Creating a welcoming atmosphere, providing great service, having a well-crafted menu, serving quality dishes. All of that is essential to a restaurant's success. But there is another aspect that also deserves plenty of attention: choosing your suppliers.
This can be a challenging mission for some businesses and usually raises a few questions: where do you find suppliers? How do you assess quality? How do you choose the best one?
If you are looking for the answer to these and other questions, keep reading and check out our complete guide to choosing food suppliers for restaurants!
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Why do suppliers matter so much for restaurants?
Suppliers are true partners to any restaurant. After all, if the goal is to serve delicious dishes, you need to use ingredients from reliable sources.
A safety and quality of the food used in recipes play a crucial role in customer satisfaction and in the establishment's reputation. For obvious reasons: nobody likes to pay for a bad meal and — worse still — end up getting sick.
That alone would already be reason enough to pay attention to choosing your suppliers. But there are other points that also affect the business: on-time deliveries, competitive prices and flexibility to negotiate are the best examples.
Imagine hiring a supplier that never delivers on time, brings the wrong products, with poor quality, and still charges a premium? Beyond causing headaches — like having to source ingredients somewhere else at the last minute — it also hurts the business financially.
That is why choosing the right suppliers is also essential to ensure good purchasing and inventory management, which impacts the restaurant's profitability and financial health.
So keep reading to learn how to make the best choice!
How to choose food suppliers for restaurants?
There are several categories of restaurant suppliers: food, beverages, kitchen equipment, cleaning products, uniforms and PPE, management systems, deliveries, marketing, among others.
The list is long, but here we will focus only on food suppliers. That is because they are also the most critical ones: they deliver the main input for the restaurant's production and, in most cases, these inputs are perishable.
So you need to identify which suppliers are the best and manage them excellently to make sure everything runs smoothly.Check out our tips below!
1. List your needs
The first step is understanding what your restaurant needs. In other words: which inputs you need to produce the dishes on your menu.
A better way to identify these needs is to create a recipe card for each item on the menu.
That way you will know exactly which ingredients and specific quantities are needed for production, and from there build your list, create your inventory and set the delivery frequency.
To stay better organized, sort your inputs into categories. This makes it easier to see and search for specific suppliers, such as: meats, fish, fruits and vegetables, pasta and so on.
2. Identify your budget
Before setting out to look for suppliers, it is also essential to identify how much budget you have available to buy your inputs.
Do a thorough financial analysis, consider your cash flow and know exactly how much you can spend. That way you will be better prepared to evaluate products, compare suppliers and negotiate prices.
3. Ask for referrals
There are countless food suppliers for restaurants in every region. Since the products are usually perishable, it is common to work with local partners alongside the big chains.
So, to make things easier, start your supplier search by asking other restaurant managers in your network for referrals. Based on their previous experience, they will be able to tell you which ones are the most reliable, offer the best products and have the best prices.
That way you save effort and can prioritize the most recommended suppliers.
4. Do your research
But referrals are not the only way to find suppliers for your restaurant!
You may need some specific inputs that your peers do not use, or your budget may be tighter than theirs, or you may even want to work with higher quality.
So do some research looking for the suppliers that meet your criteria. Having a range of options to compare is the best way to find the ones that will actually meet your needs.
To help you with your supplier research, further down we have a list of places where you can find them! Keep reading.
5. Compare
Once you have gathered every possible supplier available in your region, it is time to contact each one, ask for information and compare them.
Some aspects you can take into account in this analysis are:
- Prices
- Payment terms
- Flexibility to negotiate
- Product variety
- Service capacity
- Logistics and delivery times
- Food safety and quality certifications
If it makes sense, use a spreadsheet to lay out each supplier's features and information side by side. That will make your choice easier! Then select the suppliers that best fit your criteria and needs.
6. Visit the suppliers
Finally, it is an excellent idea to visit the suppliers you shortlisted before making the final call.
This practice is often overlooked by restaurant managers, but visiting and getting to know your suppliers up close is very important for two main reasons:
- Checking whether they meet quality standards in food production and storage, ensuring that your inputs come from a reliable source and that your customers get the best final product.
- Starting a close, trusting relationship. Remember: a supplier is your business partner.
With that, you will feel more confident in your decision and will certainly choose the best food suppliers for your business!
Where to find suppliers for restaurants?
Not sure where to even start looking for your suppliers? To help you out, we have put together a few ideas. Below are some places where you can get good references.
Wholesalers and Distributors
Known for bringing together a wide range of products at more affordable prices, wholesale chains and distributors are a practical option for sourcing your restaurant's inputs, especially if you are in a big city.
Manufacturers
Talking directly with the manufacturer pays off when you use a large volume of an input. It can be a good idea to negotiate with local producers or those closest to your region, especially for perishable products like dairy.
Industry Trade Shows and Events
Taking part in food industry trade shows and events is one of the best ways to find good suppliers. That is because they all gather in one place and you can talk and negotiate right there.
Associations and Cooperatives
Food industry associations and cooperatives bring together producers, manufacturers and business owners. They usually publish supplier catalogs on their websites, which are a great research source.
Specialized websites and magazines
Media outlets specialized in the food service sector also tend to cover the latest news and dedicate space to content and ads from suppliers of all kinds. Follow these publications to stay up to date.
How do you know which are the best suppliers for restaurants?
If you follow the tips we shared earlier, you will likely find several suppliers, and then a question may come up: how do you know which one is best?
We have already covered some points to take into account when comparing, but below we have put together a few tips that can help you evaluate and decide who the ideal partner is for your business.
- Sample quality: Before signing the contract, ask for product samples and make sure they meet the quality standards you expect.
- Consistency in quality and price: Find out whether the supplier can keep quality consistent, that is: whether there are no big variations from one order to the next, or at different times of the year. The same goes for price.
- Certificates and compliance: Look at the supplier's track record to see whether they comply with every regulation and hold the necessary certifications, especially when it comes to food safety.
- Market reputation: Give preference to suppliers that are already well established, get good reviews and have solid credibility, even if they are local producers or manufacturers.
- Customer service: Having a supplier that is available, easy to communicate with and willing to solve problems makes all the difference.
- Flexibility: Find out whether the supplier is willing to adapt to your business's needs. Do they handle special requests? Can they increase or reduce deliveries when necessary?
- Sustainability: Also consider whether the supplier is committed to good sustainable practices. This affects both product quality and customer perception, as people increasingly value establishments that care about environmental and social causes.
- Inventory availability: Check whether the supplier has the capacity to meet your demand, considering both seasonal swings, such as peak season, and the fact that it may grow in the future if your business expands.
Finally, it is important to always test and track your suppliers' performance. You will not always get it right the first time, which is why constant attention matters: check whether they are delivering a quality product, meeting deadlines and meeting your needs. Switch partners if you have to.
Manage your purchasing and inventory with EPOC
Choosing the best suppliers for your restaurant is essential, but you also need to do your part and be a good customer to them. For that, count on a system that helps with purchasing and inventory management, like EPOC.
In addition to being a PDV that is versatile, fast and easy to use, EPOC has a complete back office that makes managing your business easier. Register recipe cards, automate your records and get full control of your purchasing and inventory.
To see how it works in practice, Schedule a free demonstration now and talk with our consultants.
