Good relations
The following article is brought to you by McCain.
Building relationships with good suppliers can be one of the most important things you do in your business.
Particularly with food, where the quality and style of your offering is a key selling point. And so much of the quality depends on where you source your raw material. But, when the world is full of salesman, how do you find the right supplier for you? Start by considering your needs.
What's your market? What type of food do you serve? Are you looking to update and change your menu? Do you want to expand food sales by offering different food at different times?
Work with a handful of suppliers who together can deliver everything you want and watch how it helps you achieve your business objectives.
Relationships count
Always make sure that you're able to work well with the people involved. It should be a partnership. Because, make no mistake, a good relationship needs commitment on both sides, which translates into added value for you.
By working closely, suppliers will better understand your business needs. That means they'll be able to advise you about new product innovations that suit you and get involved in your menu development. With trust, you can rely on them for much of your development work.
With good communication you should always be in the loop about promotions and deals. Make sure you take advantage of any activity and promotions suppliers are running throughout the year because this may help you stimulate demand from your customers.
Great expectations
Talk is cheap and the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So monitor performance and make sure your partners deliver. Formalise the process with a "scoresheet" based on difference aspects like quality, price, reliability, helpfulness and so on.
It's worthwhile to review suppliers on a regular basis.But remember they usually have masses of industry knowledge. Work with them to extract every drop of value for your business. Use them for information on everything from menu ideas to recommendations about other suppliers in different product areas, for example equipment and consumables.
Get to know them well and a good supplier will keep you up to date with trends and what is going on in the market place. You can often access their consumer research, which gives pointers about what your customers want.
They may also be able to advise about how to draw more profit from your menu. And, if you are looking to run new promotions in your pub, you can learn from their experience and find out about past promotions that they know have worked well.
So, there's much more to the supplier relationship than simply buying and selling. It's the difference between Cod Roe and Caviar. And if it isn't, it's probably time for a change.
A good supplier should:
- Know your menu inside out
- Look at products that can help your business
- Tell you about any offers or discounts available
- Pull out all the stops/be flexible if you have a tight delivery deadline
- Suggest ways to improve/change your menu
- Come up with menu solutions
- Help you increase your profit
- Tell you about any product innovations
Ideas and inspiration
McCain has produced a menu ideas CD-ROM perfect for licensees, which details all its products and how they can be served in an interesting way. Just some of the tasty dishes are shown here. McCain has FREE CD-ROMs to give away to the first 50 people who respond, to claim your CD-ROM please contact Nicole McWilliam on 01904 486666.
Readers' research: If you've an effective tip to share, email: zppnva@gurchoyvpna.pbz
