After Wine

After dinner drinks are a fantastic way of increasing average spend and profit whilst enhancing your customers’ experience. By rethinking your approach to how you list, market and sell after dinner drinks you can make a real difference to your bottom line.

The sale could be a sticky dessert wine, a boutique Armagnac, a smoky single malt whisky or even a decadent cocktail. What matters is getting that sale whilst adding to the customer’s experience and enjoyment.

Bibendum’s After Wine concept is full of ideas to help you actively and knowledgeably increase drinks sales immediately after diners have finished their main course.

What’s it all about?

In a word – profit

After Wine is all about increasing average spend without increasing costs. Your rent, staff and running costs are all fixed. By adding on an additional sale after the main course you can make a disproportionately positive effect on your bottom line.

Put simply, a small investment in thinking about how to secure these extra sales will more than pay for itself in extra profitability.

How to do it?

Think outside the box. Offer a much wider range of drinks after the main course – don’t just think sweet wines with dessert and brandy with coffee. Encourage your customers to experiment. See some of our suggested food and drink matches below for ideas.

Think about your selection

Put the same care into developing your After Wine list as your normal wine list. You wouldn’t just list big brands like Jacob’s Creek or Blossom Hill on your wine list so why stick to the famous names when it comes to spirits. Boutique, artisan products offer your customers a much better drink and the chance to discover something new whilst allowing you to make a much better GP.

Think like a customer

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that if you put your After Wine drinks on your main wine list that customers will remember what they are. Most diners will only see the wine list at the start of the meal and will need a reminder of what you are offering after their main course.

Make things easy for them by creating an After Wines list that you can present to customers or add by the glass suggestions to your dessert menu.

Think about visibility
There are lots of places where you can put suggestions about After Wine drinks:
wine lists, dessert menus, specials boards, bar displays – even the toilets or by the ashtrays outside.

Use these opportunities to get your customers thinking about what they might like to order before you start talking to them.

Think about training

The biggest selling tool you have is your staff – get them enthused about your After Wine drinks and you have won half the battle. Staff training is key to the After Wine concept and can be as simple as internal sessions that let staff sample products and try out food and drinks matches. A little effort and investment can go a long way.

For more details about Bibendum’s After Wine concept speak to your Account Manager or email: info@bibendum-spirits.co.uk