A private club refers to any type of a club that is limited to private members thereby implying that it is not open to the public. It brings out the difference between a private club and a restaurant where the restaurant is open to anyone who can pay the menu process while the club is limited to private members (Davis et al. 34). The customer base is comprised of the registered members in addition to guests or new members, who have been accepted by board members after being recommended or sponsored by an existing member of the club. After being accepted, the new members are obliged to pay a monthly subscription fee to become a fully active member. In the industries, the most common types of the clubs include golf, country, yacht, and city clubs, which involve some sets of seasonal operations in addition to catering for specific cultural activities (Davis et al. 45).
Why food and beverage operations in clubs are different
In most occasions, misconceptions have emerged thus claiming that all food and beverage operations are similar and function under the same regulations. However, the claim is not entirely true since the operations of a restaurant and a private club differ in various aspects such as:
Membership
The membership is private thereby limiting the customer base where only members and guests buy food from the clubs. Additionally, the members are few and each of them has his or her specific menu and choices within the local environment. Each person has multiple opportunities to dine per week as well (Ferreira 16). However, there are few families, who utilize the available facilities while the repeat users have few varieties such as the dining rooms.
Member’s expectations
The expectations of the members and users of the club have are governed by their affluence, education and long-term experiences in the culinary world. Therefore, the tastes or preferences of such individuals are of high order and methods of satisfying them must be sought. As such, culinary teams are established to offer more high-quality products and services than it is required in the restaurant and other commercial settings (Ferreira 6). It is necessary for managers to note that a quality kitchen fulfils the desire and expectations of the members and the members place little emphasis on the profits.
Staffing and labour
The primary expectation of the club members is the existence of a creative rather than a manufacturing kitchen. In a restaurant, most of the employees are hourly cooks while highly trained personnel such as sous chefs and specialized staffs such as saucier, sommeliers, and pastry chefs among others are employed in a club (Barrows 190). Therefore, most of the employees in the club are highly paid and offer full-time functions even during the low seasons. However, the staffing in the dining room is disadvantaged by the limitation to cash tipping thereby requiring the clubs to pay higher hourly rates and overtime pay to attract and retain staffs to provide services. The clubs are required to have many staffs, who can offer services to their members in case they decide to turn up for dinner or lunch in large numbers (Barrows 198).
Differentiated menus
A club is made up various people from different ethnicities and social classes thereby implying that the club must provide food that suits the needs of each group. Some groups may order traditional meals, special diets, cuisines and other types of food that are suitable for their health, traditions, and beliefs (Huang and Kathleen 559). The club members may turn up with their families where different ages of people require the diverse type of foods depending on what suits their preferences. As such, a club must provide a wide range of menu to cater for the dietary and social needs of all the members enrolled, as well as, their families.
Quality of products and equipment used
Clubs are best known for offering quality products, particularly; fresh produce as compared to frozen, baked and purchased bread in large quantities. High-quality products are offered for all menus such as buffet and dining that require adequate preparations. Clubs use high-quality glassware to serve drinks and foods to their customers compared to the public restaurants. For instance, clubs may use beer glasses, in goblets and other glassware to serve cocktails in their service centers (Huang and Kathleen 560). There is the need to budget for the equipment and facilities that help in the provision of products and services. However, offering low-quality products in the restaurants is not the best solution for increasing profitability since it results in unsatisfied customers. The customers may complain of weaker drinks made from cheaper ingredients and other low-quality services offered thereby decreasing business operations and profits.
Capacity offering
Although clubs have amenities for a’la carte dining, they lack the capacity to hold large-scale activities. The clubs consist of many people, who compete for dining outlets that may include grill rooms and pool cafés that can only hold a member at a time. On the other hand, the restaurants comprise of a dining room and kitchen that can cater for the needs of a large customer base. The management of the club outlets operations has fixed policies that guide on the prices charged to the customers across all the outlets.
Provisions of value, needs, and expectation of members without financial constraints
In most cases, businesses may become bankrupt due to their inability to stabilize the food prices, handling profits and losses. Various clubs handle food dilemmas differently to avoid becoming bankrupt or closing down (Fjelstul 32). For instance, some clubs have established policies that value food and services that involve inviting the members to cater for the losses at the need of each financial year. Others use the policy of raising subscriptions to neutralize losses incurred at the beginning of a new year. Additionally, some fail to sponsor outdoor events to retain profitability as well as balance the losses incurred in the kitchen with the profits incurred in the bar (Fjelstul 37). The use of the food and clubhouse levy dictates that each member must spend a specified amount per month to ensure that the club runs smoothly.
Food cost
Food cost refers to the raw ingredients that are used in the manufacturing of a particular food item. Clubs are inconsistent in terms of hours of operations and the limited customer base that results in increased waste in raw food. A restaurant is concerned with profit making while the club is concerned with satisfying the members through offering high-quality products and services (Fjelstul 36). The genuine prices in a club are governed by the traditions, committee policies and perceived values as provided by the industry standards. Therefore, the club and its members determine the right costs for them, which are pocket-friendly.
Labour cost
It refers to the amount of money used in creating a specific amount of food revenues in the food and beverage industries. The labor cost is usually low when low expertise is required and the turnover rate is high in the manufacturing food environment such as a holiday inn (Gustafson 103). Clubs tend to have an increased labor cost due to the establishment of creative kitchens that require the hiring of executive chefs and special skills staffs. The clubs pay their staffs a higher amount compared to the restaurants to retain them for an extended time and establish a strong team that can create a good relationship with the members.
