Liquor Industry Update: August 4, 2022
Dear ABLE BC Members and Industry Colleagues,
Heres’ what you’ll find in today’s update:
ABLE BC Delivery and Logistics Survey
BC Receives B-Grade in Restaurant Canada’s Raise the Bar Report
go2HR Announces Six New Regional HR Consultants
Best Practices for Selling to SEP Holders
go2HR Tourism and Hospitality Survey
Celebrating Our Industry!
Save the Date: Upcoming Events and Webinars
Out and About with ABLE BC!
Join ABLE BC Today!
Find all past updates here.
ABLE BC Delivery and Logistics Survey
You may have caught our recent notice that ABLE BC is seeking new solutions to our industry’s ongoing issues with ordering and delivery of liquor products. We are currently exploring a new buyABLE program to push the BC liquor industry forward and provide increased value for our members. Thank you to those of you who have already reached out to discuss how you can support this project.
We have partnered with PivoHub to build a streamlined, 24/7, business-to-business digital marketplace that will ease the ordering and delivery of liquor products.
As part of our planning and development, we have put together this survey to gain feedback from industry on delivery and logistics experiences across businesses in BC.
Click here to take the survey.
BC Receives B-Grade in Restaurant Canada’s Raise the Bar Report
Our industry colleagues over at Restaurants Canada recently released a special COVID-19 edition of its Raise the Bar report, evaluating how liquor policies are impacting the road to recovery for licensed establishments.
The latest report card gives BC a B grade, an increase from C in 2019, thanks to recent liquor policy wins such as allowing hospitality businesses to buy alcohol at wholesale prices. The report notes BC’s “exceptional progress on liquor pricing and other policy measures resulting in significant cost savings.”
ABLE BC is immensely proud of our collaborative work to support BC’s hospitality industry throughout the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. In addition to securing permanent wholesale pricing, ABLE and our partner associations worked hard to ensure our industry had access to over $200 million in funding and grants, amended and clarified public orders that made more sense for industry, extended temporary patio extensions, and more.
We also supported our retail members by extending the moratorium on new LRS licenses until at least 2032, securing permission for them to sell to SEP holders, and protecting the 1 km rule.
Click here to download Restaurant Canada’s Raise the Bar report.
Click here to read ABLE BC’s COVID-19 Advocacy Report.
go2HR Announces Six New Regional HR Consultants
Last week, go2HR announced it has hired six new regional Human Resource Consultants to help BC’s tourism, hospitality, and liquor businesses deal with a range of HR issues. These HR experts offer complimentary advisory services on a range of topics, including:
Recruitment
Develop/audit a recruitment strategy
Build a job description
Identify potential recruitment channels
Hire from diverse labour pools
Provide interviewing tips and guidelines
Create objective selection criteria
Support access to student recruitment grants specifically for Tourism and Hospitality businesses (PROPEL)
Onboarding
Outline the components of a good onboarding plan
Offering appropriate resources
Retention
Building respectful workplaces
Equity, diversity and inclusion
Mental health and wellness
Bullying and harassment, including sexual harassment
Training & development, including support accessing BC Employer Training Grant
Performance management
Rewards & recognition; perks
Scheduling, seasonality, workforce management
HR Advice
Progressive discipline issues
Employee exit
Compensation and benefits
Hiring foreign workers
The HR consultants are based in the Vancouver Coast & Mountains, Vancouver Island, Thompson Okanagan, Northern BC, Cariboo Chilcotin Coast, and Kootenay Rockies destination regions.
Click here to read more.
Best Practices for Selling to SEP Holders
As of July 13, 2021, private liquor retailers are now permitted to sell to Special Event Permit (SEP) holders. This change corrected the long-standing unfair policy of forcing consumers to purchase only from the government's BC Liquor Stores, while also introducing a new revenue stream for BC's private liquor retailers.
We've put together some tips and best practices for selling to SEP holders!
Do you have questions about selling to SEP holders? Get in touch with Ann Brydle, Manager of Membership and Communication at ann@ablebc.ca or 604-688-5560.
Celebrating Our Industry!
