into one of the Z509 terminals or the Handheld terminals allowing the kitchen staff to begin preparing the food. Obviously this reduces every customer’s waiting time as well as ensuring that the information is conveyed accurately to the chef.

The addition of Handheld terminals was particularly important to Monteiths because of the layout of the site. “Monteiths is on two levels and also has an outside area and the handhelds are invaluable in terms of taking an order at the table and having the order with the bar and kitchen within seconds.”

Michael concluded that “All of Zonal’s EPoS terminals and associated products at SYGN and Monteiths are in use at all times and play a pivotal role in our success.”