Case Study: The Thirsty Bear achieves labour-cost savings and faster rotas with Deputy

Thirsty Bear saves on labour costs with the help of Deputy

Thirsty Bear is London’s first pull‑your‑own‑pint pub, founded by Phil Neale and Ali Rees to combine self‑service beer taps and tablet ordering with great food. After buying the pub as a test bed for their Tabology tech, the pair faced a steep learning curve on rostering: inefficient scheduling, frequent overstaffing at quiet times and a wage bill that threatened profitability.

They installed Deputy and integrated it with their POS to compare real‑time labour costs against sales, speed up rota creation with templates, and manage last‑minute cover via open‑shift notifications. Managers now save hours on scheduling, employees handle shifts and swaps from their phones, and the pub has cut manual work and labour waste — freeing resources to invest in further tech like a customer app and iBeacon staff clock‑ins.

The Thirsty Bear

Phil Neale

Owner