Please join us in congratulating this year’s BC Hospitality Foundation scholarship recipients!
Click here to see all recipients.
The Indigenous and LGBT2Q+ Hospitality Scholarships are still open for applications for hospitality workers who want to increase their knowledge of the food and beverage, hospitality and/or tourism field through education:
For Indigenous Hospitality Scholarship - APPLY HERE
For LGBT2Q+ Hospitality Scholarship - APPLY HERE
We want to celebrate you! Is your business hosting a special event or fundraiser? Are you celebrating an anniversary or important milestone? Has someone on your team been promoted or completed a certification? Have you opened a new or renovated location?
Let us know about your special moments, your amazing teams, and the things you’re most proud of. We’ll share your achievements in our newsletters and on our social channels.
Contact Ann Brydle, Manager of Membership and Communication, at ann@ablebc.ca or 604-688-5560.
Save the Date: Upcoming Events and Webinars
Safer Spaces: Training for Employers and Supervisors
go2HR has created a comprehensive online training course to raise awareness about and help prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
Safer Spaces is a free online course that supports employers and supervisors in creating workplaces that are free from sexual harassment. Grounded in storytelling, the course opens with a scenario at a tourism business where a new manager faces a potential disclosure of sexual harassment involving a worker. Participants learn, along with the characters, how to respond to the situation appropriately and how to implement important measures to help prevent sexual harassment in the future.
Register for Safer Spaces today!
Half-Corked Marathon
Calling all runners and wine lovers! Organizers of the Half-Corked Marathon have just released the last few tickets. 100 special tickets to the 2022 Half Corked Marathon are now available.
Dates: September 9th and 10th.
The route has been updated this year to include more winery stations than ever before, both along both the Golden Mile Bench and the Black Sage Road, so that participants can sip and savour delicious wines from the region as they run through the vineyards and along the Okanagan River.
Click here to buy tickets.
WORTH Association: Yes Shef!
After a successful sold out event in 2019, WORTH Association’s Yes Shef returns! At this long-table dinner, guests will be served five unique courses with wine pairings.
Join WORTH on Monday, August 15, 2022 at 6pm for Yes Shef at Chambar Restaurant (568 Beatty Street, Vancouver) for a night of food and wine from women chefs and sommeliers.
Click here to buy tickets.
BC Hospitality Foundation Victoria Golf Tournament
Sign up for BCHF’s Victoria golf tournament at Olympic View Golf Course! The tournament takes place on Tuesday, August 23, and offers a full day of food, drink, and enjoyment. Players partake of bites and beverages at many holes, there are tee prizes and putting contests, and lunch and dinner are included.
This event is a great way to connect with old friends or to expand your network, as it brings together many members of the local hospitality community. It’s been two long years: let’s get our industry together to swing together!
Date: August 23, 2022
Time: 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Location: Olympic View Golf Course, 643 Latoria Rd, Victoria
Out and About with ABLE BC!
Last week, our Executive Director Jeff Guignard visited Ann Brydle, Manager of Membership and Communication, in Victoria. They spent time working on strategic planning for ABLE’s future, meeting with members around Victoria, and celebrating Ann’s six-month anniversary with ABLE!
They also began plans for the BC Liquor Conference, coming up in Vancouver in mid-November. We’re beyond excited to announce all the details and will be sending out a save the date in the coming weeks.
Is there a specific industry topic or speaker you’d like to see at the conference? Let us know! Get in touch with Ann at ann@ablebc.ca or 604-688-5560.
Join ABLE BC Today!
ABLE BC is the leading liquor advocacy organization in the province. We have a proven track record of success fighting for the interests of Liquor Primary and Licensee Retail Store businesses. We are dedicated to helping our industry come out of the pandemic stronger than ever!
We can’t do our work without the support of our members. ABLE is a non-profit organization and we depend on membership fees to continue to lobby and fight for your needs.
ABLE BC members have access to several benefit programs that offer exclusive discounts and are designed to help your business thrive. In addition to our benefit programs, we offer expert advice, regular webinars, the annual Liquor Industry Conference, and many networking opportunities.