The invention provides an apparatus for controlling and monitoring the storage and dispensing of beverage products the apparatus comprising: a plurality of product registration devices for registering the presence of beverage products in one or more storage locations, each product registration device being associated with one beverage product or group of beverage products a plurality of metering dispensers in a sales location from which one or more authorized users can dispense beverage products to customers a plurality of locking means for preventing dispensing of a beverage product, each locking means being operatively linked to a different one of said metering dispensers a plurality of user identifying devices for identifying authorized users, each user identifying device being operatively linked to a different one of said locking means so that an authorized user can unlock the said locking means and thereby dispense a beverage product from an operatively linked ‘metering dispenser and a processor which receives and processes data from the said product registration devices, the user identifying devices and the metering dispensers and records the placing of beverage products in the one or more storage locations, the transfer of beverage products from the one or more storage locations to the sales location and the dispensing of beverage products from the metering dispensers by authorized users and calculates the total value of each customer transaction made by each authorized user. Two locks or safeguards are provided to prevent unauthorized removal of an optic element. The locks are interlocked.
