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30-1 SEPT/
OCT 2025


30-1 SEPT/
OCT 2025

How North Brewing Company Overhauled Their Front- and Back-of-House Operations With Zonal’s Connected Tech

About North Brewing Company

Since opening North Bar, widely regarded as the UK’s first craft beer bar, in 1997, North Brewing Company has grown to operate a collection of bars and taprooms in the north of England; as well as a brewery and, more recently, a bar in Treviso, Italy.

 

What challenges were the North Brewing Company team facing?

“The reason we needed to look for a new technology solution was just due to the mounting challenges that our industry faces at the moment.”

Matt Gladman, Head of Systems & Continuous Improvement, North Brewing Company

Faced with an existing system that was unreliable and failing to meet the requirements of their expanding business, as well as the mounting challenges caused by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, North Brewing Company sought out a new technology partner to help streamline operations across their collection of taprooms and bars.

The North Brewing team knew they needed an established, fit-for-purpose system that already met their requirements without needing to wait for additional functionality to be implemented. The team also wanted a system that would provide them with robust, accurate data that would enable them to quickly and effectively make decisions and respond to trends.

Amidst a difficult trading environment, the team also wanted greater control over their stock management, helping to both save their teams time, as well as reduce costs and protect their GPs at each site.

Dedicated support was also key for the team at North Brewing, with their incumbent system frequently experiencing crashes and no available support to help, leading to trading downtime and sub-optimal experiences for their customers.

 

How Zonal’s solutions have helped the North Brewing team achieve their goals

We worked closely with the team at North Brewing Company to put together a package of connected solutions that would elevate their operations and help them deliver outstanding guest experiences across the business.

Zonal’s extensive experience with multi-site estate rollouts meant that upgrading their system was a smooth process, with our dedicated onboarding teams supporting every step of the way, including on-site support on go-live day, resulting in minimal disruption to trading and a smooth transition for staff. The North Brewing team also benefit from unlimited ongoing access to Zonal’s industry-leading, UK-based support, meaning our team are always on hand to keep their sites up and running when needed.

By implementing a range of fully-integrated Zonal solutions, the team have also been able to streamline their operational processes and the way they serve their guests. Zonal’s handheld iServe ordering devices enable North Brewing’s teams to easily take guests’ orders at the tableside and send them through to the bar without the need for any re-keying; and their inventory management has been transformed with more efficient and accurate stock control facilitated by Zonal’s Mobile Stocks solution – providing significant time savings, as well as cutting down on paper usage. Stacey Godward, General Manager at North Taproom: Sovereign Street, explains “The benefits have been really visible in terms of service. It’s been great to use the iServes, we’re able to take orders from tables with guests and send them through to the bar. Everyone’s a lot happier with the new system, with the old one we experienced loads of crashes.”

Zonal’s ecosystem of technology also provides the team with centralised, real-time data and reporting, enabling North Brewing to quickly and easily analyse trends from across the business, resulting in more informed decision making to help drive the business forwards. “One of the ways we use data successfully in our business through the stock control functions, which we’ve now introduced at site-level. It allows managers to keep an eye on their own stocks and keep their margins tight.”, adds Matt.

“We’re also able to look at trends across the business. Now that we’ve opened sites in other cities, it’s really important to see the different trends that happen in different geographical locations and to see if we can capitalise on those, or see if we can make decisions at other sites that might benefit them based on what’s happening somewhere else. With Zonal, we get that real-time data that just allows us to do that quickly.”

Since implementing Zonal’s technology across their estate, the North Brewing team have benefitted from:

 

Link to video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO81iuQ0rAE