The Glenturret Lalique: A two Michelin Starred-gem in the Scottish Highlands
Led by Executive Chef Mark Donald, The Glenturret Lalique is a multi-course dining experience right on the edge of the Highlands. Known for its whisky distillery (which is the oldest working one in Scotland), The Glenturret serves cuisine inspired by its surroundings and history, and their meticulous approach earned them two Michelin Stars this year. We spoke to Colin Hart, the Operations Manager at The Glenturret, about how Lightspeed has bolstered not only the success of the Restaurant, but also the connected whisky tours and accommodation.
Business type:
Fine dining
Products:
Location:
Crieff, Scotland
Gaining and maintaining Stars
The Glenturret Restaurant received their first Michelin Star in 2022, and since then, the team has been focused on sustaining the honour. Success came this year when the Restaurant received not one, but two Stars.
“It’s been absolutely fantastic for the team, getting the second Michelin Star,” says Colin.”Within Scotland, the only two star restaurant was Restaurant Andrew Fairlie. There hadn't been another Michelin Star [awarded] in 19 years. So for the team to build and get that, it's been phenomenal.”
Creating a tech ecosystem
For Colin and his team, moving to Lightspeed was part of progressing The Glenturret’s success, and streamlining their operations. “One of the main reasons we moved to Lightspeed was how it helped us join lots of dots together and make everything simpler,” Colin explains.
Part of the challenge with simplifying things is the fact that the team is running not only The Glenturret Restaurant, but also connected accommodations and the whisky distillery. To keep all that running smoothly, the benefit of Lightspeed integrations with tools like SevenRooms, an all-in one CRM, was clear.
“We've been working with SevenRooms for three or four years now, so we were looking for a system that could join up with that booking system,” Colin says. “From an accountancy perspective, too, we really wanted to start collecting the data from the till system and bring it back to SevenRooms. Under one umbrella, we have Lightspeed as our main system across our retail, our tours, and our restaurant.”
“One of the main reasons we moved to Lightspeed was how it helped us join lots of dots together and make everything simpler.”
Colin Hart, Operations ManagerCrunching the numbers
The back-of-house access Colin is able to get with Lightspeed, from data and reporting to building customer profiles, has made a huge difference.
“It's dramatically reduced the amount of additional accountancy processes we have to do, which is really important,” Colin says. “Previously, we would use Excel documents, transferring data from one system to another. It saves us time, not only at the end of the night, but also for our accounts department the next day.”
Apart from simplifying their accounting, Colin uses Lightspeed’s systems to get a full view of The Glenturret every single day. “It’s really intuitive, and the upgrades we've done recently on the back-of-house makes it so more fluid, and nicer visually as you work around the [system].”
A three-in-one guest experience
The success of The Glenturret Restaurant is connected to the success of both The Glenturret Distillery and The Aberturret Estate House, a guest house on the property that helps create a complete experience for guests.
“It's about really understanding the guests,” Colin explains. “We're really trying to build that in and be a multifaceted venue. We want to go above and beyond, and that value added is what people really expect.”
The Glenturret has grown fast and worked hard to maintain the quality they’re known for. “It’s about the processes,” Colin adds. “One of the biggest reasons for changing over to Lightspeed was the system itself. It gave [our team] more time to be able to look at what they're doing and see how they can do it even better.”
