Abstract
South Africa is the eighth largest wine producing country in the world, but wine consumption in South Africa is extremely low when compared to other wine producing countries. Australia, which is the seventh largest wine producing country in the world, consumes three times more than South Africa.
Wine producers and wine wholesalers continually market their wines to the public through wine shows and to restaurants by hosting wine and food evenings. South Africa is predominantly a beer drinking nation; hence the South African public should be guided in respect of making correct wine choices to accompany their meals. In upmarket restaurants this function is usually performed by a sommelier. However, most restaurants do not employ sommeliers and have to rely on the food and beverage service personnel to assist customers in this regard. Food and beverage service personnel are generally not qualified, and are also not wine consumers. There is also a lack of training provided by restaurants with regard to wine knowledge, wine service skills and wine selling skills.
The current study is based on one, which was conducted by Granucci (1989) of the United States of America (USA). It is an action research study, which used the quasi-experimental approach. Interviews were conducted with two sommeliers to determine what wine knowledge, wine service skills and wine selling skills are required for the training of food and beverage service personnel in restaurants. Eighteen food and beverage service personnel in two restaurants were used as subjects for this experiment, and were divided into experimental (intervention) and control groups. The baseline average wine sales per customer were determined per food and beverage service person in each of the groups. Each food and beverage service person participated in a pre-test on wine knowledge. The pre-test results of the interviews and the questionnaires were used to develop the training intervention for the experimental group.
Wine sales were tracked for a period of 12 weeks and were divided into three periods of four weeks. After the first four week period (baseline) the experimental group underwent four weekly training sessions of two hours each, and the sales...
M.Com.