Activities and product mix differentiations
The concept of product mix in the club is not the right channel towards profitability in the food and beverage departments. Clubs mostly engage in the lunch businesses compared to dinner businesses thereby resulting in highly priced lunch menus compared to the dinner menus. The product mix results in fewer beverages being consumed thereby reducing the profit margins since the beverages yield more profit margins compared to food in the private clubs (Huang and Kathleen 554). On the other hand, restaurants sell more products during breakfast compared to the clubs that have little breakfast traffic. As such, it is valid to argue that product mix has huge impacts on the sales and gross profits of a food and beverage industry.
Repetition
Repetition is a major problem facing the club industry where reselling of the same product is done over an extended period. On the other hand, restaurants do not offer repetitive experiences where statistics indicate that 40% of clients in a restaurant at night are new or first time customers (York 147). 100% of the clients in a club at night are repeat customers thus resulting in reduced food expenditures by the clubs from their users. Statistics also indicate that 20% of the club members eat at their club more than one out of four meals despite the influx in the prevalence of the food and beverages minimums (York 150).
Impacts of club traditions
Traditions refer to the norms and cultures that define people’s identity (Barrows and Tom 2). Organizations have traditions as well, which are determined by the structure and culture that a company has established over the years. The club traditions can be described as the activities that it engages in its day-to-day activities thereby making a history of operation or functionalities. The traditions of the club can increase or decrease business operations depending on their intensity. Good traditions help in maintaining customers due to increased satisfaction obtained from the quality food and services offered (Cichy et al. 230). The traditions may also have impacts on the competitiveness of the firm where quality products produced are a source of some competitive advantage over the other substitute products (Barrows and Tom 4). Traditions may also destroy the organization’s business by limiting options and reducing profits. Some clubs are rigid and do not incorporate changes in the technology or the environment to be abreast with the new ideas and developments. As such, they lag behind in the provision of quality products and services thereby implying that there is a high potential for losses.
Activities involved in ensuring attainment of gross profits
The members and the management of the private clubs must engage in a various function that is aimed at ensuring that the gross profits are obtained. The first activity is the development of the purchasing policies that is designed to suit the needs of the organization and its stakeholders. Second is the development of strategies for receiving foods and supplies by the club management giving special consideration to quantity, quality, portion controls and packaging methods (Huang and Kathleen 556). The establishment of principles guides in menu planning, storage, production cycle and service delivery and designing (Gustafson 110). The analysis or calculation of the selling prices of goods and services is important to ensure that no losses are incurred during the selling period.
Measures of good kitchen management
The management efficiency can be determined through the calculation of the gross profits in the organization (Cha, Ronald and SeungHyun 4). Studies indicate that a high gross profit triggers more saving in regards to quality and quantity as well as increased selling prices of commodities. Factors such as increased selling prices reduced quantity and quality results in decreased sales volume because of customer dissatisfaction. On the other hand, reduced gross profits may be led by the lack of quantity control, low sale prices as well as inadequate purchasing process. Therefore, there is the need to balance between sustained profits, the quality and quantity of goods by the skilled chefs and managers of the food and beverage companies. Businesses that have attained the balance enjoy continued support from their customers and increased gross profits unlike those that are still experiencing problems in balancing.
Benefits of the topic
The topic at hand benefits both the managers and members of the private clubs since it provides a critical insight into the dilemmas facing the food and beverages industry. The management and members have also acquired knowledge on the possible ways of organizing and carrying out business operations with an aim of obtaining increased profitability. Additionally, they have been equipped with the right knowledge on the policies that can be established to improve profitability, reduce losses and bankruptcy in the provision of services. Such cost reduction policies may include establishing a creative kitchen to yield customer satisfaction, dining room subsidy taxes and reducing the variety of menus. Others include reducing the number of rooms, encouraging the turnover rates and promoting business with an aim of maintaining existing customers as well as attracting new members.
The topic is also important since it helps the management to plan for the services, meetings, and activities for their members based on the preferences and needs. The management and members have also been kept abreast with information regarding benchmarking, fraud management, information technology controls and applications, amenity pricing and turnover consulting processes. Additionally, it provides a platform through which a good kitchen management can be measured and the activities that need to be done to increase gross profits. The information is also helpful to the industry professionals as well as students since it provides information on the types of clubs, organization, and functionalities.
Conclusion
Various individuals feel that the private club business is ending due to the problems the industry has faced over time. The challenges and dilemmas include high financial requirements to sustain the functionalities of the clubs since the user groups are small. Additionally, few users have sophisticated expectations and taste. The creation and sustenance of the culinary teams are also expensive. There is stiff competition from other clubs in the same line of business as well (Ferreira 6). There has also been the thought that the lack of wide range of dining rooms has resulted in continuing losses in the private clubs. However, I feel that the challenges are not the death factor of the clubs but a stepping-stone towards future success. The club needs to understand that people are still interested in the membership that suits their lifestyles. It also necessary for the club management teams to respond to the changes brought about by globalization, respect traditions, avoid being tradition-bound and establish policies that will result in the profitability of the firm.
Several policies that have been established to prevent bankruptcy in the industry as brought about by dilemma may include inviting high membership to cover the losses, raising of the monthly subscription to neutralize loses at the end of the years and introducing clubhouse levies (Cichy et al. 219). Additionally, the clubs have cut down on the outdoor activities aimed at promoting business to save resources as possible and fight the losses that may be incurred over time. However, the strategies have not been successful in solving all the dilemmas thereby requiring more efforts to be made in future. The plans for the private club should consider their marketplaces, identify their members and create a strong mission and vision that will guide their operations. Other solutions may include establishing a creative kitchen to yield customer satisfaction and offering dining room subsidy taxes.
Works Cited
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