Amfil Technologies Inc., (OTC: FUNN), is pleased to provide investors with an overview of some of the initiatives and strategies implemented that began in 2019, and have continued through the COVID-19 pandemic, to improve the Company’s cashflow and to ensure success without sacrificing service.
This strategy consists of 3 fundamental core values:
- SAVING – Retaining capital and reducing expenses
- SIMPLIFICATION – Simplifying processes, procedures, leaner staffing and operations, etc.
- SERVICE – Focusing on our primary source of revenue: our guests.
To remain concise, we will focus and expand on these 3 specific areas below and will provide further details and discuss additional initiatives in an upcoming release.
SAVING – Reducing expenses and increasing cashflow
Wages have been the area with the clearest reduction in $ costs (Total savings year over year from 2018 to 2019 of $1,137,900.33)
$ CAD | 2018 | 2019 | % of savings |
ANNEX | 789,151.63 | 571,362.35 | 27.60% |
COLLEGE | 1,121,074.11 | 833,001.40 | 25.70% |
MIDTOWN | 848,816.34 | 524,168.23 | 38.25% |
The largest effort was undertaken at the venue level, specifically in the following areas:
- Removing position of supervisor ($15 per hour)
- General Managers on salary (instead of hourly wage)
- Changed pay scale of all ‘tipped staff’ to minimum ‘Server’ wage and provided better split of the tip money.
- Expanded sections in which each server is responsible to reduce the number of servers required (the additional servers previously working also caused congestion in the bar and kitchen passes on Friday and Saturday nights also)
- Changed rules around minimum staffing numbers present at venues while open
- Moved management staff offsite for meetings and ‘office hours’
- Dedicated additional attention to ‘Midtown’ which is currently the least profitable venue. Cost savings are coming from shortened hours of business. The venue now opens at 4pm instead of 11am.
- Additionally, the General Managers are now stationed on the floor more often to allow them to cover multiple positions when required.
Additional Cost Savings
INC Head Office | 709,322.91 | 470,568.26 | 33.66% |
INC Tech | 125,692.05 | 64,171.34 | 48.95% |
Savings at Head Office were due to the implementation of a leaner Management team.
Tech savings were a result of streamlined processes resulting in much less IT personnel required to achieve a high level of efficiency.
INC Warehouse | 92,471.02 | 85,356.15 | 7.69% |
At the warehouse level, most of the saving were due to a manager who left the company and instead of being replaced, the warehouse utilized remaining staff to cover the responsibilities.
Benefits
We decided to cancel our employee benefits program and seek out a more cost effective and tailored solution
- Savings of $50,000 CAD per year (while no benefits are in place)
- As much as we want to be a progressive company and employer, we determined that the benefits are underused by the employees and came at a high cost. This will free up cashflow.
Energy
During the COVID-19 shutdown we did a full energy audit of all our venues. Based upon the findings, we made decisions that already have had an impact on our energy costs.
Electrical – Checked energy consumption of fridges and other kitchen equipment. Replaced transformers. Retrofitted bulbs with LED. Installed heat barriers in fridges. Equipment maintenance
Water – Schedule for preventative maintenance on plumbing. Updating restroom facilities with pressurized tanks to save on water. Replacing water-cooled compressors with air-cooled.
Gas – Will be taking steps to better insulate our venues to save on gas used while heating venues.
Suppliers
We have renegotiated prices with certain suppliers. Large cost savings will come from food suppliers. As the company grew, the prices had not changed and required renegotiation to rectify this. These will now be looked at annually to ensure maximum cost savings.
We have implemented a plan to create stronger partnerships with beer companies to save costs. One strategy to achieve this will be organizing sponsored events with breweries.
We will be removing an unneeded cleaning service provider and utilize existing staff for this task.
Margin Audit
We have completed an audit on any other areas in which savings could be made. We have also implemented a procedure internally to ensure managers are quickly identifying areas of waste.
Food waste will be a key area for managers to check. The spoilage of food, wasted food from guests, and waste during food preparation will be part of managers’ checklists for margin improvement.
Supplier Payments
With some results showing up in 2020/2021, we revisited some of the payment terms and conditions with suppliers. With cash flow in mind, Management was able to move the away from the use of credit cards and moving to ACH in exchange for discounts and stricter cost management.
