Stock up on fruity drinks

Sales are booming of fruity drinks – ciders and beers mostly. We reported in February of the meteoric rise of Kopparberg in Ireland and it seems that herb and fruit infused beers are set to become a major growth category for brewers facing dwindling sales of ale/stout, according to the manufacturer of a new range of natural flavours. Full story here. So stock up now and get in early on this growing trend. Your customers are looking for these drinks….

 

Another Irish hotel victim to robbery

We’ve spoken about it here before, and unfortunately another Irish hotel has been robbed by an armed gang during a nightime raid. While this hotel appeared to have the ability to notify Gardai immediately who were on the scene while the robbery was still in progress, the increasing usage of firearms by raiders is a worrying trend and allows business owners little chance to defend themselves. Our advice? Beef up security as well as you can, but don’t be a hero when firearms are being used. Money is replaceable (and often insured). Lives are not.

 

When is “Room Only” not “Room Only”?

….When it’s Bed & Breakfast….

 

Sign outside a Galway Hotel….

 

…so is it Room Only or Bed & Breakfast?

 

The Master’s Apprentice – a masterstroke from Fáilte Ireland

It’s long overdue but this Sunday saw the first in a six-part series on RTE 1, ‘The Master’s Apprentice’. The series, which goes out at 7.30pm for the next six Sunday evenings, takes a look at how catering students and graduates take to working on the real thing as they run hotels, look after bars, learn wine-tasting and cook haute cuisine.
The series – replete with seven tongue-in-cheek 10-second Fáilte Ireland-branded promotional lead-ins and outros – has been funded by Fáilte Ireland with a view to encouraging more people into the leisure sector.
It has been produced by Tyrone Productions and for the first time that I can remember, the concept of working in the kitchen, hotel or bar as a young person comes across as being highly aspirational.
According to Fáilte Ireland’s Head of Professional Development Kevin Mulvey, between now and 2012, the industry needs 6,000 new entrants per year.

 

Shelbourne Hotel Dublin almost ready to open..

Some recent Brochure Photos of the soon to be opened Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin give some idea of the painstaking restoration and development that has taken place over the last 18 months.

    

   

 

Don’t just dump it..

Gutted to learn that some 20 tonnes of duty-free products get confiscated every week from passengers travelling through Frankfurt Airport. That’s just one airport! Elsewhere, for example, passengers can lose 1,500 litres of alcohol and perfume a day at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam if they want.
We added 0.0001 per cent to this statistic when overlooking a 200ml bottle of hand cream in our hand-luggage recently. Gone. But not forgotten.
“Cornfiscated. It shall shorely be puut into der container for derstruction,” said the smug official. But was it?
Of course one has one’s doubts as to whether this booty is really destroyed or later divvied up amongst the airport officials no matter what they might insist, but could I make a suggestion that would partially satisfy some of us?
If such large amounts are being destroyed, it’s a sin, probably a Mortaler at that.
Could I suggest that a monthly auction be held of all the ‘cornfiscated’ products from hapless passengers and the proceeds given to a worthy charity?
That way we might get to feel a bit better about losing our precious duty-free to the zecurity zealots. I know that won’t make the suppliers too happy but it’s an intolerable situation for the passengers and could well spell the end of the airport shop if they’re not careful. I certainly think twice about whether I can be bothered purchasing alcohol before I even consider wandering into the airport shop these days….
Or perhaps you have some suggestions as to what might be done with it?
Now Australia has warned that it won’t accept more than 100ml of liquid in hand-luggage from the last port of call prior to arrival in Oz. It also looks likely to insist that for those wishing to purchase duty-free on any direct flights there, it will only be handed to them, sealed, at the final gate of departure from the airport retail outlet with all the attendant logistics and cost problems. This seriously worries the duty-free drinks industry and quite rightly so. Who could be bothered with the increasing security headache for a bottle of scotch?
And the question must be asked, has Osama indeed won the war already? Look at the turmoil he’s managed to cause at airports throughout Europe and the rest of the world for the past four years……

 

Solving the Drink Driving Problem for Publicans

The recent media swarm and consumer backlash around the publican/drink driving issue has created a situation where public opinion strongly opposes any comment made by rural publicans in respect of assistance for their business. Indeed, we are becoming almost immune to sound bytes from the Vintners Federation et al.

In our haste to pronounce that “The Publican has had it good for long enough…..” and such similar comments, we are failing to recognise the two real issues:

1. No Publican wants to be responsible for, associated with, known for causing or accomplice to death on the roads. On a purely economic level, the publican does not need to lose an already dwindling rural customer base but in such a community where everyone knows everyone, such a death would affect the entire community.

2. Random Breath testing and Drink Driving Laws are a hurdle, not a brick wall. Everyone in society, whether willing to admit it publicly or otherwise, agrees that a family with all siblings around the table for dinner instead of in a mortuary is favourable and that random breath testing and drink driving laws are actually contributing to maintaining the status quo of many families.

Yes, laws have changed, enforcement has increased and mindsets are shifting, however, economic factors and legislative changes have impacted business since time immemorial. Publicans themselves have contended with and adapted to business changes such as the smoking ban and every business sector has had it’s own cross to bear at some point in it’s history. Cigarette Manufacturers have lost (rightly so, many will agree) the right to advertise or be associated with certain sporting events. The smoking ban also had a large impact on cigarette machine suppliers in Ireland.

 

Speak English or Get Out!

You might be forgiven for thinking this is some reference to colleagues from the new accession states speaking the foreign tongue, but this is actually what a Bar Man in Grafton Street, Dublin told a native Irish Speaker when he tried to order in his own native tongue Irish.

In a fascinating experiment aired on TG4 last night called No Bearla, Manchan Magan attempts to travel around Ireland speaking nothing but Irish, of which 1.6 million of us claim “the cupla focail”. Particularly topical in the week that Irish is announced as the newest EU language, some people even resorted to hostility when spoken to As Gaeilge.

View some clips of the show here.

It certainly begs the question that if we can’t do business or even survive in our own country with just our official language, then why are we going to the trouble of getting it EU status? Would it not be the first step for the houses of the oireachtas to conduct their business this way…..?