Three Easy Ways to Clean Out and Control Your Inventory

Dec. 18, 2017

Running an efficient inventory program is crucial to the success of your bottom line. Businesses that hold onto too much inventory without moving it out will inevitably lose money, both as a result of increased breakage, theft and unnecessary operating expenses. While the length of holding onto inventory varies by business, BevSpot finds that for On-Premise businesses, the optimal length of individual inventory holding is 2-3 weeks, which is bound to be a challenge for some businesses.

 

Here’s a scenario that most Breakthru customers, both On- and Off-Premise, can easily relate to:

 

It’s January, and your inventory still includes a bevy of fall seasonal flavors, such as pumpkin, that customers are no longer demanding. How do you move this?

 

This type of situation has both a reactive and proactive solution, and Anthony Simone, regional vice president of operations, Midwest, has tips on how to avoid these types of situations and more in 2018.

 

How do you purge products, including seasonals, long on inventory? 

Anthony Simone: Cleaning out inventory and making room for new products is always a big focus for any business in our industry. Seasonals, as well as wine with their vintages, are always a challenge. When customers identify these items, there is a price benefit to finding a way to move out these items at a reduced cost to the consumer.

 

Avoid out-of-code situations

AM: This is one of the reasons why moving long on inventory is so crucial. When alcoholic products are out-of-code and have to be properly destroyed, the task may potentially cost thousands of dollars.

 

Buy less, sell more

AM: While sales in craft products has gone up in recent years, many of those brands are still building brand loyalty with consumers. Instead of buying too much of a popular, but maybe unproven craft brand, be conservative with the order and buy less. When products go out of stock, there is then a demand for that product among the customers of business. So when you see you’re getting low on a product, then you can order more and only have minimal, if any, time out of stock.