Page 11 - GBC winter 2016 Eng

Does the following statement sound familiar? “It is nearing the end of the season and for the most part weather has been very good with fewer rain days and our rounds are up; however, my greatest challenge has been my food and beverage operation with higher food costs and staff issues.”
OPERATIONAL REVIEW
In general, most owners and operators agree that the food and beverage operation requires significant management overview with constant turnover in staff and constant financial review in order to control cost.
In essence, it is a required service for patrons, private or public, and can either enhance or detract from a player’s experience. From a financial perspective, most fully private clubs either earn 5% or lose 5% of revenue after deducting food and beverage and labour costs. Semi-private and public courses tend to earn more profit; however, this typically ranges from 10% to 20% of revenue before the allocation of overhead.
Further, the size and type of facility will also dictate the potential to earn income from a food and beverage operation. For example, is your clubhouse large enough to host weddings and banquets, and is the location of your facility conducive to attracting these events or non- golfer patrons? Could the club operate as a restaurant to non- patrons?
Based upon our evaluation and interviews with owners, each facility needs to review their own circumstance since there are no ‘cookie cutter’ solutions.
In order to understand the issues most operators face, we have outlined three case studies based on our interviews across the country.
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PROS AND CONS
Every year it would appear, after interviewing many golf course owners and operators, that food and beverage operations require constant management with minimal return. Most owners and operators spend a great deal of time trying to ensure staff are well trained and turnover does not cause poor customer service and/ or higher food and wage costs.
The question is: “Should I continue to manage and operate my food and beverage operation, or should I find a person or entity to lease the operation and eliminate this headache?”
This article will review the pros and cons of leasing or managing the food and beverage operation. In addition, the food and beverage operation and expected metrics can be significantly different based upon the type of facility; especially a private club vs. a public or semi- private facility.
In order to gain insight into the various issues, Global Golf Advisors (“GGA”) evaluated our database as well as conducted interviews with various operators across the country, for both private and public facilities, and with operators who had experience leasing out the food and beverage operation.
In addition, we gained some interesting insight from the various owners/operators on changes they have made to process which may ease some of the past management concerns.