Courtney Russ and Amy VanTassel saw first hand how much money bars were losing from alcohol loss while working at a Boise bar, Russ as a marketing coordinator and VanTassel as a bookkeeper.
"A lot of times it's not malicious in nature," VanTassel said. "From a bartender's point of view, when you see so much money coming over a bar, it seems like you can give away a drink here and there or take a bottle out the back door and they're not going to know.
"But what they don't understand is that if you give away a little bit and another bartender gives away a little bit, it adds up to thousands of dollars a week."
Russ and VanTassel saw a business opportunity in saving tavern owners money. Two years ago, they started a local franchise of Bevinco, which gauges how much liquor is disappearing by weighing the bottles.
In most instances, bar owners are surprised to find out how much money they lose, Russ and VanTassel say. Often, it totals several thousand dollars a week. Russ said they worked with one bar that was losing $10,000 a week.
On average, the two say most bars incur about a 25 percent inventory loss on drinks.
Russ and VanTassel say they guarantee the system they use can get losses down to 5 percent for less. On an average, the two say they save most bar owners about $3,000 a week. The company charges an average bar about $200 a week.
"There's going to be some loss, but what we're saying is that it shouldn't be more than 5 percent," VanTassel said.
Bottles and beer kegs are weighed regularly, usually weekly, on a scale connected to a laptop computer. The weight of each item goes into a computer program that compares it with how much of that product the bar said it sold in the previous week. The two numbers are compared to determine a loss percentage.
Lisa Sullivan, co-owner of Quinn's in Boise, 1005 S. Vista Ave., with her father, Gary, said she was skeptical about using Bevinco's system, but after signing up admitted to being "flabbergasted" by the alcohol losses.
Before using Bevinco, Sullivan said she tried to count bottles and keep track of how much liquid was in each bottle by looking at it.
Sullivan said her bar's first report showed she should have been making more than $2,000 a week more than she was. After using Bevinco for nearly two years, she said her losses have dropped to less than $200 a week.
"As a bar owner you know that you're losing a certain amount from overpours and what have you," Sullivan said. "But until I used this system I didn't have a clear understanding of how much."
Russ and VanTassel say they do three secret audits of a bar without the bartenders knowing. After those audits, they can tell how much liquor is being wasted.
With that information, the two meet with the bar owner and the employees to outline their findings. Russ and VanTassel say they never know how employees will take the news. Sometimes bartenders quit because they know they are giving away too many drinks or they don't like being watched too closely. But most employees are surprised to know how much is being wasted, Russ and VanTassel say.
Once employees know they are being monitored, losses tend to fall quickly. If they don't, the company can do secret daily audits comparing what was sold with what was used.
With a daily audit, it's easier to pinpoint losses to a particular shift.
When they decided to go into business, Russ and VanTassel said they never expected to be in hospitality. "We looked at everything from bowling alleys to lingerie shops," Russ said.
By chance, they stumbled upon Bevinco, a Canadian company that has franchises worldwide. The two said they immediately saw it as a niche that wasn't being met locally.
But persuading local bar owners to try the system took some effort.
"We pounded the pavement for six months," Russ said. "We worked every day all day. We really went out and sold our butts off."
Sullivan said the savings exceed Bevinco's cost, saving her money and helping her keep drink prices reasonable. That's critical in today's competitive hospitality market, she said.
"Every time you turn around, there is a new establishment waiting for a liquor license," she said. "It's important to make the most you can, while keeping prices fair for customers."
Ken Dey: 672-6757
