BA Clubs is an operator of sports and leisure clubs that provide a wide range of facilities for BA staff, both current and retired. There are two clubhouses in the London area; one close to Heathrow and the other a stone’s throw from Gatwick. There are also club organisations at locations in South Wales, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Scotland.
The Concorde Club, in Cranford, Middlesex, is close to the recently expanded Heathrow Airport and serves as Head Office for BA Clubs. It is at this venue that the company recently implemented the Aloha EPOS suite, from NFS Hospitality, to replace an older POS System. Installation of Aloha was completed at the beginning of summer 2010.
Nick Skudder, Head of Aloha Sales for NFS, says the firm looked at many different vendors before deciding on NFS. “BA Clubs were not just looking for a new POS, but also for a solution that would enable better promotion of their many events, as they attract a lot of rugby, football and cricket teams,” he says. The Concorde Club has incorporated the very latest, flash-driven, customer-facing Order Confirmation Display (OCD) on its touchscreen terminals, for high-resolution quality advertising of any event being held. The OCD display enables venue promotion while inactive, reverting to customer order and payment confirmation when in service.
“Additional benefits of Aloha for BA Clubs are that it will allow for more effective control over costs, and will enable members to use a charge card, for integrated payment options,” adds Nick.
The Aloha e-card provides cashless options, together with an ability to pre-load spend in order to speed service and encourage business.
Kevin Shults, Grounds & Facilities Manager for the Concorde Club, says that Aloha was “the best solution by far” out of the systems he and the team were considering, and that they were initially impressed by the 24-hour support offered by the company, which was one of their main concerns. Another concern was that they choose a reliable solution with many hospitality users in the UK – something that NFS could easily support with its diverse portfolio of EPOS clients, spanning restaurants, bars, clubs, hotels and catering businesses, as well as various leisure operations.
“We also wanted something a little bit bespoke, to cope with our specific needs, such as accounting for staff meals,” says Kevin. “Everything we put to NFS, they were able to tick all the boxes.”
It was following a visit to an existing NFS client, the Absolut Ice Bar, in London’s West End, that BA Clubs made a final decision to go with the Aloha EPOS solution. “Seeing the system being used successfully at this well known venue just confirmed things for us,” Kevin adds.
Since installation, Kevin has appreciated NFS’ ability to address the various admin problems that arose as users adapted to the system, and values the fact that Leon Sabwa, Hospitality & EPOS Operations for NFS, spent a day with his team going through all outstanding issues.
BA Clubs have yet to delve into Aloha’s built-in Stock Control module, but may leverage this additional functionality in the future.