Nimax Theatres is home to many of London’s iconic West End theatres: Apollo, Duchess, Lyric and Palace Theatre.

Despite the rich heritage of the theatres that date back to 1889, Nimax, which was established in 2005, has brought its technology bang up to date since teaming up with Zonal.

We all know that queuing for a drink during the interval can be time-consuming and was something Nimax was keen to resolve with an EPoS solution that could manage its 40,000 plus weekly footfall.

The search for a suitable EPoS partner was brought into sharp focus back in 2016 when The Palace was chosen to become the home of the award winning Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1 and 2.  To meet the unique demands of the play that runs over two performances and create a magical experience beyond the stage, the 1,400 seat theatre had to undergo a complete refurbishment from the stage to the bar areas.

“A total sell out, often with two performances in a day, meant we had to reimagine our bar areas to manage the unusually large number of people visiting both performances, so it was the ideal time to update our technology to optimise the trading opportunity,” explained Nimax’s customer experience manager, James Charlton.

Having asked contacts in the hospitality industry who they would recommend as their EPoS partner, Zonal’s name kept cropping up.

James added: “Zonal had that ‘star’ quality we were looking for and we’ve not been disappointed.  The levels of support, training and service we required have been surpassed, especially as we need to know that someone is there to help in the evenings, including weekends.”

Nimax has now installed 50 Aztec EPoS terminals into all six theatres, as well as its integrated card payment solution and digital signage system, AdMargin.  In terms of sales and customer experience the upturn has been immediate.  “As soon as we go live with Aztec in a theatre, the impact is tangible with a significant increase in sales highlighted in the weekly reports, which we can now access hassle-free.

“Everything has sped up and made us far more efficient from the real-time reporting we can access across the group in terms of trading trends, stock levels and tracking waste, to taking efficient contactless payments.  In the past our staff had to do the mental arithmetic and enter everything manually, now it’s managed through the EPoS, so they can spend the time preparing drinks and deliver a superior service.  The room for error has also been removed.”

In addition, AdMargin is proving to be an exciting addition to Nimax’s marketing, as the team can remotely manage promotions and advertise shows in other theatres by automatically streaming dynamic content, such as images and video, onto the digital signage system.

The system’s unique technology enables Nimax to tailor campaigns to respond to date, location and time of day for a truly personalised experience.

For James, Zonal technology has taken the ‘drama’ out of service and released the pressure on the interval drink, helping the group deliver memorable experiences (for all the right reasons) that match the quality of the shows it puts on.

Street food, drinks and events specialist, Boxpark, has appointed Zonal as its technology partner.

The first of its three sites to install Zonal’s award winning Aztec EPoS system is its latest venture at Wembley Park, spanning 50,000sq ft of modern street food and leisure space and attracting up to 10,000 people a day.  Established Boxpark sites in Shoreditch and Croydon are to follow later in the year.

With ambitious plans to open another 12 locations across the UK, Boxpark was looking for a technology provider that could flex and grow with the business, while providing a stable and secure solution that could cope with high levels of footfall.

“The installation of 13 Aztec EPoS systems has gone without a hitch.”

Ben McLaughlin, Boxpark’s operations manager

We are already serving more people at a faster rate, as we only accept card and contactless payments, helping us to build sales and customer satisfaction levels without having to increase our 50 strong staff.”

For Boxpark it was also important that Zonal could fulfil the Wembley contract within a short space of time while coordinating activity with onsite contractors and other third-party network and broadband providers.

“It has been exciting for the Zonal project team to work with such an innovative pop-up concept and hugely rewarding to see it come together on time and within budget.”

Tim Chapman, Zonal’s sales director

The pub of today is totally different from that of just 20 years ago.  Many of us will remember the days when the only food you’d find in your local was a packet of crisps with the odd pickled onion and egg, with a plastic cup for the takings, or a giant cash register on the bar.

It is still the original social network, but just like the advent of social media, the pub has also evolved from a boozer serving beer to a predominantly male audience.  Today’s venues are more diverse businesses, with extensive food and drink menus catering for a range of audiences from children to grandparents.

It’s been 40 years since our first EPoS solution was developed and over the past four decades the system has evolved from being a rare, luxury item to a must-have device.  Walk down any high street or village and there are very few pubs and bars that do not use an EPoS system.

Originally designed for takings and stock control, today’s EPoS is so much more than a glorified cash register.  It’s not just the size that has shrunk, so it no longer takes-over the footprint of a bar, EPoS functionality can be achieved in a smartphone, possessing at least 10 x the digital power and business benefits of its original incarnation.

This means that the days of taking paper order pads are almost extinct.  As the pub food phenomena has taken off, so has table service, closely followed by the demand for handheld ordering using EPoS functionality from a smartphone or tablet, that also feeds directly into the kitchen, where orders are printed and actioned.  The follow-on experience is a positive one for both staff and their customers as the number of complaints about slow food service and incorrect orders are less frequent, which is good news all round.

Today’s pubs also could not survive without card payment – once a cash only enterprise, not only have card payments overtaken cash transactions, but the last two years has seen the move to mobile tech payment, either via the likes of ApplePay or a pub’s own pre-order and pay app.

At Zonal we have seen a 400% increase in enquiries for our Order & Pay app, from both multi-site and single site operators, as pre-order and pay have quickly become mainstream as part of the drinking and eating out experience.

Where we’ll be in another 225 years is impossible to predict, but I very much doubt that for all the benefits that technology can bring to running a pub from both an operational and customer experience, we’ll have robots behind the bar. As the social hub of the community, the human touch will be one vital ingredient that can’t be eradicated; it is after all what gives a pub its personality and point of difference.

We are thrilled to be voted the Best EPoS brand by readers of Restaurant magazine and BigHospitality.co.uk for the second consecutive year.

The Readers’ Choice Awards are in their tenth year and considered the pinnacle of success as they are voted for by customers and not industry bodies. Hundreds of hospitality professionals from across the restaurant and pub sector voted in the annual awards which recognised 23 categories, ranging from Best Fish Supplier, through to Best Service Company to Best Gadget.

Zonal was recognised for its Aztec EPoS system, which is used in over 16,000 hospitality businesses throughout the UK.

Zonal’s chief executive, Stuart McLean, said: “It’s fantastic to receive this vote of public approval for the second year in a row.

“We operate in a highly competitive marketplace, but this award is testament to the Zonal team that strives each and every day to deliver the very best in terms of product and service.”