States and counties are beginning to allow restaurants to re-open or operate on a limited scale. But a restaurant cannot just open the doors again to business as usual. It will take significant time, energy and thought to get back in business and remain profitable.
A profitable wine program is a cornerstone of a successful restaurant. Developing and maintaining a wine program has always been a time consuming and expensive proposition. Clearly, a successful wine program adds dramatically to a restaurant’s revenue and profitability and in these unusual times a program needs to be more profitable and compelling than ever before.
Questions you need to ask before re-opening in the Covid 19 environment:
How is my inventory? Were the bottles stored correctly and are they still sound? Is my program priced correctly for this new reality? Are my selections still relevant? Have any distributors gone out of business? Have the selections gone to other distributors? Are some selections no longer available? Have prices changed? Do I need to update my menus?
How many employees can I hire back? Which ones? Are they well trained on how to sell wine? Who will update my program? Who will do the training? If a manager or VP manages my programs – is that person too expensive to bring back right away? And should they really focus on wine or on the more urgent operational issues?
You do not want to bring employees and leadership back until you know there is a sustainable model.
Guy du Vin has affordable solutions for all these issues and problems.