How to Build Successful Partnerships With Purveyors

Suppliers are an essential component of the turbine that runs any restaurant operation, but they particularly drive a startup or new location. Without them, the walk-in would be empty, the washrooms without soap, and the kitchen knives dull. To ensure a smooth-running system, the rapport between chefs and purveyors -- like any efficient and successful relationship -- needs continual care and maintenance. Unfortunately, it's not always easy.

There's no doubt that restaurateurs and their suppliers are critically dependent on each other. But sometimes the relationship can turn to a love-hate affair when each partner fails to look at the world through the other's eyes. Operators deal with a continuous stream of changing prices, quantity and quality, handling late deliveries, or worse, deliveries that show up during peak service times. Then, when salespeople finally understand your particular restaurant's wants and needs, they switch jobs and then starting knocking at your door as an employee of another supplier. What we don't need is another credit application to fill out.

On the flip side, some operators treat suppliers like grease traps. Some owners always take the position that suppliers are full of garbage and can't be trusted. They are rude to delivery drivers, abuse the salespeople and run them ragged. On top of it all, they think "net 30" means, "Whenever I get around to paying the invoice." That's one way to do business but for any startup it simply leads to a bad start and in just about every instance it's a bad approach.

Issues aside, the reality is that purveyors are the link to goods and services necessary for this business. Like it or not, they're an essential part of your business and you need them just as much as they need you. Period. Building a positive relationship with purveyors is more important now than ever.

As companies merge with larger suppliers, the selection of purveyors continues to shrink, making it tougher for a chef or kitchen manager to tell a supplier to take a hike. Consequently, it's important that operators view suppliers as partners in the restaurant business. They have a vested interest in a restaurant's success. As your business grows, so does theirs. If the supplier has extended a line of credit, your restaurant's financial future is closely tied to theirs.