By Rick Young

If you’re on the service side of the golf industry you don’t have to go back far in the past to remember what a lot of food & beverage managers might refer to as ‘simpler, less stressful times.’ Within the structure of overall operations the food and beverage portfolio was considered a club amenity, a necessary albeit secondary function boards of directors more than willingly subsidized as part of the annual club budget.

Break even? Quite often that was considered a successful season for F & B especially if a year was punctuated by a run of bad weather, a late start or an early wind up. Miracles were never expected nor were huge profit margins.

Times have clearly changed. Today, food & beverage has become primary to operations, so much so that in these leaner times the department is now expected to help subsidize the golf side of the business while running independently as a stand alone business.

Larry Ross has seen both ends of the F & B spectrum. The multiple Florida restaurant owner and Ph.D. at Florida Southern College sees the mounting pressures being placed on food and beverage managers in the areas of control function, menu, plate costing, purchasing and inventory and service levels. Asked as part of a PGA Merchandise Show Educational seminar this year whether enough buffer is being built in for F & B operations today, his answer was quick and concise.

“When you say enough I’m going to ask you, is any being built in at all, and more often than not the answer is no,” Ross says. “F&B has become a pressure filled, no margin for error business today. The challenges facing golf clubs is dramatic. We’re an industry that relies on discretionary income. That’s for people to be members of a club or to play their golf through local public facilities. But are they coming in to eat after golf now? Are they having one drink instead of two? Even if membership dwindles F&B still has to do numbers. You’re still expected to show profit. They still want you to pull that rabbit out of your hat.”

Ross insists F & B’s Cycle of Control – from menu costing to purchasing, to receiving, to storing, to issuing, to production, to service to analyzing sales – is a complex, dynamic process without a lot of moving parts. A simple menu change for example alters every aspect of the cycle. Because F&B is tightly controlled by an adherence to specific standards, it’s imperative for F&B managers today to look for options – as challenging as that can be at times.

“I know one restaurant owner who could not figure out what was happening with his inventory. Then he realized: he wasn’t locking the back door. He didn’t have control of his access. Once he did his numbers changed almost overnight.” Ross says. “You have to look in every nook, every cranny. One club in my area had an F & B manager who was awful proud of how he reduced his costs year over year. Only one problem: as he reduced costs he reduced quality. Members began staying away. Play that game and you’re walking the wrong way on a one way highway.”

Marketing is high on Ross’ priority list. During his Orlando presentation he spent a good amount of time on the virtues of marketing for F&B managers at golf clubs and the kind of returns one can expect from investing in it.  Admittedly he thinks golf clubs don’t pay enough attention to marketing the F & B operation. That places the onus on the managers to make a strong case for its implementation.

“Marketing is quite often done on the F & B side as an afterthought by administration. People on this side of the business need to step up,” he says. “They need to make a case for its inclusion in regular communications to members. If, for example, you’re not using your menu as a marketing tool you’re missing a major opportunity to increase business. If you don’t know how to market find someone who can. It will be worth your time.”

Staying with menu Ross believes strongly in regular trash audits. Mention of this got him some puzzled looks from the assembled audience but he quickly made his point explaining what F & B managers can learn from doing, as he calls it, “a CSI on the garbage.”

“Take out the trash and look at what members aren’t eating. To me that can be as valuable a piece of information as what they are. If something is showing up regularly it may require an adjustment,” he says. “It’s not necessarily a pleasant exercise but there’s information there you need to have.”

Purchasing is an area of F & B that can promote operational stability – or keep it teetering on the edge of uncertainty. Cash flow problems, increased storage costs, quality deterioration, theft, added costs of emergency delivery and loss of volume discounts are all components of ineffective purchasing. Even one of those Ross says will be detrimental to the bottom line. He encourages a regular review of quality and quantity standards, evaluation of convenience products, combining orders and larger volume, co-operative purchasing, promotional discounts and discontinuing unnecessary services. As for sales reps he expects people to ask about alternatives.

“You might be amazed at what the reps can do for you but you have to ask,” he says. “You never know. If you find a substitute for something on your menu at a reduced price while still maintaining the quality you’re looking for, you’ve made a big step.”

Ross does not envy F & B managers in the industry today. The high pressures of the position dictate sound decision making, intuitive insight for menu options, quality controls, purchasing, storage and inventory turnover. He’s a big believer in an ‘Analyze, Act and Evaluate’ philosophy.

“First you set the standards then you measure the results and then you analyze and act,” he says. F & B places bigger demands on those of us in this industry now. It’s all about staying one step ahead of the game.”

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