Newcastle Hotels

New Castle Hosts Bartender-Training
Improving the bottom line through F&B

PRESS RELEASE – January, 2008

Who would have guessed that something like a few frozen Swedish fish in a blue Martini, could have a measurable, positive and significant impact on a food and beverage outlet’s customer satisfaction… and bottom line?

Yet after implementing a training program in which bartenders, servers and other F&B staff learned just that kind of up-selling trick, New Castle Hotels & Resorts properties reported an average F&B revenue increase of 45 percent.

“Actually, it’s not the Swedish fish, it’s the knowledge base behind that creative little twist that makes the difference,” says Vince Barrett, who, as vice president of food and beverage for New Castle, guides F&B efforts at the leading third-party management and hotel development company’s 31 hotels and resorts. “When it comes to educating staff about beverages, there has been a real void in our industry. We created this program with Johnson & Wales University to try to fill that void for our staff.”

New Castle recently hosted its second beverage-training program at the Woodcliff Hotel and Spa, a property the company manages in Fairport, N.Y. Twenty bartenders from nine full-service New Castle properties participated in the two-day program. The staff members learned broad product knowledge, the latest beverage trends, food and beverage pairing, garnishing techniques and other up-selling techniques, through product knowledge and product wisdom. Their teachers included beverage industry experts from Constellation Wines, Future Brands and J&W.

After the inaugural course in 2005, New Castle properties boosted overall beverage sales 45 percent, Barrett says. Gains in grab-and-go marketplaces were even higher, averaging around 87 percent. “Prior to the first course, our monthly average from grab-and-go was around $400 per month,” he says. “After the course, the average monthly revenue jumped to $3,000 and 90 percent of those gains came from improved beverage sales.”

 “Knowledge absolutely sells,” says Carla Sgroi. A bartender at The Craftsman House for 10 years, Sgroi attended the latest session and was impressed by the volume of new information available. “The more you know, the more you sell.” Sgroi says she took away from the course a renewed appreciation for presentation and garnishes, and the impact both has on a customer’s desire to buy. Something as simple as the frozen Swedish fish, she says, has made a visible impact on her customer’s satisfaction – and her ability to sell.

Andy Milliman, a bartender at the Woodcliff Hotel & Spa for nearly 13 years, also sees a difference in his sales after attending the course. “It was sharpening the saw with some great ideas,” he says. The end result has been happier customers, higher sales and his own renewed excitement about a job he already enjoyed, Milliman says.

“Our industry has an opportunity and a need to improve training for staff responsible for beverage sales,” Barrett says. “The end result will be higher beverage sales, happier customers and empowered employees.”