Profile of the week: The Beverage Director/Beverage Manager
Does your hotel, high volume restaurant, nightclub or country club have a beverage director or beverage manager? If the answer is yes, do they know what their job description is?
The beverage director/manager is put in place to oversee the entire beverage operation. As a member of the management team, they are in charge of hiring all beverage related personnel, negotiating and purchasing all of the beverages and beverage equipment needed by the business, creating and maintaining the standards in regards to the beverage operation.
Another key area is establishing proper inventory levels and the controls required to keep the company's profit objectives in line. In most cases, the modern beverage director/manager will work with the technology the industry has now come to embrace. Liquor, beer and wine inventory software programs help the collection and analysis of information to make the sound decisions the company needs to stay in line with their profit goals.
A beverage director will normally report to the director of operations or chief financial officer of the establishment. The prior experience a beverage manager has is typically experience in the industry. At some point in their careers, they have worked as bartenders, servers or even been responsible for the actual inventory taking of a hospitality establishment. A management background or experience is a great asset as they will have to position themselves between the beverage staff (waitresses, liquor runners' bartenders...) and upper management. They must be able to take or report certain delicate situations which may arise with the beverage personnel with the ultimate goal of keeping the liquor, beer and wine pour cost percentages in line with the budgets created by the management team.
