Woody Wu · Beverage Revenue Audit · REF WW-BR-01
The Beverage Revenue Audit
Most wine lists are priced by habit. I price them by what your guests actually order.
THE PROBLEM THIS SOLVES
Most beverage programs lose money quietly. The price ladder has a gap between sixty and a hundred and ten dollars, so the guest who would have spent eighty five spends sixty. Markups are one flat multiplier, which overcharges at the bottom where guests are careful and undercharges at the top where they are not. The by-the-glass list was built for the cellar, not the table.
And covers can hold while the beverage check per guest falls. The number on the wall stays healthy. The number that pays for the building does not.
WHAT I DO
I read your lists, your sales mix, your costs and your stock, watch how the list is actually sold at the table, and find where the revenue and the margin are leaking. Then I hand you a ranked plan: what to change, in what order, and what each change is worth.
Remote first. You send the numbers, and I observe one service, on site or by video with your team.
WHAT YOU GET
1. Your beverage P&L on one page.
Beverage share of sales, check per cover, pour cost by category, and the trend underneath the covers number.
2. The price ladder, redrawn.
Every bottle on one chart by price: the gaps, the clusters, the bottles guests anchor on. The three to add, cut or re-price, and what each is worth.
3. A markup policy.
Tiered by price band, with the effect on margin modelled on what you actually sell, not a textbook.
4. By the glass.
The right number of pours at the right prices, the waste you are carrying, and the two glasses that should be doing more work.
5. Dead stock.
What has not moved in two quarters, how to sell it through, and the cash it frees.
6. The staff brief.
The three bottles to move this quarter, one line each on how to sell them, and when a guest should be told the cheaper bottle is the better one.
7. Zero proof as revenue.
Priced and presented as a program that earns margin, if your numbers support it.
8. The ranked plan.
Every recommendation with its estimated monthly value as a range, what it takes to do, and what order to do it in.
9. The follow-up.
Ninety days after delivery: check per cover, beverage share and pour cost, before and after, on one page. Included.
WHAT I DO NOT DO
I take no money from suppliers: no listing fees, no volume incentives, no introductions paid by a distributor or a winery. An adviser paid by suppliers stops recommending the cheaper bottle, so I am paid by you alone.
I do not guess. Every estimate is a range and says what it is based on. Where the data is thin I say so, and where a change can be tested instead of argued, a price move on four bottles for six weeks, I give you the test.
If you are a restaurant in my own city, I will tell you so and point you toward someone good.
THE FEE
One venue: $2,500 CAD, fixed, about two weeks.
On-site service observation: travel at cost. A list rebuild and staff training are quoted after the audit, if you want them. Groups are scaled.
The ninety day follow-up is included.
WHY ME
I am a sommelier with the WSET and ISG Diplomas, and I run dining rooms. I was an opening sommelier, and I founded and ran a wine-led restaurant, so I have priced lists as the person whose margin depended on them. I have also bought wine close to growers in Burgundy and Piedmont, and consulted on fine wine auctions, which is where you learn what a bottle is really worth.
Most of what I will tell you, your team half knows already. The audit turns it into numbers, and the numbers into an order of work.
THE RECORD SO FAR
The record starts with the first clients. Anonymised before and after results will be published here as the ninety day follow-ups come in. No client is ever named.
TO COMMISSION AN AUDIT
Send your current lists and roughly what beverage is as a share of your sales. That is enough to start. Not ready yet? The free Wine Program Launch Checklist is a good first pass.
DIRECT ANSWERS
How can a restaurant increase its wine and beverage sales?
Usually by fixing the price ladder rather than adding more wines: close the gaps where guests trade down, tier markups so the bottom of the list is fair and the top earns, cut the by-the-glass list to pours that sell, and brief staff on three bottles a quarter. The Beverage Revenue Audit finds which of these applies to your list and what each is worth. $2,500 CAD per venue, fixed.
What markup should a restaurant put on wine?
There is no single right number. A flat multiplier across the list usually overcharges the price-sensitive guest at the bottom and undercharges at the top. A tiered markup by price band, checked against what your guests actually order, almost always earns more margin and sells more bottles. The audit models it on your own sales mix.