To say that Mikkeller is passionate about beer would be an understatement. This Danish craft brewery arrived in the UK in 2018, having already set up over 200 bars and restaurants across 37 countries around the world. Bar manager Jake Milne and retail manager Tony Haslam play pivotal roles in the country’s UK operations and have been using Square from the very beginning. Starting modestly with a pop-up bar, the brand’s focus was on providing a great range of craft beers and other beverages In time, they added a brewery, and began brewing in-house for peak freshness.
Although the past few years have proven a crucible for the hospitality industry, the team at Mikkeller has weathered the storm by diversifying and keeping their offering fresh in more ways than one. We look at how Square aided Mikkeller in simplifying and expanding the company’s UK operations.
Key challenges and how Square offered solutions
Tony, Jake and the team began using Square for their UK operations from the start, on the recommendation of a colleague from Denmark. While the road to growth has been beset with challenges, Square’s POS solutions have helped the team keep operations simple, effective and agile.
- Product turnover: As a brewpub, Mikkeller’s product range changes with every batch. “The good thing about the brewpub environment is we don’t have to do the same thing over and over again,” Tony told us. “We don’t have a core range, so we’re always making new beers”. While this keeps the product range fresh and exciting, it also creates challenges in keeping the POS up-to-date in order to reflect the ever-changing roster of drinks. “We’re creating new products literally every week. We can’t have it interrupting service”, he admitted. Fortunately, Mikkeller can update Square Point of Sale with visuals and taste profiles, so that staff have the information at their fingertips via Square Terminal.
- Managing multiple locations: Since setting up in the UK, Mikkeller has opened 2 locations, with more to come. But that growth brings its own challenges, especially with a constantly changing inventory. The team uses Square to update products and prices across multiple locations instantly.
- Offering an exceptional customer experience: Jake cited flexibility as his number one priority in delivering an exceptional customer experience. This means not only brewing “the right beer at the right time” but also simplifying the checkout process and making it quicker, easier and more convenient for customers to pay. Square Reader has helped to ensure a quick, easy and flexible checkout system.
- Opening new revenue streams: When unforeseen circumstances curtailed Mikkeller’s bar operations in 2020, Square helped the brand diversify its offering with new revenue streams from retail sales, takeaway and gift cards. “I was actually surprised with how many gift cards we’ve sold,” Tony confessed “They’re actually quite popular”.
- Sales data: “Mikkeller utilises Square Reporting to guide their stock decisions, enabling them to strike the perfect balance between trusted classics and innovative offerings.”
Mikkeller’s implementation and training journey
Because they used Square from the outset, the team at Mikkeller found it easy to integrate Square POS into their daily operations. The company’s high staff retention rates, combined with Square POS’ intuitive interface, have made for a smooth and effortless journey of implementation. “We don’t really do training on Square,” Tony admits, “It works like other apps people are used to, so it’s pretty intuitive”. Praising how congruent and intuitive Square POS was on Apple devices, the team found it quick and easy to get team members up and running with the platform.
Square’s impact on business operations
Although the Mikkeller’s UK team used Square from the outset, Tony and Jake had used other payment systems in the past that they described as “clunky”. Using Square’s business solutions, the team was able to keep business operations lean, agile and effective, pivoting in real-time to mitigate the effects of a time period that has typically been very punishing for the hospitality industry.
Some of the tangible ways in which Square has impacted Mikkeller’s business operations include:
Increased revenue and greater diversification
Revenue is the fuel that drives growth, for any business. The team told us that using Square POS helped them to speed up queues, get customers served faster and boost revenues. But fast-moving queues are just the tip of the iceberg.
The team also set up unique websites for each location through Square, effortlessly integrating their exhaustive and ever-changing product library to ensure that online and retail operations ran as smoothly as the bar.
“I think it’s been a big part of our journey”, Jake told us “The bar has changed so much from the day we’ve opened until now. We’ve done so many different things and we’ve used Square for so many different things as well”.
Operational efficiency
Generating revenue is great, but the team at Mikkeller know that operational inefficiencies can lead to waste and loss that can compromise growth. Using Square has allowed the team to keep their operations efficient in a number of ways:
- Payment is 100% cashless, which is faster and saves employees’ time when closing the bar
- Real-time updates save time reconciling reports from different machines
- Real-time data tracking allows the brand to monitor the performance of different beers and ensure that resources are dedicated to brewing the right beer at the right time, planning brewing schedules accordingly
- Tip management is made simpler, encouraging more customers to tip generously and adding an average of £1-£2 per hour to employee pay
Effective staff deployment
Staff deployment is a common bugbear in the service industry. While bars, restaurants and cafes may want to ensure that there are sufficient team members to cover busy periods, overstaffing can put a serious dent in cash flow.
Using Square’s rich suite of reporting features, the team can always ensure that they have the right staff at the right time, using historical data to make informed decisions about how, where and when team members are needed.
Exceptional customer experience
“We want to create loyal, repeat customers,” Jake told us, “Which comes from the environment and how we interact with them”.
Fortunately, the elements mentioned above have coalesced to allow the Mikkeller team to deliver an exceptional customer experience time after time. As well as keeping operations efficient and making payment convenient for customers, Square dashboard helps the team to gauge which beers are the most popular. This allows them to take risks and offer something new for customers that are looking for a challenge, while also ensuring that bestsellers are always available.
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