Spillage and heavy pours: what they really cost per year
Nobody steals from a bar on purpose by pouring an extra splash. That is exactly why heavy pours are so expensive: they happen on every drink, every night, and nobody counts them.
The maths of a splash
Take a spirit that costs €0.03 per ml, about €21 for a 700 ml bottle. A bartender who free-pours 50 ml instead of 45 ml gives away 5 ml per drink:
- 5 ml × €0.03 = €0.15 per drink
- 200 drinks on a busy night = €30 per night
- 300 nights a year = €9,000 per year
That is one spirit, one bartender’s habit, and a pour only 11% over spec. Add spillage, the liquid that misses the glass or stays on the bar mat, and the number grows.
Where the liquid goes
- Free pouring. Even good bartenders drift over the night, usually upwards.
- Spillage. Drips at the end of the pour, overfilled tins, drinks remade.
- Unrecorded drinks. Tastings, staff drinks, the round for regulars that never reaches the till.
- Breakage. A dropped bottle is a whole night of careful pouring gone.
How to measure it
You cannot fix what you do not measure. The simplest method is a variance check:
- Count the stock of a few key bottles at the start of the week.
- Count them again at the end, adding any deliveries in between.
- Compare what was used with what the till says was sold, using your specs.
variance = actual usage − theoretical usage (from sales)
A small variance is normal. A variance of 10% or more on a spirit means a habit to change, and now you have the number to talk about it with the team.
How to reduce it
- Jiggers or measured pourers for every spirit, at least on the busiest nights.
- Train the count. If the team free-pours, check their pours against a jigger regularly. It takes two minutes.
- Record everything. Staff drinks and comps go through the till at zero, so they show up in the numbers.
- Weekly counts on the top ten bottles. You do not need to count the whole bar to find the leak.
Knowing the cost per ml of every bottle is the starting point. Drink Cost PRO gives it to you for each product in your stock, so a variance in millilitres turns straight into euros.