Most restaurants nowadays tie up with multiple raw material and food suppliers in the industry to ensure they do not fall out of stocks or suffer from any kind of redundancy in the supply chain. For instance, a fine dining restaurant might collaborate with multiple vendors for the raw fruits and vegetables they have to get from the market. So, even if one vendor fails to provide the restaurant with the expected volume of raw materials, it will acquire the rest of the fruits and vegetables from another vendor.
Since the competition is pretty high and people always expect the best from all food businesses, it’s your responsibility to ensure the company or vendor with whom you collaborate is of the top level. To do so, you should focus on asking the below-mentioned questions to the vendor before ordering restaurant food supplies.
What is the experience of the food supplier company?
The first and foremost question that you have to ask the food supplier is its experience in supplying various kinds of food items, raw materials, and drinking elements. Until and unless you have the clarity about the experience the company has, relying on its operations and supply chain management would be suitable. This is because most amateur food suppliers are not aware of the difficulties and hurdles in the supply chain, the proper technologies to be used to preserve the food and other raw materials, and avoid any kind of problem during the last mile delivery phase. Therefore, if you do not want all these challenges being rolled out into your pocket, try to go for a food supply company which has at least spend more than five years in the market.
Does the business offer food rebates?
It is very important to confirm with the food supplier business about the rebates. With the increasing demand in best quality raw materials and other food related items in restaurants and cafes, several food suppliers use different types of loyalty programs and customer acquisition strategies. Food service rebates are one of the successful and most prominent strategies implemented in the market. As the name suggests, it is a process where the business will offer you a certain incentive or percentage of the sale based on prominent criteria. It’s a way of building loyal relationships with customers and promoting the brand in a better way.
What are the different product types available for the food supply chain?
The next thing you have to ask your food supplier is the types of products it supplies. For example, you can find suppliers having a generalized catalog where they supply food and other raw materials from various domains, like dairy, juices and beverages, fresh producers, meat, and so on. On the other hand, you will also comment for several suppliers who focus on a certain food category. Therefore, based on what your business requires, you have to ask your supplier what type of food and raw materials they can help you with.
How does the company manage supply chain and procurement operations?
One of the most important questions you have to ask your two supplier is your maintenance process of procurement and supply chain operations. It can be gathering all the fresh produces or dairy products from the manufacturing units and farmers the last mile delivery phase to your business warehouse. If the operations are not strategized and managed properly, there will be several challenges and the entire productivity and performance of the supply chain will start declining sharply.
What will be the overall cost for food supply?
Until and unless you have a budget in your hand, choosing the food supplier is never easy. This is because you might end up collaborating with a vendor who charges are way more than what you contemplated at the beginning. This is why you should always ask your supplier how much they charge for the entire operation list and also inquire about the overheads and additional charges.
Is there any technology involved in the food supply chain?
Another most important question you should ask is the list of technologies being involved in the food supply chain. In other words, you must confirm if the business uses any kind of software, application, and so on to streamline the supply chain operations and track all the food orders and deliveries from end to end.
Conclusion
In this article, we have talked about the top questions you have to ask the business from where you want to get restaurant food supplies. You are satisfied with the answers, you can proceed further with making arrangements for discussing with the business consultant.