Time to take stock?
Stocktakers are among the unsung heroes of the licensed trade.
Do you know your Arse from your Almendrado? Can you tell a widgeon from a pigeon? What's more, do you know how much profit you should be making out of them? Stocktakers are among the unsung heroes of the licensed trade.
If you know that Arse is a fortified wine from Italy and Almendrado a tequila flavoured with almonds, and that a widgeon is a kind of wild duck while a pigeon is, well, a pigeon, then you have at least some of the basic knowledge required to be a licensed trade stocktaker.
Also handy, of course, is the ability to count. But despite the fact that, on the surface, counting appears to be what stocktakers do most of the time, it is among the lesser skills of a professional in the field.
Product knowledge, plus the experience of actually running a pub, restaurant or hotel, is the background that leads many licensees into stocktaking.
One of them is Bruce Thompson who set up his Edinburgh-based stocktaking company in the mid-70s after owning and managing hotels, and who is now secretary of the discipline's professional body, the Institute of Licensed Trade Stock Auditors (ILTSA).
You may not have spotted it splashed across the front pages of the tabloids, but last weekend the ILTSA annual meeting made one of the most momentous decisions in its history.
Despite opposition from those who want to maintain its specialist niche in the licensed trade, ILTSA will now enter talks with the Trade Valuers Institute, which represents those working in retail, with a view to a merger.
This will make for a weightier, more broad-based organisation with a higher profile, something that will please Bruce who clearly feels that his 400 members are the unsung heroes of the licensed trade.
Above all, stocktakers are there, he believes, to enhance the profitability of a business.
"Stocktaking didn't really come into being until the 1920s when the trade became more aware of profits, more cost-conscious," he said. The growth of the new profession eventually led, in 1953, to the formation of ILTSA which set standards and put in place training and qualifications.
Today, it runs week-long residential seminars twice a year for aspiring stocktakers and licensees who want to better understand their own profession. It covers everything from using a calculator and managing a cellar to wine tastings and menu planning.
There is also a surprisingly thick book to back it up, called Taking Stock, yet for Bruce a week about stocktaking can barely constitute a beginning.
"We work people quite hard and give them a full day's exam at the end, but you can't really teach stocktaking in five days," he said. "It gives you a grounding but a stocktaker is always encountering different problems, even after 20 years' experience.
"A lot of people, especially pub managers, take the course simply to learn more about their own trade. It's not just for stocktakers. And it works the other way. The background knowledge that comes from running pubs helps people to become stocktakers. They start off with the product knowledge."
As well as product knowledge and numeracy, he lists the ability to communicate as a prime qualification for a stocktaker. It is this, in fact, which separates the professional stocktaker from the cowboys who continue to present problems.
"You still find people who call themselves stocktakers who do a pub changeover without really knowing what they are doing," said Bruce, who decided to become a stocktaker himself when he was unable to find somebody to do a proper job for his own hotel.
"That still happens too often. Cowboys will get through five or six pubs a day where we would only do two. It costs more to go to a professional but you're wasting your money anyway if you don't get it done properly.
"Good stocktaking is reflected in your profits. A stocktaker should be able to tell you what your profit is on every item and assess your profitability across the board.
"Importantly, we will also sit down and talk to our clients, tell them what we are doing and why we are doing it," he continued. "If a publican isn't making enough margin on a product we point it out and tell them how to put it right, perhaps helping them with purchasing, advising where they can find the best prices."
There is also the unpleasant business of spotting and resolving discrepancies that can be tracked down to dishonest staff.
"Even for staff to see the stocktakers coming in can act as a deterrent," said Bruce. "Sometimes, though, it's the stocktaker that gets the blame. Some people will try to get the money back off us - and all we've done is identified the problem!"
Licensed trade stocktaking is still a labour-intensive profession and, while stocktakers will these days use hand-held computers to aid their calculations, Bruce is sceptical about new technology.
"I'm not a great lover of EPoS (electronic point-of-sale equipment). It gives you superfluous information. Comparing figures with till-rolls is the best way we have, and an old-fashioned till tells you everything you need to know."
