By Ana Turón, Responsible of Restauración Colectiva and of the Congreso de Restauración Colectiva
As has been said on numerous occasions, the communities sector is the best concealed and definitely the least transparent one in catering; this often means that suppliers are unwilling to take the step of committing to it, sensing that it’s a “complicated” industry. The fact that most of the services depend on public tenders and fixed prices not only harms the operators, particularly during inflationary periods such as the current one, it also scares away suppliers who see more difficulties than benefits in working in the segment.
Despite the above, from the supplier’s standpoint, working with communities may also have its advantages, including volume, control, better forecasting and long-term service stability.
Different purchase management systems, depending on the company and type of service
One distinctive feature of the communities industry is the wide range of operating companies that co-exist (from large multinationals to small family-run businesses), in addition to the numerous kinds of centres and, therefore, purchase management systems, depending on the services and the division in question (the purchase management of a large hospital has little in common with that of a small self-managed school dining hall).
As María López, spokeswoman of Food Service España (the sectoral employers’ federation), explained, “in collective catering the companies co-exist, more or less equally, with two forms of purchasing. On the one hand, there are clustered product purchases for all the centres around the country (dry food, cans, preserves, etc.), and, on the other, local purchases of fresh items such as meat, fruit and vegetables (we don’t include fish in this second group because it’s used frozen to prevent food safety risks)”.
Ester Mata, head of Quality and Product at Campos Estela – Sabe que Alimenta, pointed out that “right now, within the sector, there’s a co-existence of direct purchases from the producer, purchasing centres that distribute to each of the satellite centres themselves and distributors who bring farm products to collective catering companies. We believe that the last system, the one with distributors, is the most predominant one in small and medium-sized catering companies, while the purchasing centre system is the prevalent one among large companies”.
Professional partners that facilitate operations
The management of food and beverage purchases in communities is absolutely strategic in terms of choosing the suppliers and products that are best suited to the needs of the customers and end diners and the impact of costs on the income statement, so it’s vital to have professional partners who are familiar with the industry to facilitate this management.
In this respect, Marc Ferré, General Manager of Save up Market, one of the companies to be found in the Catering in communities: meeting point area at Hostelco & Restaurama, stated that companies such as his deliver clear management benefits for the operator and stable growth for the supplier. “We provide the operator with a simple and efficient cost management and control system. Our strength is our knowledge of the market and the simplification of the purchase processes… and we also offer the supplier a guarantee of growth. We take care of all the management of the prices, rates, technical data sheets and day-to-day negotiations. This enables the supplier and operator to work in a friendly environment in which they can meet to discuss the service and product. We allow the two parties to bypass the “ugliest” part of the process”.
Artur Arqués, CEO of Central Borne, another of the firms to be found in the new communities area, remarked that the current situation makes it particularly necessary for companies to entrust their purchasing management to a partner. “The significant complexity of the communities industry lies in achieving good quality with tight budgets, which means that, in an inflationary period such as the current one, it’s essential to have excellent response capacity to rapidly search for alternative products, while we must also take into account the stock shortages that we’re witnessing as a result of the numerous present-day problems”. Beyond the purchase management, for which Central Borne has a portfolio covering all the ranges (ambient temperature, cooled and frozen) and its own logistics platform, Arqués introduces the term “consultative sales” as a way of offering “layers of added value for the customer, including a nutrition service, menu planning, allergen assessments, technical data sheets, etc.”.
Mercabarna companies, which are also represented in “Catering in communities: meeting point”, are also making a firm commitment to the industry, offering, as Toni Nieto, head of Studies, Clusters and Development at Mercabarna, explained, “a combination of access to fresh and varied products, logistical efficiency, advisory services and a network of reliable suppliers”.
As María López explained, “beyond the right price and compliance with the quality agreed on for each product, timely and reliable distribution without stock outages is vital for us, as well as a high level of capillarity and logistical distribution and guarantees of food quality and safety during the storage and distribution”. In short, the complexity of the industry makes the help provided by the supplier vital for the smooth running of both outsourced and self-managed services.
Digitisation and sustainability… major challenges
Beyond the day-to-day operations and management, we should highlight that two of the present and future challenges in the field of purchases are digitisation and sustainability.
All the people named in this article agree that digitisation is key; “it’s no longer a challenge, it’s a need, and it isn’t a future one, it’s an immediate one”, remarked Marc Ferré. Artur Arqués spoke in a similar vein, as he regards it as absolutely essential to “improve and automate processes to ensure that everything is much faster and straightforward than with tedious manual processes”, while Toni Nieto emphasised that there’s still a lot of work to be done, because “there are lots of companies that have still to begin their digitisation processes”.
With regard to sustainability in purchasing, it’s an extremely broad field with numerous vertices. It’s a cross-cutting issue that affects all the areas of a community service (local purchases, organic food, menu design, fleets, efficient equipment, energy control, etc.). As for food waste, for example, according to Ester Mata, “one of the benefits of communities with respect to other Horeca segments is the greater accuracy of the purchase forecasting, enabling us to adjust to real consumption and reduce food waste much better”.
In this regard, declared Toni Nieto, “the entry into force of legislation on sustainability and the approval of measures to reduce the environmental impact are key challenges facing the industry”.
