The new scheme, Food Procurement, has been trialled for more than a year and Deliveroo claims it saves restaurants 20% on their ingredients bills and smaller independent restaurants as much as 40%.
It also claimed these savings are helping operators boost profits and help smaller restaurants to expand, in a bid to bring diversity to the high street.
Deliveroo said this is vital support for operators at a time when food costs have risen by as much as 50% in the past five years and when food costs typically make up 20% to 40% of an average restaurant’s sales.
Individual restaurants
The Food Procurement scheme aims to see Deliveroo negotiate the cost of ingredients and other items, using its size, existing partnerships with restaurants and suppliers to get lower costs.
It also claimed the scheme had saved restaurants 40% on the cost of individual ingredients, such as avocados.
Deliveroo vice-president of new business Ajay Lakhwani said: “Food Procurement is an exciting new service for restaurants that will cut costs while raising the quality of ingredients.
“By using our size and scale to negotiate great prices, we can both simplify the procurement process and help independent and chains can make big savings.
“Restaurants and their suppliers are the winner and, of course, this is great news for customers because restaurants will cook with better quality ingredients.”
Vital cog
Indo-Chinese food business Banana Tree group operations manager Karthik Ramakrishnan outlined how the new scheme had a positive impact on the business.
Ramakrishnan said: “Deliveroo’s food procurement not only helps reduce costs but also makes it easier to get the right ingredients at the right time.
“The scheme matches the needs of our business and has quickly become a vital cog in our procurement operations.”