Renewing Credit Cards Processor Rates
We have reviewed the payment processes throughout the past year or so. We have determined that the use of cash as payment from guests has rapidly declined and has been replaced primarily with credit cards. It has also been determined that credit cards are more often unqualified and come with a higher processing cost through payment processor.
We have renegotiated processing rates with our suppliers and estimate that savings could be as high as 15% totaling approximately $120,000 CAD per year.
SIMPLIFICATION - Following the best practices in hospitality
Management
Substantial changes have been made to the management team.
Most of the managers had been with the Company since inception (2011) and brought the company to where it is now. Many did not have the experience to effectively manage how large the Company has grown. Much of the original managers have moved on and we have hired more experienced managers to better lead the company.
Upper Management
We have implemented a leaner and more efficient management structure for Snakes & Lattes under Ben’s leadership.
Ben Castanie CEO
Director of Operations
Director of Culinary Operations
Director of Events
Venue Management
General Manager
Assistant General Manager
Employees
We switched staffing disbursement in venues from ⅓ full time and ⅔ part time to half fulltime and half part-time. The part-timers will primarily assist mainly on Weekends to absorb the guest increase (Friday - Saturday - Sunday)
This requires a lot of cross training and organization around filling shifts when staff call-in sick, etc.
Post COVID-19, many of these cost saving practices will be able to continue requiring less staff to be rehired.
Hierarchy
1 General Manager per venue, 1 Assistant General Manager, 1 Head Game Guru, 1 Chef
We have eliminated the Supervisor and Team Leaders roles.
The chain of command is much clearer and requires less intervention from Upper Management
Payment Process
We have abandoned Ceridian (CA) and Gusto (US) as a payroll processor and have decided to utilize Quickbooks so that we will have unified cross border payment processes.
Revenue agency reporting has been simplified with the use of prefilled spreadsheet templates.
Tips
In Canada, we are using a new software for the disbursement of employee tips. This is allowing us to reduce amount of physical cash in venues, reduces time to produce and check ‘tips envelope’, and makes the tracking of tips is much easier and more accurate.
Kitchen
On both sides of the border, we removed the Chef position at each location. We are instead hiring Sous Chefs. Great menu executors while the menu creation is left to the GM and the Culinary Director.
SERVICE - Focusing on Hospitality and guests
Service has been the core of the business since inception. Without our guests we wouldn’t be here. Keeping this in mind, we have designed and implemented some key areas to improve in this area. Initiatives include, but are not limited to:
- Loyalty Programs – this was rolled out in the US and is being unveiled in Canada soon. We also have an app in the Appstore.
- Monitoring our online rating on a daily basis – this allows us to make changes on the fly and retain any dissatisfied customers, allowing us to keep and grow our patronage.
- Secret Shopper Program designed to ensure quality control
- Enhanced training which includes role play scenarios
- Partnerships with companies such as Mill St Brewery and Collective Art to cater to a wider range of demographics including “Industry Nights”
- Weekly ‘Tap Takeover’ – Local breweries take over the taps for special event nights!
- Additional prizes and events
- Guest feedback programs
- Starting ‘Happy Hours’ and ‘Reverse Happy Hours’ to boost attendance on slower days of the week
- Server bonus incentives based on individual daily performance in upselling and targeted item selling
- We will be creating a lounge for the waiting area so we can serve guests drinks while they wait for a game table. This will allow for increased drink sales and also encourage guests to stay and wait for a table when we are at capacity
We have been very busy working behind the scenes this year and this is by no means a comprehensive nor complete list of undertaken initiatives. We did feel it important to bring shareholders and the market up to date with some general improvements and changes that have been in the works, solidifying the foundation of the Company.
Additionally, we are in the process of finalizing multiple deals that we think shareholders and the rest of the market will find very exciting. These deals will be announced in the coming weeks once finalized. Stay tuned.
Stay tuned for multiple updates in the coming weeks!
