Purchasing is one component or step in a restaurant's operations that is as essential as keeping your kitchen clean.
Purchasing is important in food cost control and control of other costs as well like manpower, transportation costs and communication. Right purchasing procedures will add to better inventory management, less spolage and maximization of your storage facilities.
Here aer simple purchasing tips that will bring you a lot of benefit:
* Search for institutional suppliers or those that can give you the best value for your money. There ae a lot of products that are produced and packaged for foodservice companies and restaurants. They come in bulk which costs you money compared to buying retail. This depends, of course, on your rate of consumption. Buy from distributors or wholesalers to get the best price. In addition, most distributors can give you credit terms for your purchases.
* Have a schedule. It will be a good habit to make and to teach your kitchen staff to request for things they will need in advance. Make a checklist of ALL the items they use in the kitchen and check against this list everytime you or they make a purchase request. This is to make sure that nothing is left out or forgotten. It is highly inconvenient, costly and irritating on the part of a purchaser to go back to the grocery fro one item the chef forgot to include in the market list.
* Take advantage of your being a restaurant. Ask for samples, good credit terms and good product return policies. Recipes, product use guides sometimes come with the products.
* Know your consumption rate. This will also require you to learn order rate and lead time for products.
Purchasing is one step, yes, but it is definitely an important one.
No comments:
Post a Comment