Inn Doctor

Now is a good time for us all to look at ways of saving money in our businesses, and beat the credit crunch. Taking a fresh look at how and why we do things in our bars and pubs could save us some big money.

Lets take a fresh look at the bar. Having a bar full taps of every type of product may look good but does it cost you money? The answer is yes. OK, back when our pubs where full every day having lots of taps wasn’t an issue. The brewery reps would always like to see their latest brew on every bar in the house. The trouble is every tap on your bar costs you money,a single tap cleaned out every week could cost you £150 per year just for the privilege of having it. So it is a simple case of cost versus convenience. Ask yourself do you need that extra tap?

Likewise are all your products selling well? That extra cold you had installed,does it get used every day? How many kegs are you selling a week. The rule of thumb is one keg or less a week of a product is the minimum amount you should be selling. Any less than that you are wasting money. The logic should be do I use this tap regularly enough to warrant having it. Do I sell enough of this product to have it on the bar. So if the barmaid has to walk a bit more around the bar, so what and if Old Fred can’t have his glass of Mild every Tuesday, tough!

Whilst we are in the bar lets think about electricity. For every 6 taps you have there will be a nice little warm lighting transformer under the bar churning away using your electricity. Not much you might think. Each transformer uses about 150 watts. So if you have 6 transformers that is nearly a kilowatt burning away 24 hours a day. The answer switch them off at the socket when not in use.

Staying in the bar always check the grills on your flash coolers. If they are clogged with dust they become inefficient and will run for longer costing you money. This also applies to you bottle fridges. It is worth spending the time to ensure the grills are kept clean,they will work better and more efficiently.

Down in the cellar there are savings to be made too. You may have a cellar cooler, but is it working properly? Check and make sure that the cellar is coming down to temperature. If you haven’t got a cellar thermometer ask your local Technician and get one for free. If the cellar cooler is not working properly it will run continuously. Don’t have the cooler set too low, 52-54 degrees Fahrenheit is about right. If in doubt get it checked. Bear in mind some coolers are designed so that the blower will run permanently,ask your Technician. Getting this right will save you money. Don’t forget what is the point of having a lovely cool cellar and then leaving the door open or worst still putting your ice machine, soft drinks cooler or fridge in there. These all create heat.

Beer gases are a great cost to the landlord. If you are not contracted to a supplier then now is a good time to shop around. There are some good deals to be had out there, it is worth while checking different suppliers. Also the old favourite which everyone forgets…..switch off your beer gases when not in use. You may have leaks.
So there we are just some ways you may be able to save some money. I think it does us all good now and then to sit back and have a look at how we do things. Old Fred might not be getting his pint of mild any more, but with the savings you make at least he will have a pub to sit in. Cheers one and all.

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This entry was posted by D M on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 6:57 pm. It is filed under Money Saving and has these tags: Money Saving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.