CASE STUDY ASPERS CASINO Aspers Casinos brought the concept of a super casino to the UK with their first site at the former Olympic Village. The group operates four casinos in the UK which are all built on the philosophy of inspiring and exciting leisure and entertainment destinations. Based around the theme A World of Entertainment, Aspers goes beyond just gaming, with an array of impressive bars, restaurants and live entertainment. Changing the gaming industry norm The general consensus in the gaming industry is that food and drink are very much secondary to the gaming trade therefore no emphasis is given to margin improvement in this area. With their unique product and innovative outlook, Aspers Casinos recognised there was an opportunity to really focus on their food o ering, streamline their processes and deliver a superior customer offering. THE GO TO PROCUREMENT SOLUTION FOR THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
Taking stock Aspers understood that taking better control of their purchasing, stock control and general processes would lead to more efficient operations and a much more cost effective business all round. Prior to using Procure Wizard, Aspers used an outside stock auditing company who, once a month, would come in and count their stock and produce results. By only performing a stock count once a month, it was difficult for them to see where they were on a day to day basis in terms of ordering and current stock levels. A monthly report is retrospective in terms of the value of the data, all you can do is react and it gives no real power to make decisions and influence gross profit. Day to day stock taking is the only way to keep on top of stock levels Looking for the right solution Having successfully opened the UK s largest and first super casino, Malcolm Atherton the Group Hospitality Manager, was keen to ensure the team had the right business tools to manage the day to day transactions and effectively manage their departments. At Procure Wizard, we went through a lengthy audit, investigation and detailed exercise of aligning our software solution with their needs. Although we were aware of one or two solutions being considered, it was clear that our integrated solution, from Food & Beverage to Purchase to Pay was the perfect match.
As this was our first customer outside of the hotel and restaurant sector, we worked very closely with Richard Noble, Chief Operating Officer, and the management team to target each of their specific areas of concern: Take control of spending Turn around food margins to ensure they performed better Concentrate focus on food & beverage control Create a purchasing strategy It was important to Aspers that the solution they integrated was one that they could grow with as a business. The fact that Procure Wizard had industry knowledge outside of the gaming sector was something that really appealed and there was a clear vision of how to grow the food and beverage product within the gaming industry.
Making implementation pain free Our focus at Procure Wizard is always to integrate our Purchase to Pay system into new clients as quickly and seamlessly as possible, without compromising the training or learning period. In Aspers case it took just 6 weeks from start to finish, to be in a position where all three casinos (Milton Keynes came on later) were placing their food and beverage orders through Procure Wizard. Training teams were dispatched to ensure they had full training and support during the implementation period for each site in Stratford, Northampton and Newcastle and later Milton Keynes. We were delighted with the implementation when you think about integrating a new software system into your business it can seem a daunting prospect. However, we were taken aback at just how painless, seamless and simple the whole process was. Because Procure Wizard came onsite to deliver the training to our core team, we could very quickly integrate it into our business and we were delighted how quickly all our sites were placing their orders through the system. Malcolm Atherton Hospitality Group Manager, Aspers Casino THE FIRST CHOICE PROVIDER TO LEADING HOSPITALITY GROUPS IN THE UK FOR A REASON
Measuring Success 14% Savings on purchases 17 wks ROI 3% Margin Improvement 5.4% Percentage P2P Credits 36,907 Total no. of orders Providing the tools to be proactive There has been a real culture shift in the Food & Beverage area, with Aspers now having the capability to be proactive. With the integration of the Procure Wizard system, everything is more transparent with daily flash reports showing all costs against expected delivery dates against expected/ actual revenue. This provides expected gross margins that can be compared to forecasts/budgets within set margin. Aspers now has the ability to accurately cost all menus, recipes and dishes which links to live pricing and allergen information directly provided by their suppliers. This means that none of the information will ever be dated again!
Empowering Employees The system has empowered the Aspers chefs to such an extent that they are now completely in control of their gross profit. The Flash Report automatically updates all committed expenditure against each of Aspers suppliers thus providing real time gross margin. The chefs being actively targeted to achieve gross margin, one of their key responsibilities is to challenge their suppliers for credits actively reducing their total spend. This has improved gross profit by an estimated 7%. There has been real collaboration between the operations and accounts team with front and back of house working and speaking to each other, all to the benefit of the overall business. In short, as a result of adopting the Procure Wizard software, Aspers can empower their own people changing the focus on business for the better, and giving them control. Utilising the technology in new ways Much to our delight Aspers are utilising our technology in brand new ways. They use the Advanced Stock Module to manage the stock on gaming equipment e.g. screens, gaming chips, moveable parts etc. Today we manage every single purchase order for Aspers Casinos streamlining the traditional paper systems they previously had in place. We ve effectively flipped these orders into our stock management system to overcome one of their largest challenges to date managing expensive equipment items within their business both across multiple sites.
Being led by our customers / Paving the path for the future Procure Wizard was originally created for the hotel and restaurant sector as this was our area of expertise. It was never in our plans to stop there and we are delighted to have some strong clients in the casino and leisure trade. Our experience with Aspers has shown us our technology through new eyes and we are able to use our experience in Food and Beverage management to support the day to day running of racecourses and football stadia not just casinos. SAY HELLO Speak to our team to arrange a demo today. Call: 0844 801 2008 Email: info@procurewizard.com Surf: