About Us

BHARhouse Solutions is built on the philosophy that in business, everyone should play to their strengths. As the owner of a successful bar, hotel, restaurant or pub, your areas of expertise no doubt include customer service, marketing, promotions, food and beverage and staff management.

Our expertise is protecting your business from the risks involved in the service of alcohol. In today′s changing legal landscape a lack of meaningful policies, systems and regular training can leave you vulnerable to enforcement action or litigation.

BHARhouse Solutions provides a complete range of services in the areas of liquor licencing, compliance and operations, crisis management and representation at LCLB hearings. Click here for more details >>>

As your advocate we represent you anywhere in British Columbia by liaising with city hall, Liquor Control and Licencing Branch (LCLB), the police, local and provincial governments as well as your local community.

Just as your business is a unique establishment with its own character and clientele, at BHARhouse Solutions we recognize that there is no “one size fits all” approach to problem solving. We work with you to determine specific areas of concern, identify potential future problems and implement practical solutions.

The Team

Lou Helmes (lou@bharhouse.com) is a Managing Partner of BHARhouse Solutions and a former member of the RCMP. During his 25 years with the Mounties, Lou’s broad range of experience included undercover operations, major crime investigations, covert operations, and counter-terrorism. Further to this extensive career, he joined the LCLB as a compliance and enforcement officer. While he brought vast experience and established many new approaches to compliance operations, his greatest respect was for the people opening and operating the bars, hotels, restaurants and nightclubs. After seeing so many owners stymied by bureaucracy, Lou saw a need to establish a business that supports these entrepreneurs. BHARhouse Solutions is that outcome, with its primary focus being to allow business owners to do what they do best – run their establishments profitably and successfully.

Sandy Yates (sandy@bharhouse.com) is a Managing Partner of BHARhouse Solutions, an experienced businesswoman and public relations specialist. With almost 20 years working in media and media relations for both government and private industry, she has an in-depth knowledge of how the media operates and how to communicate credible, compelling and easily understood messages. Her expertise ranges from generating positive stories through to managing the media in a crisis situation. Sandy’s connections in Australia has allowed BHARhouse Solutions to thoroughly study best practices in the areas of liquor licencing, compliance and enforcement – particularly in the leadup to the Olympics. Sandy has a University degree in Business, majoring in marketing. Her experience operating successful businesses both in Canada and overseas, combined with savvy media credentials, give you operations and crisis management expertise at your fingertips.

James Macdonnell was most recently an advocate for LCLB and represented the Branch in licensee hearings. As branch advocate he was responsible for preparing evidence and presenting cases against licensees who were in contravention of their liquor licence requirements. As such, he has extensive knowledge of government prosecution methods. James has two Honours degrees from the University of British Columbia. He also has an Honours degree in Law from College of Law, Cardiff University, Wales, UK.

Hartley Charach is a business trainer, educator and coach. He specializes in business analysis and high performance team building and has worked with hundreds of small business owners mentoring them into becoming dynamic leaders and successful entrepreneurs. Hartley is an integral part of BHARhouse Solutions training programs and his unique style of presentation generates energy, confidence and most importantly, outstanding results.

BHARhouse Solutions also utilizes the services of a variety of professionals on an as-needs basis, depending on the requirements of each client. These include ex-liquor inspectors, ex-police officers, security and business experts. All consultants are hand picked by BHARhouse Solutions’ managing partners and undergo extensive training to ensure our clients receive unparalleled service and optimum results.