A CASE STUDY FOR

The Lowry

The Challenge

Coping with Interval ordering and managing multi-department stock control.

Unlike normal hospitality operations, a theatre with bars and restaurants presents a unique set of challenges. Lyndsey Tickle, hospitality manager at The Lowry explains:

“Hospitality revenue is critical as it supports The Lowry’s artistic ambition by ensuring financial sustainability. The timings of when our patrons visit our restaurants and bars, however, is often driven by the performance schedule, resulting in measurable peaks and troughs in demand.

“Our patrons like to order food and drink before a show and during the interval, but waiting in a queue can spoil the overall theatre experience, and if a patron loses patience may even result in lower potential revenues. At The Lowry, our performances often have intervals so this becomes an issue. The ability to up-sell and cross-sell during this period remains critical to our business.”

Another challenge that The Lowry faces is trying to manage stock control across different types of hospitality outlets. “Managing our stock control across seven to eight separate locations was time-consuming and needed a system that was automated and would therefore simplify the entire process”.

“We looked at several solutions, however, pointOne EPoS offered a range of features and benefits that together made a complete package that was designed to meet the specific challenges of theatres.”

Lyndsey Tickle, Hospitality Manager

The Solution

The Lowry chose to go with the pointOne EPoS solution as an expert within the theatre space. “We looked at several solutions, however, pointOne EPoS offered a range of features and benefits that together made a complete package that was designed to meet the specific challenges of theatres.”

“The stock system, in particular, stood out as it had the potential to deliver exactly what we needed without being overly complicated, and it was also good value for money”.

Effective interval ordering

Using our interval ordering app, patrons can pre-order drinks or food and have them ready for collection. The Lowry use this feature “not only for drinks but also for ordering desserts from the restaurant allowing customers to spread their meal across the entire performance, enhancing their overall experience”.

Multi-department Stock Control

According to Lyndsey, the pointOne Stock Control tool has been a time-saving revelation. “With our previous systems, we had lots of manual processes that involved a lot of printed sheets, which was very time-consuming. With pointOne, this is now all automated. We can now do ‘spot checks’ and if we see something is wrong we can address it immediately”.

Kitchen Management

“Using kitchen management screens has given us complete control over our FOH traffic and importantly, provided a safety net for issues such as controlling allergens. The staff know exactly what is going out at any given time giving them far more control over the restaurant environment”.

Mobile EPoS

The Lowry often host private functions such as weddings, graduation ceremonies and Christmas parties where additional EPoS tills are needed at ‘champagne’ or ‘G&T’ points. Our Mobile EPoS provides the full EPoS functionality in a remote capacity allowing direct communication with the bar or kitchen just like our fixed EPoS terminals.

The Results

Lyndsey has cited a number of positive results from using the pointOne EPoS, namely “shorter queues and more upselling opportunities during the interval; significant staff time-saving with the integrated stock control and kitchen management; and having a mobile EPoS to use at our private events have created huge flexibility so we can attend to customers right on the floor”.

“We have experienced shorter queues and more upselling opportunities during the interval; significant staff time-saving with the integrated stock control and kitchen management, and having a mobile EPoS to use at our private events has created huge flexibility so we can attend to customers right on the floor.”

Lyndsey Tickle, Hospitality Manager