The Genting Arena in Birmingham, UK, has become the country’s first arena to go cashless across all its food and beverage concessions.
To speed up service and cut queues the venue’s catering partner Amadeus has removed all physical cash from EPOS tills, with customers having to pay by card using contactless or chip and pin.
The move follows a successful trial in May 2017 with the initiative showing that transactions were up to 20 seconds faster per customer as a result.
“At a typical event at the Genting Arena, Amadeus serves up to 15,000 customers in a 90-120 minute window before the main act – so we need to make sure we are doing everything possible to ensure efficient and quick service. The results of the cashless initiative have been phenomenal and customers have really embraced the change,” said Annie Monnox, general manager for Amadeus at the Genting Arena.
Before the pioneering change to cashless payment, it was revealed that 70% of F&B transactions were being paid for in cash. Since November, when the trial introduced cashless EPOS alongside regular till that still accepted cash, this dropped to just 20%.
In cases where it is not possible for a customer to pay by card, there will be one mobile POS cash till available in reserve at each concession.
Genting’s cashless F&B model is set to expand to its sister venue, Arena Birmingham, and NEC Group venues later in the year.
February 28, 2018
