Britvic’s training platform ‘been in the making for 12 months’

Mix with Britvic aims to be a comprehensive and industry-leading platform, which has been designed to inspired and upskill bartenders and hospitality professionals.

It hosts areas covering knowledge, recipes, inspiration and trends with a mixture of video and written content.

Britvic director of foodservice and licensed Adam Russell told The Morning Advertiser​: “Staff make the industry, they are the people who give the great experiences to consumers, staff make or break that [experience].

“We built a platform from a drinks perspective that can build capability, knowledge and skills for staff to provide a better experience, meaning consumers are going to want to go back again and again.”

The platform has a plethora of information available for bar teams including trends, as well as training areas.

Russell added: “It has training content, inspiration around recipes, flavours and trends. There’s stuff around perfect serve and how to make quite a lot of the classic drinks but there are also training videos around why and how to do things.

“We find when speaking to staff that they don’t know why they do a lot of things and because of that they probably don’t do it like they should.”

While other suppliers have also launched training-style platforms, Mix with Britvic stands out from the crowd as it has something for everyone, according to Russell.

“One approach we have taken that is different to many other drink suppliers, we are looking to target the mass market,” he said.

“Most others are targeting the top 10% [but] we want to make the training and development accessible to absolutely everybody to develop the careers of people in hospitality.”

Anyone within the sector can access the platform as Britvic is aiming to make it a place for all.

Enhance existing programmes

Russell said: “A lot of the big managed pub groups have some great platforms but the content we have will enhance their training programmes.

“Where it will be of most opportunity is in the independent sector where it’s a lot harder for individual pubs to have a really complex training and development programme.

“They will rightly prioritise health and safety but won’t be able to afford to run a full training programme for staff.”

Furthermore, Mix with Britvic is set to offer bartenders to receive an accreditation, which is in partnership with the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII).

Russell said: “The BII partnership is really interesting. The organisation has more than 10,000 members and Mix with Britvic will be available through the BII’s platform Workforce.

“There’s the ability for anyone to do a training module with a test where if they pass, we will create a certificate accredited by the BII so it’s something people can put on their CV.”

Moreover, while Mix with Britvic spotlighted a handful of the company's brands (London Essence Company, Mathieu Teisseire, R. White's, Britvic, and Pepsi), Russell highlighted the importance of it being a useful tool for everyone.

He said: "While of course are going to hero Britvic brands, it’s very much interchangeable. If you don’t stock Britvic brands, the programme can still be used.

"We hopes it helps Britvic sell more, it's not overly branded and is more about showing people drinks leadership for the trade."

The platform is now live and bar team members can sign up for free after 12 months of planning.

The ongoing staffing issues was an area Britvic wanted to help with and part of why the platform was launched.

Progression of plans

“Identifying staff was an area we wanted to help the industry with and has been for a number of years. It’s such a big scale thing," Russell added.

“It’s something you can’t just do overnight. We have been in the background trying work out what the right platform looks like and how we invest in it. Mix with Britvic has been about 12 months in the making.”

Socialising brand director Carly Sims said creating the platform was a natural step for the business.

Russell said Sims had been working hard with her team and collaborating with brand ambassadors at Hedonist Drinks to bring it into reality.

The business will be able to measure the engagement and success of the platform as well as its various modules.

Russell said: “[We will] be able to track sign ups, who has watched which modules and the popularity of modules.

“The number of sign ups and people who are using it on a regular basis will be how we work out the success. There is no target (of sign ups) as such but for us a lot of it will come from working together as an industry.

“This will develop as we get more ideas from large scale operators and industry bodies.”

Currently, there is a combination of styles on the platform but with a focus on video content. Russell outlined the future plans for the coming months and years.

He said: “The initial focus will be on industry events, conferences, customer events and conferences where we will do that face to face but it’s also about trying to engage all our customers and prospective customers.

“The longer-term ambition would be take this out to cities across the country and invite the trade in that city to live events.

“It’s not a short-term thing for us, it’s a long term big investment to try and get to where we want to get to.”