Event Review: Bar & Nightlife 2015

The fourth annual Caterer Middle East Bar & Nightlife Forum took place on October 5, 2015 at the Grosvenor House Dubai, with a room full of operators in attendance, eager to learn about the best-practice initiatives being implemented by business leaders in the F&B market.

PANEL 1: 12.05PM

Managing the Owner-Manager Relationship

The first session dealt with the relationship between outlet managers and their owners and investors. Moderated by Kroma managing director Nicholas Couvaras, the discussion involved a lot of audience participation.

Relationships between owners and operators are of paramount importance, and Three Dots general manager Hayan Abou Assali said the first step towards success is to “first understand what the owner’s vision is”.

He continued: “To see what a successful venue is, you need to understand what he means by a successful venue. Is it just his ROI, or is it to make a statement in Dubai? You need to make sure you’re managing owner expectations.”

Also understanding what freedoms the outlet manager has is essential from the outset. Zero Gravity general manager Peter Skudutis advised: “As a manager, before you jump into it, you need to understand how much freedom, how much leeway you have to lead the business.”

Fling Bar Services operations director Andrew Mullins added: “Some places exist where owners let the managers do their job, and at others you get owners who want to change things every two weeks. In my experience, owners can be flighty. If it doesn’t work immediately, they change their mind and try to change the whole thing again.

“On the flip side, the manager has to manage that process by understanding the owner’s vision. The manager can do himself a lot of favours by recognising that vision and trying to help achieve it.”

SPEED PANEL: 12:50PM

Positioning Wine for the Middle East Market

A quick-fire panel session explored how wine can be transformed into a staple choice for your clientele. A first for the forum, the wine session was moderated by Intersect by Lexus general manager Halil Asar, with panellists Hakkasan head of wine Middle East & Asia Olivier Gasselin, and Jumeirah Group group director of beverage Ian McEvoy.

The panel unanimously agreed that the demand for wine is still high. “Expensive or fine wines are looked at as benchmarks; guests judge your menu based on the wines you have on offer,” said McEvoy.

“It’s extremely important to offer a strong product with good value. It’s important to get your expectations right. At Jumeirah, we offer a wide range of wines at varying price points,” he added.

Expensive wine is still finds favour with some customers. Gasselin said: “There are some extremely expensive wines, but they appeal to the true connoisseurs. There are times when we have people buying a bottle worth thousands. However, that’s not to say they sell in high quantities. I used to order enough stock to last me two years, but I have reduced my demand to last me for six months.”

The panel agreed that wine remains a firm favourite among guests, and dismissed the notion that its demand is on the decline.

“In fact, it has steadily risen. On the other hand, if we consider champagne, its demand has drastically reduced since 2008,” revealed McEvoy.

PANEL 2: 2.30PM

Working with Suppliers

Working with suppliers to assure a mutually beneficial relationship is regularly mentioned as a key challenge to running an efficient business, and the nightlife industry is no different. The relevance of sourcing niche products was one of the aspects of that relationship discussed in the session moderated by Gates Hospitality CEO Naim Maadad.

Jean Marc Vettesi, director of beverage at Atlantis The Palm, said that no bar should run out of product. “The key to overcoming shortages is forecasting. We have enough tools in hospitality to project, and we know about distance and shipment times. So you should not be out of stock.”

But Karan Awtani, director of the Nippon Bottle Factory, said that for some niche products, because the Middle East is a relatively small market for brand owners, “it’s often the first to fall off the shelf when they move allocation around”.

Marcel Haddad, bar manager at Vida Hotels & Resorts suggested that niche products should comprise no more than 5% of a bar’s range. And he warned against the temptation for bars to stock every new product introduced to the market. “Whatever they bring in now it will be found everywhere in Dubai. There’s a sense that you need to have everything that’s available.”

Awtani agreed: “Niche products can be important to set you apart, but you need to select products people know about. It can be amazing, but if the entry level price is at a level where people will not experiment… it will just sit on the shelf.”

He also advised bar managers to be careful that their drinks list does not become so big that they cannot control what they want to sell for their business.

Awtani added: “Niche products can be good for PR, but you need ‘pillars’ on your menu to drive daily and weekly sales volumes.”

