Baa Bar

MCR star for Baa Bar
For over sixteen years, the Baa Bar chain has been a popular night spot across the North West with an established reputation for being one of the friendliest venues around, no mythical door policy here – so when it needed a new EPOS system it had to be something special.

Born in a converted warehouse in what was then an underdeveloped and economically deprived area of Liverpool the first Baa Bar opened its doors in April 1991.

Seventeen years on and the original now forms the heart of Liverpool nightlife, closely followed by another two bars in Manchester’s gay village and Deansgate Locks, and one in Wigan - not to mention the RIBA design award winning Modo.

Streamlining Business Operations
With ambitious expansion plans, to double in size by 2009, Baa Bar made the decision to review its EPOS technology, and streamline its operational tasks, such as stock control and measuring sales figures. Each bar was running its own stock control and a more cohesive approach to EPOS was required. They knew they needed a fully integrated EPOS system and approached MCR Systems to come up with a solution.

Mark Siney, finance director at Baa Bar comments:
“Initially we were looking for something that was flexible, affordable and above all reliable. We needed quick access to our data, and for this to be managed by head office. MCR installed Uniwell touch screen tills, and the software supporting that now means head office can access the till system in any of the bars. 

The MCR team were receptive to our needs and helped us develop a bespoke system that would help us to manage the whole chain. MCR are now working on developing our software further to include MCR’s Symphony reporting suite. “

Symphony is MCR’s flagship real-time reporting system that has been specifically designed to cater for the hospitality industry, which allows for tighter controls and easing administrative tasks, thereby improving business efficiency.

Smarter Finances
The benefits of using a fully integrated EPOS system are vast, as Mark points out:
“Not only are we now able to communicate with all our bars from one point, we have complete control on ordering new stock, we can see which drinks are the biggest sellers and really give our customers what they’re looking for.

Basically as we can monitor each sale, which means we only order stock when absolutely necessary, so it’s not just sat on the shelf, and mixed with the ability to keep a check on key buying trends, it always pays to be one step ahead.

We have around 180 staff and all of them have found it incredibly easy to use making for a slicker operation all round. By arranging an annual maintenance contract with MCR we have a full support package, which means we never have any down time. “