Cómo maximizar tu relación con tu distribuidor de alimentos

Most restaurant owners consider their food distributor a supplier. And, technically, that's true. They're responsible for sourcing products, delivering inventory, assisting in emergencies, and keeping the kitchen running smoothly.

But here's what I've learned after years of advising restaurant owners: if you don't actively manage that relationship, your supplier may be silently increasing your restaurant's food costs without you even realizing it.

Now, before we continue, I want to make something perfectly clear. This isn't one of those conversations where "the distributor is the bad guy." That's far too simplistic and, frankly, absolves restaurant owners of responsibility.

Your distributor has a job to do. You have a job to do, too. Problems arise when restaurant owners confuse the two.

This happens all the time. A restaurant owner develops an excellent relationship with their sales representative. The representative responds quickly. They answer messages. They help in emergencies. They know the menu, the staff, and how the business operates. They may have even helped solve problems on occasion.

That relationship is important. But liking your sales representative and controlling your purchases are two completely different things.

Your restaurant food supplier isn't responsible for protecting your margins. They're not your purchasing manager. They're not your controller or your CFO. They run a business designed to generate profits, just like you do.

The mistake occurs when restaurant owners assume that loyalty or familiarity automatically equates to responsibility, and that is not the case.

Why does the price of food in restaurants keep gradually rising?

Perhaps you've noticed it yourself. You place practically the same order every week, but somehow the total bill keeps increasing.

At first, it's easy to blame inflation, supply chain problems, or market volatility. And yes, those factors certainly influence prices. Food prices have been unpredictable for years.

But here's the catch: when restaurant owners blame the market for everything, they stop focusing on what they can actually control.

And in most restaurants, profits don't disappear because of one colossal mistake. They slip away little by little through small operational problems that no one pays attention to:

• The package size changes

Individually, these things don't seem catastrophic. Collectively, they destroy profit margins.

The real problem is usually not the distributor.

One of the biggest mindset changes I teach restaurant owners is this: most problems with suppliers are system problems.

If your managers can ask for whatever they want whenever they want, that's not the distributor's problem.

If nobody checks the invoices weekly, that's not the distributor's problem.

If you can't tell me how much the chicken, frying oil, or cheese cost you last week, that's not the distributor's problem either.

This demonstrates a lack of systems, accountability, and oversight.

And unfortunately, food cost problems in restaurants rarely manifest themselves drastically. They creep in gradually over weeks and months until one day you do the math and wonder how your profit margins could possibly have been affected.

How to professionally manage the food supplier for your restaurant.

There is a huge difference between managing a relationship with a supplier and attacking that relationship.

Managing your distributor sounds professional:

“These are our key products. These are our purchase volumes. These are the price ranges we need to maintain. What options do we have to improve predictability?”

Professional conversations produce professional results.

• Review of compliance rates
• Monitoring of replacements
• Questioning the unexplained increases
• Discuss volume commitments
• Explore quoted prices
• Evaluate alternative products when appropriate.

That's not being stingy. That's being responsible.

The missing system is what's costing you money.

I want restaurant owners to understand this because it changes everything.

When you blame the distributor for all the problems, you are giving away your power.

When you build systems, you regain that power.

You may not be able to control all market increases or supply chain problems. But you can control the following:

• Whether purchasing decisions are based on data or panic.

That's the difference between reacting to the cost of food in restaurants and managing it properly.

And sometimes, after you've created suitable systems, you might decide that your current distributor is no longer the right fit. That happens.

But now you're making that decision based on facts and results, not frustration. That's a much more advantageous position.