CASE STUDY: 3.15PM

Mastering Staff Retention

Everybody at Trader Vic’s feels like they are at their “second home”, which keeps staff and customer retention high, according to the Souk Madinat bar manager.

Anjula Perera, who manages the reigning Caterer Middle East Awards Bar Team of the Year, said that 65% of his guests are regulars. “They say: ‘You’re my family, this is my second home.’ That same feeling have is shared by our staff. We feel we are at home. Trader Vic’s is not just a place to work, not just a bar — it’s a lifestyle. The brand intrigues everyone.”

Perera claimed that teamwork is the key factor to staff retention. “Keep them happy. Push them to work together and communicate with each other,” he said. “At the end of every shift we talk about mistakes and share good comments and bad comments. For good comments there are big hugs and high fives. For bad comments we find a solution not to let it happen again.”

He added that there’s a “wow factor” in a Trader Vic’s bar, stemming from the team’s cocktail and alcohol knowledge and their pouring speed and precision — bartenders often mix three cocktails at a time.

“We raced to see who could make cocktails fastest,” recalled Perera, from his time as a trainee 10 years ago, “and I now see my staff doing the same.”

The employee journey at Trader Vic’s starts for 99% of staff at bar commis level and, said Perera: “Everyone is given an equal chance to rise. For the first three months they’re essentially a bar runner.”

In month four staff are given cocktail recipes to learn and after six months they get their first pouring practice. “Until then it’s only learning, not mixing at all,” revealed Perera. He continued: “After one year you’re promoted to junior bar tender. And after two years you become a barman responsible for your own station and training your staff, or you go to another Trader Vic’s.”

PANEL 3: 4.10PM

Overcoming Staffing Difficulties

Moderated by The Cutting Edge Agency founder Duncan Fraser-Smith, the final panel discussed the issue of how to motivate staff in the nightlife industry.

“The basic salary and benefits offered in the industry are not too bad, but if we start adding tips to their salaries, it will definitely peak their levels of loyalty,” said Theo Braund, general manager, Claw BBQ.

Meanwhile, Nickolas Pazvadis, guest relations manager, Coya Restaurant & Lounge, said it’s not difficult to keep staff motivated. “It’s simple, we have to ensure we keep morale levels high, in and out of the work place. Additionally, Coya strictly follows an independent development programme, which is a practice all operators should implement. Performing staff need to be rewarded with promotions and incentives. That has helped us retain a large number of our employees.”

Motorga Heathcliff, nightlife operation manager, Media One Hotel, agreed with comments by fellow panellists Anish Kuttan, Kempinski Hotel Ajman director of food & beverage, and Nick Fielding, Asia de Cuba Worldwide director of operations, about the challenges of recruitment and retention in the region.

Heathcliff said: “When you recruit from abroad, you have to remember staff will realise Dubai is a completely different market after working here for a couple of months. Operators may not always be able to keep up to the promises they offer, and to add to it, it’s not easy to survive on a waiter’s or bartender’s salary. A combination of these two aspects is a major reason staff leave when higher salary offers come along.”

INTERACTIVE ROUNDTABLE: 4.50PM

Getting the Best out of Promoters

Think Events managing partner Greg Dufton hosted a best practice session on how the industry can work better with promoters to improve numbers. His tips included:

Understand the promoter and what they’re trying to achieve. It is a business relationship and you’re bringing the promoter in as your business partner. You treat them the same way you would as your suppliers of alcohol. Sit down with them regularly and make sure you have the same agenda and the same ideas for how the venue is going to move forward.

Research and understand promoters. Ultimately the people they’re socialising with are the kind of people they will bring in. Does the promoter have a good reputation for paying people? Find out.

Both of you need to make sure you have achievable results. Don’t set expectations which are completely unrealistic. If you can’t, as a venue, make the place twice as busy, the promoter isn’t going to wave a wand and make it happen.

In the hotel business, the whole idea of setting the right deals from the start is important. You will find someone who will take a bad deal, but that promoter will last two or three weeks. If you’ve got somebody willing to take a stupid deal, then that probably isn’t a very clever promoter.

Build a relationship. Sit down at least once or twice a week and have a conversation. You will have fall-outs and different opinions on things, but the more you sit down and talk about things, the more you will be on the same page and the more likely you are to move the business forward.