ePub: Getting tills right from the start
One advantage of starting up a new pubco is that you can make sure you have the right equipment installed from the beginning.
Ribo Waring was formed in October 2006 by publican Tony Murphy and now has three suburban community pubs in the London area, all operating the same EPoS system.
The Masons Arms, Edgware, the Station Hotel, Hither Green, the Railway Tavern, Mill Hill and the Halfway House in Bovingdon came with tills when Tony bought them. But he decided to take the opportunity to improve the point-of-sale systems, at both a hardware and software level.
As he explains, system resilience and reliability were critical factors, because the pubs anticipated, and are now enjoying, very busy trading.
"Our system needed to be fast to train people on and easy to use by permanent and casual staff," he says. "As a new business, cost of ownership was also high on our list of priorities."
Point-of-sale equipment manufacturer J2 Retail Systems teamed up with systems integrator Hospitality Tills to assemble a package of hardware and software for the group.
Ten of J2's latest 560 PC-based touchscreen tills have been installed across the four premises, each providing specialist front-office and back-office software designed with pubs in mind.
Ribo Waring opted for the largest display screens and made a virtue out of staff and customers being able to see items being entered on the tills.
The business, front-office and back-office, is now run from a single computer system. Sales history is immediately visible, and prices and products can be easily changed or added. The ability to increase the print size of items on-screen and to scan in product labels as keys helps staff instantly recognise products at busy times.
"All this translates into slick bar service and happy customers," says Tony. "The system is easy to use and we've found it exceptionally reliable giving us the confidence that we can cater for the busiest of trading times."
The system gives Tony a sound foundation on which to build what he hopes will grow to become a 10-strong pub group over the next few years.
"I have a lot of faith in the systems and in the people who support them," he says. "I will be putting the same systems into my new pubs as they come on stream."
