How to Determine If a Prime Vendor Program Is Right for Your Restaurant

There are many schools of thought on what may be best-suited for each restaurant when it comes to purchasing. Most of it goes back to our experiences, and where we learned. Setting up purchasing programs that are "a fit" for your concept becomes much more important in today's competitive marketplace, especially when the cost of ingredients continues to increase.

The key question facing many restaurateurs is how effectively to reduce costs without diminishing quality and service. To do so, I find it makes sense to study the large-chain restaurant company purchasing programs to see what they do and what may work for independents. Make no mistake; these larger companies believe the wave of the present and future is really to structure partnerships or alliances with select suppliers. Their partnerships are structured so that suppliers share costs and have a vested interest in the long-term success of their customers' business. With the rising cost of fuel and the additional labor and accounting costs associated with checking in deliveries and cutting checks, it makes great sense for these companies to look to consolidate as much as possible to stay competitive.

Perhaps you are not running a Red Lobster or Cheesecake Factory unit. Nevertheless, in this article we'll look at how you might be able to establish a win-win partnership with your supplier that is right for your business, and not use the chains' purchasing model as a template, but more as "guiding principles" for establishing a better purchasing program.

First, Define Your Concept's Needs

Every independent restaurateur has to be true to his or her concept. Until you have defined your concept and remain true to who you are, you cannot expect to work with vendors to customize your purchasing program in a manner that makes sense for your business. First, examine your concept's needs from these perspectives:

Level of service needs. Is it imperative that your account sales representative personally take orders or can your restaurant order products online or via fax or phone call? Do you believe it's necessary to have more frequent deliveries because of storage space limits, or can you get by with fewer deliveries per week? If you require this level of maintenance, so be it. Just bear in mind that the more service and deliveries you require, the more you should expect to pay.

Quality specifications needs. Would it make sense to buy a large part or all of your food and nonfood products from a broadline distributor, or, do you find it necessary to use a dedicated meat, produce and/or seafood company for specific products. Specialty suppliers typically charge a premium. If your concept and/or menu truly lean on specialized products, your costs will increase, and your customers will have to be willing to pay a little more.

Primary supplier relationship needs. Can you afford to increase your primary vendor's drop size at your restaurant? Common sense tells us that suppliers become more profitable if they can deliver more products to you per delivery. If you can justify larger shipments, you need to work with your primary supplier to ensure that its efficiencies are passed along to you in the form of lower prices.