Distributors play a critical role in foodservice today.
As an operator you really need to consider multiple factors before choosing the right ones for you.
One distributor – high trust – high service – must be great at everything, right?
I had the pleasure of spending 18 years on the category management side of foodservice distribution.
One of our Guiding Principles started with, “The customer is the boss.”
We worked hard to take care of the operator we were proud to serve because “…they pay all of our salaries.”
I was proud to work with a great team of sales associates. Most of these men and women put in long days serving customers they loved.
The relationship between the operator and their distributor(s) can range from “tied at the hip” to “necessary evil.”
What builds or breaks the relationship? Typically, I’d say it is trust.
So, what builds trust between an operator and a distributor?
Conversely, you may be able to guess what breaks trust between a operator and a distributor.
Some operator buyers have a Prime Vendor relationship with a distributor, while others “play the field” and check the pricing of one distributor against others.
Both approaches have risk. When you lean on just one distributor, you are trusting they will take care of you all the time. Your risk is they may screwup & you are left with their problem becoming your problem.
It could been other customer took all of a tight inventory item leaving you with nothing. The distributor’s vendor may not ship an item, leaving you with nothing, again. I hate to say it, but the distributor sales rep may start sneaking your costs up, hoping to improve their paycheck.
If you play one distributor against another, you may spend HOURS making sure you get the best deal.
If you play one distributor against another, you may spend HOURS making sure you get the best deal. you are filling out a spreadsheet or checking online pricing or running to the local cash & carry.
You may save a few dollars, but you lose hours every week making sure you are getting the right value.
So, what’s the answer to getting the best cost of goods on every order without spending all your time buying?
Reeco is a new marketplace platform where a operator buyer can easily and accurately enter their needs for each item, see what the competitive offers are from top distributors and decide which items to purchase. This can all be done in a few minutes.
When the order arrives, the receiver simply takes the tablet supplied by Reeco and validates the product was received in good condition! Savings typically range from 12-19%!
Reeco solves problems for the distributors, too! No more worry about bad debt, sell only what you have (no more orders for products you don’t have in stock), quickly react to changing conditions.
Lower cost-to-serve!
Procurement may seem simple from the outside, but we know the struggles to create processes that work. Having an efficient procurement process changed the game for many companies.