About
About Bar Back Co.

The operating system
hospitality was missing.

Most bars lose between 15 and 30% of their inventory every month without knowing where it goes. Not through bad service or poor products — but because no one gave them the infrastructure to see it. Bar Back Co. was built to fix that.

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How we work

The principles
behind every system.

01
Clarity

Every number visible. Every decision informed. A bar that doesn't know its cost per cocktail is flying blind — and the turbulence shows up at the end of the month. We build systems that remove the guesswork and replace it with a clear picture of what the business actually looks like.

02
Accountability

If the system doesn't work for your bar, we say so before we build it. We don't sell packages to venues we can't genuinely improve. Every implementation is a commitment — we stand behind the work, and we stay to make sure it delivers what we said it would.

03
Kaizen

Continuous improvement, not one-time fixes. Every month of operational data is a step toward a tighter, more profitable bar. The first report shows the baseline. The sixth report shows the progress. The work doesn't stop when the system is installed — that's when it starts.

04
Craft

We came from the bar, and we respect what it takes to run one well. A bar that wastes nothing is a bar that takes its craft seriously — every ingredient accounted for, every recipe standardised, every pour intentional. Operational discipline is not the opposite of creativity. It's what makes creativity sustainable.

What moves us

Waste is a
climate problem
dressed as an
operations problem.

14%
of global food waste comes from
bars and restaurants
30%
of inventory lost monthly
in the average bar
0
cocktail bars in Amsterdam
with zero waste certification
The problem no one is measuring

The hospitality industry generates an estimated 14% of global food and beverage waste — and almost none of it is tracked at the operational level. Bars and restaurants buy, over-order, over-pour, discard, and repeat. Not out of carelessness, but because there is no system that connects what comes in to what goes out. Without data, waste is invisible. Without infrastructure, zero waste is impossible.

What operational systems actually do

When a bar tracks every product by weight, costs every recipe to the centilitre, and reviews monthly variance reports, something happens automatically: waste goes down. Not because someone is being watched — but because the numbers make invisible losses visible, and visible losses become decisions. Over six months of clean operational data, a bar naturally builds the documentation trail that sustainability certifications require.

CERTIFICATION TARGET 01
Green Key
The leading sustainability certification for the hospitality sector in the Netherlands, administered by Stichting KMVK. Over 800 certified businesses nationally — hotels, restaurants, campsites. No independent cocktail bar in Amsterdam holds one. Green Key assesses 12 sustainability themes: energy, water, waste, sourcing, supplier policy, and staff practices. A bar running on operational data already generates most of the evidence required.
🇳🇱 Netherlands 3–6 months to certify Annual review
CERTIFICATION TARGET 02
Food Made Good
The sustainability standard developed by the Sustainable Restaurant Association — the framework used by the World's 50 Best Bars Sustainable Bar Award. Assessed across three pillars: Sourcing, Society, and Environment. The standard asks venues to demonstrate documented supplier relationships, waste reduction measures, and community engagement. Operational data is the core evidence. A bar with six months of clean numbers is already most of the way there.
🌍 International World's 50 Best standard Annual assessment
STARTING POINT
SRA Community
Free membership of the Sustainable Restaurant Association community — available from day one. Gives venues access to SRA tools, benchmarks, and resources before formal assessment. Bar Back Co. is a registered SRA Community member and applies the standard to every venue we work with from the first system install.
Free Day one eligibility Foundation for Food Made Good

Zero waste doesn't mean perfect. It means every loss is a documented, conscious decision — not an invisible accident. The goal is not to eliminate waste overnight. It is to make waste visible, track it monthly, reduce it continuously, and build the evidence that certifications recognise as genuine operational sustainability.

Where we're going

The road
ahead is clear.

01
Now — 2026 · Phase 1
Amsterdam's bar scene

Starting with the best independent cocktail bars, wine bars, and bistros in Amsterdam. Building real operational systems with real data — and establishing the first certified zero waste cocktail bars in the city. No Amsterdam bar has a Green Key certification. We intend to change that.

02
Q3/Q4 2026 · Phase 2
Boutique hotels & groups

Expanding into boutique hotel groups across Amsterdam — venues like Volkshotel, Zoku, and Sir Hotels — where bar operations are embedded in a larger property and the stakes of efficiency are higher. The same system, adapted for more complex operations.

03
2027 · Phase 3
Benelux expansion

Scaling across the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Multi-location groups, chain restaurants, and hotel brands. The platform evolves to support multi-outlet reporting, GDPR-compliant data handling, and API integrations with major POS systems.

04
2028+ · Phase 4
European enterprise

International enterprise clients across Europe. A full technical team, ISO 27001 compliance, and a platform that becomes the operational standard for hospitality groups from Amsterdam to Madrid. The infrastructure behind the most sustainable bar industry in the world.

Mission · Vision · Values

What we
stand for.

Bar Back Co. is not a software company or a consulting firm. It's an operational partner — built on the belief that every venue, from a three-person cocktail bar to a 50-room boutique hotel, deserves to know exactly what their business is doing. The mission, the vision, and the values are not a branding exercise. They're why this exists.

Mission
Why Bar Back Co. exists

Bar Back Co. installs the operational infrastructure that hospitality venues are missing — so every person in the operation, from owner to staff, works from the same clear picture of what the business has, what it costs, and what it loses.

Vision
The industry we're building toward

A hospitality industry where every venue operates with full clarity. Where waste is documented, not blamed. Where anyone on the team can read the numbers. And where good operations are the foundation for everything else — not an afterthought.

Values
How we make decisions
Clarity Every number visible. Every decision informed. No guesswork in what the bar is doing.
Accountability We only build what we can stand behind. If the system doesn't serve your bar, we say so.
Kaizen Every month of data is a step forward. The work never stops at installation.
Craft A bar that wastes nothing is a bar that takes its craft seriously. Discipline and creativity are not opposites.
Ready to know
your numbers?
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