The Club’s current agreement which has been in place for the past five years is coming up for renewal at the end of December. Over the past couple of months, we have worked through our current options and benefits with our current supplier (Lion), together with a proposal from another brewery. We have even considered the option of not signing with any company.
The main factors that have been considered during the review included the current customer service we have had over the last few years around product availability, client service and support & flexibility. It has been agreed whilst we have had a longstanding relationship with Lion, and we are grateful for their support over the years, we have determined that it is not in the best interests of the club to re-sign a new agreement with them.
At the forefront of these deliberations has been our members’ enjoyment of the products on offer. We are aware there is from time-to-time feedback regarding our current product selection and requests such as “can we stock product X?”, “we have a winery, or can you stock our wines?”. The answer consistently just had to be “no” in order to comply with our agreement. Regardless of any new supplier we chose, the same scenarios would likely come up. Both proposals under review have restrictions which would hold us back from meeting the various needs of our members. As a club which is supported by locals, we also want to support local businesses where we can, and this can now include any variety of beverage the club chooses.
Thus, the result of these deliberations is that we have decided that it is in the best interest of members that we do not need to enter a formal contract with one particular supplier. The good news with that is that we will now have the freedom to stock whatever products we like going forward to ensure we stay current with product releases and member needs. We are excited about these upcoming changes and hope you enjoy the new selection. These changes will be made gradually over the next few weeks starting with a change to bottled beer and wines. In the New Year once, the current contract lapses new tap beers will be rolled out. There will be a ‘member special’ draft beer available and this may vary from month to month with other new selections on offer.
However, there will be some price adjustments due to rising costs. The number of fixed cost increases that the Bar & Café have encountered over the past year (and more still to come including minimum wage increases and alcohol excise tax) resulted in a deficit for the year. We have also increased the number of opening hours to meet the wishes of members, but in some cases, this has been in “quiet times”. Thus, we must balance member needs with financial prudence.
Note that any increases to your bar charges are not linked with the new supplier strategy.
Members who continue to use their House Account will still get a 10% ‘discount’ with funds preloaded onto their membership card and we encourage more members to use this. The increase of visitors to the club over summer and beyond will be charged the new rate and ultimately assist the increase in revenues required. If your favourite beer goes up, by example of $1 per unit, by using your membership card that is only a .90c increase. After comparison to other golf courses/pubs/clubs we are still in a “middle-of-the-pack” position regarding price.
We also want your input via a suggestion box on the bar counter. So, if there are other products you would like to see, please jot this down through January and they will be reviewed at the end of the month.
The aim is to trial this strategy for 12 months to determine if this is working well for the club. The increases will be implemented next week. Please click here for new pricelist for bottle beer and wine.