Take a walk around Glasgow city centre and you will find treats for the eyes and for the taste buds at virtually every turn. The city affectionately known as the Dear Green Place is as famous for its distinctive architecture as it is for its many parks. And increasingly, Scotland’s largest city is making its mark on the map as a major foodie destination.
These twin aspects of Glaswegian culture – food and fine architecture – are often found combined, with many stand-out landmarks in the city these days repurposed as highly regarded restaurants, gastro-pubs and boutique eateries. And behind the scenes, a successful partnership of two EPOS suppliers – local specialist Alliance Till Systems and global hardware manufacturer AURES – is helping to keep the wheels of the city’s vibrant foodie scene turning.
Alliance Till Systems was founded 12 years ago by CEO Hervé Bouchard, who cut his teeth in the hospitality sector in Glasgow and Edinburgh before a change in career path saw him spend a decade working for an EPOS company. Since setting out on his own with Alliance, the company has established itself as a leading technology supplier to the Scottish hospitality sector, specialising in installing and tailoring touchscreen terminals and handheld ordering systems for everyone from small independent cafes to large multisite restaurant operations.
At the heart of its business strategy, Hervé’s insider knowledge of hospitality gives Alliance a competitive advantage in terms of understanding client’s needs, with the company focused sharply on the dedicated service, training and ongoing support it provides. And for the past three-and-a-half years, it has been exclusively supplying AURES EPOS hardware, installing more than 200 AURES terminals in hospitality businesses across Scotland.
Iconic venues
These include some of hottest names on the Glasgow gastro scene, in some of the city’s most iconic venues. For example, Alliance as supplied AURES tills and EPOS software to Mackintosh at the Willow, the only surviving tearoom designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the originator of the internationally renowned ‘Glasgow Style’ of architecture. Originally opened in 1903 by famed tearoom proprietor Ms Catherine Cranston, the venue reopened in 2018 following an extensive four-year restoration programme aimed at recapturing Mackintosh’s original designs.
Speaking of Alliance’s involvement with the venue, Hervé said: “As a project, this presented us with the challenge of creating a seamless EPOS solution that would incorporate both the restaurant and retail store. In a world-renowned location for design, it was vitally important any hardware installed would be aesthetically pleasing, and not detract from this beautiful setting.
“With their stylish minimalist design, AURES products seemed a natural fit for our client. Following on site consultation, we installed two AURES SANGO terminals with integrated barcode scanners for the retail unit and three AURES YUNO terminals into the restaurant.”
Another of Alliance’s clients is Glasgow-based husband-and-wife restaurateurs Rusk & Rusk. The couple run four stylish and highly popular venues in the city, all of them now installed with AURES EPOS terminals supplied by Alliance. Most recently, Alliance worked on the company’s latest venture, So LA, with a brief that included supplying touch screen terminals, kitchen printers and handheld radio devices to make order taking more efficient.
Elsewhere, Alliance also has a long-standing relationship with another highly regarded Glasgow restaurant operator, Itison. The company now uses AURES equipment supplied by Alliance in seven of its venues, several of them located in listed buildings across the city centre. One of these is Sloans, housed in a building dating back to 1797 located in a pretty courtyard off Glasgow’s main shopping street. With a downstairs bar and bistro, cobbled courtyard, main first floor restaurant and ‘Grand Ballroom’ events venue, Sloans is as extensive as it is stylish. It is currently kitted out with five AURES YUNO terminals.
Speaking of Alliance’s partnership with AURES, Hervé said: “We have an excellent relationship with AURES. They provide reliable service which is a benefit to us and our clients. The on-site warranty is first-rate. Repairs are handled really quickly which saves a lot of stress and hassle for all parties involved.”
“We receive excellent feedback from our customers on AURES products. The main benefits for selecting AURES for the hospitality environment are that the systems are extremely reliable and have good aesthetics, which fits our clients’ needs.”
An independent EPOS system distributor, Alliance Till Systems has been installing and tailoring touch screen terminals and handheld ordering systems to hospitality businesses throughout Scotland for over a decade. The company’s clients range from small independent cafes to large scale operators with multiple venues and include restaurants, bars, nightclubs and a cinema.
Alliance prides itself on the dedicated service, training and ongoing support it provides to its clients. It works closely with business owners and venue managers to create bespoke solutions based on the individual needs of the client.