Key Strategy for Saving on Your Restaurant Food Costs

I just finished teaching one of my semi-annual three-day workshops and in the room we had five people who were opening restaurants. It was great to have so many people there ready to learn systems before they even opened their doors.

And one of the food-cost-saving tools I highlighted was the prime vendor agreement.

The prime vendor agreement is something you establish with your primary food distributor. Rather than order small amounts of product from a lot of different food distributors, you’re better off to order most, if not all, of your product from one distributor.

Yes, you might be getting a killer deal on cheese from one vendor, but in the meantime, you’re getting railed in your janitorial and paper items from another. Doing it without a prime vendor agreement is cherry picking and it won’t get you far these days. It’s no longer to your advantage to purchase this way.

A prime vendor agreement will make a huge impact on your bottom line, cutting percentage points off your operations costs, guaranteed. In fact, promising to purchase 90 percent of your products from one distributor will almost always save you 3, 5, even 7 percent.

And in addition to saving you money, prime vendor agreements:

• Offer peace of mind knowing you always get competitive pricing, quality products and exceptional customer service
• Eliminate “cherry picking” among vendors, creating a healthy business-to-business relationship with your vendor
• Save time because fewer vendors is more efficient

Many of my members use a distribution consultant to aid in getting them the best deal. If you want the phone number for my guy, call me. I will be more than happy to help.

David Scott Peters is a restaurant expert, speaker, coach and trainer for independent restaurant owners. He is the founder of TheRestaurantExpert.com and the developer of SMART Systems Pro,an online restaurant management software program helping the independent restaurant owner remain competitive and profitable in an industry boxed in by the big chain restaurants. He and a team of experienced and passionate coaches help restaurant owners solve their biggest financial and employee challenges so they can run successful and profitable businesses. Learn more atwww.TheRestaurantExpert.com.