Please visit the new website which will be being updated and expanded on over the coming weeks at www.amfiltech.com
For further updates from Snakes & Lattes and its parent company, Amfil Technologies Inc., please follow us on Twitter @AmfilTech
For more information regarding the company, and its related subsidiaries please visit the following websites:
Amfil Technologies Inc. - www.amfiltech.com
Snakes & Lattes Inc. - www.snakesandlattes.com
Morning (Snakes & Lattes Publishing SAS) - https://www.morning.us
GRO3 Joint Venture - http://gro3systems.com
Interloc-Kings Inc. - http://www.interloc-kings.com
About Us:
Amfil Technologies Inc. is the parent company to three wholly owned subsidiaries:
1). Snakes & Lagers Inc. holds the trade name and is the owner of Snakes & Lattes Inc. which currently operates 3 tabletop gaming bars and cafes located in Toronto, Ontario and 1 in Tempe, Arizona. The company is in the process of expanding throughout North America. Snakes & Lattes Inc. was the first board game bar and cafe in North America, is believed to be the largest in the world and has the largest circulating public library of board games in North America for customers to choose from. Snakes & Lattes Inc. currently has a 100+ member staff and recently acquired the exclusive distribution rights throughout Canada for some of the most popular board games in the world. The company also operates a lucrative fulfillment and distribution division and has recently entered into the board game publishing business through the acquisition of Morning which is expected to add significant revenues to the bottom line. For more information on Snakes & Lattes Inc. feel free to visit the website at www.snakesandlattes.com
2). The EcoPr03 GRO3 Antimicrobial System was jointly developed between Amfil Tech and A.C.T.S. Inc. which recently rebranded its technology under Advanced Ozone Integration as an extension of the existing ozone technology being utilized in the food and beverage industry and integrated by A.C.T.S. into companies such as Pepsi, Nestle, Sysco, Sun Pacific and many others. The system is a triple-function sanitization unit capable of naturally eliminating 99.9% of water and airborne pathogens and the typically problematic pests that wreak havoc for cultivators (like aphids, whiteflies and spider mites), as well as bacteria, fungus, microbes and mold on surfaces, all without chemicals. The unit can also constantly regulate a given facility's water supply, oxygenating the water and maintaining a consistent PPM infusion of ozone that prevents the formation of algae, bacteria or mold (allowing for comprehensive water recycling), simultaneously removing the need to use pesticides and/or dangerous, often carcinogenic products to treat production problems, as is common throughout the industry today. This environmentally-friendly solution also eliminates odors, while slightly reducing the air temperature, lowering energy consumption by the HEPA filtration and HVAC systems and could potentially allow for a facilities process to be labeled certified organic in the U.S.A. when the crop is no longer considered illegal on the federal level, otherwise "Clean Green" or "Certified Kind" in the meantime. The EcoPr03 GRO3 Antimicrobial System recently passed product review by a registered USDA certifying agent for use in California as well as Pennsylvania and surrounding states. The subsidiary has developed a strategic partnership with Roto Gro, the creator of proprietary rotary hydroponic technology. More information on this product line can be found on the www.gro3systems.com website or on twitter @GRO3Systems.
3). Interloc-Kings Inc. is a hardscape construction company servicing the Greater Toronto Area. This subsidiary is an authorized Unilock installer. Unilock is North America's premier manufacturer of concrete interlocking paving stones and segmental wall products. Interloc-Kings Inc. has an A+ Rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and a 10/10 rating on homestars.com. Specializing in stone and wood installations between $10,000 and $250,000 per project, Interloc-Kings Inc. has quickly become a top, high quality installation company of outdoor living areas in the GTA. More information on this subsidiary can be found at the website www.interloc-kings.com
Safe Harbor Statement
This news release contains statements that involve expectations, plans or intentions (such as those relating to future business or financial results, new features or services, or management strategies) and other factors discussed from time to time in the Company's OTC Market or Securities and Exchange Commission filings. These statements are forward-looking and are subject to risks and uncertainties, so actual results may vary materially. You can identify these forward-looking statements by words such as "may," "should,", "will", "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "confident," "intend," "plan" and other similar expressions. Our actual results, such as the Company's ability to finance, complete and consolidate acquisition of IP, assets and operating companies, could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors not within the control of the company such as a result of various factors, including future economic, competitive, regulatory, and market conditions. The company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The company disclaims any obligation subsequently to revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events.
Contact:
Ben Castanie
Snakes & Lattes Inc.
Telephone: (416) 500 2911
Email: ben@snakesandlattes.com
Or
Roger Mortimer
Amfil Technologies Inc.
Telephone: (647) 880-5887
Email: rmortimer@amfiltech.com