Our F&B suppliers are costly and unreliable

Every station orders what it needs, when it needs it. No supplier experiences the house as one customer — but as many small ones. Terms and priority in shortages follow accordingly.

One person owns F&B purchasing — not every order, but the supplier list, terms and rules. In small houses that is a partial role, not a position.

Daily micro-orders, surcharges for express deliveries, opened packs. The kitchen orders by feel because volume planning is missing — and pays for it with every delivery.

Fixed order days per supplier and simple volume planning from occupancy and menu. Fewer, larger orders improve the position in every conversation — and reduce failures because the supplier can plan.

Prices are what they are, for years. Conversations happen when something goes wrong — not to order the relationship. Yet for many suppliers the house is a more important customer than it believes.

Once a year, talk to the key suppliers about volumes, terms and reliability — with your own order figures on the table. Whoever knows their volumes negotiates differently.

Shortages, substitutes, delayed deliveries — the kitchen absorbs everything, and nobody raises it. The supplier never learns it is a problem. So it remains one.

Briefly document failures and address them in the supplier conversation. Whoever measures and raises reliability usually gets it — or knows it is time for an alternative.