“Even with much larger companies, I’ve never received anything like the levels of support these guys give us. All my bar managers are on the WhatsApp support group, and if they raise an issue somebody’s on the phone and it’s resolved with 20 minutes or so." Jonathan Hartley, Director.

The craft beer boom over recent years has given consumers a broader range of choice than ever. Brewers and bar operators have to not simply keep up with consumer trends, but also stay one step ahead in order to keep offering new and engaging beers.

Greater Manchester based Blackjack Brewing Co operates four bars, as well as hosting events at its brewery taproom. The business now works with Tabology to keep its EPOS system updated with the latest beers available on the bar at each venue, as well as to centrally manage stock in order to monitor demand and forecast quantities of its own beers to brew, as well as amounts to buy in from other brewers.

Director Jonathan Hartley says: “We’re fortunate in that we’re a brewery with a few high volume bars, each with a different customer demographic. We use the bars as sampling points, enabling us to judge seasonal variations in beer styles, ABVs, and price points, and plan the styles and volumes accordingly.”

Blackjack Brewing Co has two separate, but closely connected, business streams. “We’re both a business-to-business beer wholesaler, selling to other operators, and a business-to consumer beer retailer through our bars. Until now, we’ve always collected the data on sales trends and volumes manually, and we were looking for an EPOS system that could speed up that process, as well as giving us the essential ease-of-use needed on the bar.”

Having researched the market extensively, Blackjack realised that Tabology’s bar EPOS system solves three key challenges:

• Accurate data reporting, with easy access to sales data
• Ease of use for bar managers to be able to create stock items, and set them up on the till,
• Accurate and reliable integration with the Xero accountancy package used.

“We found there are a lot of systems out there that might do any two of those things well, and completely fail at the third,” says Jonathan. “Tabology has a completely different outlook to any of the other systems we looked at.

“If we suggest things we’d like to see as part of the package, where other companies would give empty promises, with Tabology it’s there on the next update.”

To find out more about our integrated pub & bar EPOS or to arrange a demo, get in touch.