Successful catering alternative in golf club

Doctor C

From what I can gather, there are many small to medium size clubs that have difficulty in providing an adequate catering facility for members and visitors. There appears to be insufficient business to provide a living wage for any qualified caterer. Our own club has had 3 different contracted caterers in the last 3 years and I am aware of many other golf clubs in a similar position. Is anyone aware of any club that has successfully dealt with similar situations and if so how?

Dtoffee

Doctor C wrote: »

From what I can gather, there are many small to medium size clubs that have difficulty in providing an adequate catering facility for members and visitors. There appears to be insufficient business to provide a living wage for any qualified caterer. Our own club has had 3 different contracted caterers in the last 3 years and I am aware of many other golf clubs in a similar position. Is anyone aware of any club that has successfully dealt with similar situations and if so how?

I suppose a lot depends on the demand from the members and obviously the demand is not that high in some clubs. Many years ago, the professional often lived in the clubhouse or onsite .... his wife ran the bar and provided a catering service with the help of a few locals when necessary. I know its a different era and I would rule out the the Pros as they are far better paid these days, but I am amazed that this type of set up has not become more common.

Basically, what you can do is offer a couple a residence with a bar and catering deal (I'm sure theres plenty out there who would jump at the chance of a deal that includes a place to live). The added bonus for the club is that you have someone on site 24/7 and your insurance costs should come down :P

If the members expect fancy menus and silver service, then obviously this is a non starter. External caterers can be hired for big occasions like the Captains Dinner etc.

Ollieboy

The problem with a lot of clubs is that they give the caterer the food but not the bar.

To be honest it's nearly impossible to make a decent living from the food in most golf clubs alone, the caterer really needs the bar income also. The bonus for the caterer is having 1 staff member doing dual roles, instead of the club hiring the bar staff and the caterer having table staff. This is what we have at the moment and it works well at the weekend but it's a huge over-kill during the week.

Our caterer is fairly good, but the problem for him is turn-over, or the lack of it. Once that happens you'll get mistakes due to cost cutting and not enough staff available and he'll hire cheaper chefs during part of the season.

Another problem is the price of food in clubs, its just to cheap.

You just can't expect someone to run a A class food business for zero.

I notice recently a company taken over a couple of catering contracts at clubs, not sure what the standard is like though but they should be able to have share resources and make it more profitable.

Dr_Colossus

Ollieboy wrote: »

The problem with a lot of clubs is that they give the caterer the food but not the bar.

To be honest it's nearly impossible to make a decent living from the food in most golf clubs alone, the caterer really needs the bar income also. The bonus for the caterer is having 1 staff member doing dual roles, instead of the club hiring the bar staff and the caterer having table staff. This is what we have at the moment and it works well at the weekend but it's a huge over-kill during the week.

Very good point, after a number of years with different caterers this year my club has made the bold move of letting the long term bar staff go and giving both the bar and food contract to a new catering company. Should hopefully be viable in future as stated there are a lot of economies of scale with staffing requirements which is the biggest expense in any service industry.

ShivasIrons

Some clubs in the US which don't have a massive amount of traffic do a couple of things, they have a menu service for lunch between 12 and 2:30 and out side those hours for golfer who'd like something to eat they have a pasta dish and a soup or chowder in food warmers for the rest of the day.

Very little cost to run but still offering something reasonable to eat. It's not too difficult to make up decent stew/chowder/soup/pasta and have it waiting.

Goldenjohn

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

Very good point, after a number of years with different caterers this year my club has made the bold move of letting the long term bar staff go and giving both the bar and food contract to a new catering company. Should hopefully be viable in future as stated there are a lot of economies of scale with staffing requirements which is the biggest expense in any service industry.

Is there not an issue with leasing out the bar unless things changed since castlebars difficulties?
Www.independent.ie/irish-news/sports-club-bars-feel-the-fallout-of-one-mans-crusade-28957745.html

Senna

Club I know of has had a very successful caterer in now after years of nothing.
The club was making nothing from food so they decided to take someone in at a loss, allowed them a year to build up trade and get established. During that year the caterer invested the money they should have paid in rent into new equipment, decor, advertising etc.

I wouldn't know exactly how well their member sales would be performing, but they are doing a good steady trade from locals and I'm sure paying a good rent now, while obviously offering services to members and visitors.

Ollieboy

Goldenjohn wrote: »

Is there not an issue with leasing out the bar unless things changed since castlebars difficulties?
Www.independent.ie/irish-news/sports-club-bars-feel-the-fallout-of-one-mans-crusade-28957745.html

I got legal advice on this a couple of weeks ago and it's not issue according to them. A contract can be put in place to transfer the licence etc.

golfwallah

Doctor C wrote: »

From what I can gather, there are many small to medium size clubs that have difficulty in providing an adequate catering facility for members and visitors. There appears to be insufficient business to provide a living wage for any qualified caterer. Our own club has had 3 different contracted caterers in the last 3 years and I am aware of many other golf clubs in a similar position. Is anyone aware of any club that has successfully dealt with similar situations and if so how?

Up to 5 years ago, our club had a contract caterer and our own staff in the bar. We then moved both operations to the contract caterer.

The 2 major areas on which we needed professional advice were:

1. Legal / HR advice with regard to the process whereby bar staff are made redundant. You need to get good advice and follow it to minimise the risk of litigation and possible additional unexpected costs.
2. Insurance Advice (from your insurance broker) with regard to the level of insurance required by your contractor for the restaurant (and bar). This may appear a tad pedantic but, unfortunately, many clubs don't check it out (mainly through ignorance of the risks they are taking through non or under-insurance). I had to insist on our caterer producing a cert for me (he had none until I insisted he get it). Policy read OK to me as a lay person, but I sent it to our broker who advised me on additional insurance which I had to insist on. After that, your committee needs to check on your contractor's insurance cover every year (easily forgotten with voluntary committees).

Even with the bar, it's still tough for our contractor to make a living out of it. But he saves on the same staff covering both activities and the club has vastly reduced staff costs that we simply could not afford.

Best of luck with the new set-up!