CATERING
GIVE CHOICE BACK TO FOOD PROCUREMENT
Ed Bevan, Director at Acquire, professional purchasing consultancy for catering related products, shares his insight into the world of purchasing consortia and how they needn’t prevent local and seasonal produce.
Facility Managers have had to become skilled multi-taskers in recent years, as the pressures of the economic downturn have taken effect. Many have had to make tough choices with regard to budget and staffing, ultimately leading to them wearing many hats simultaneously; doubling as both catering manager and procurement officer.
To ensure that standards remain high, whilst maintaining targets and accountability, some Facilities Managers have turned to purchasing groups for a helping hand; organisations that can buy on their behalf, and claim to be able to help cut costs and save time. This may have been a solution in the past, but the fact is, the catering landscape has changed beyond recognition and purchasing businesses have failed to adapt, leaving their customers open to unstable prices, compliance gaps in the supply chain and a mountain of paperwork – exactly the opposite of what a busy manager needs!
“ACQUIRE CHALLENGES THE PROCUREMENT
CATEGORIES AND HAS INCREASED THE SEVEN MAIN COMMODITIES TO A STAGGERING 28.”
One issue we have witnessed when working with Facilities Managers is the worry that dealing with a purchasing group or ‘middle man’ may narrow down their options or working with niche, seasonal or local producers. The majority of purchasing consortiums offer
20 | TOMORROW’S FM
a standard model for purchasing frameworks which is to lump a single commodity – say dairy – into one contract. Not only does this greatly reduce the choice of supplier to Facilities Managers, it has largely kept niche producers or SMEs off frameworks as many are unable to fulfil the needs of a large contract.
Acquire challenges the procurement categories and has increased the seven main commodities categories to a staggering 28. This helps to open the doors to a local, specialist meat producer, for example, who can be governed by the same food safety rules as a larger supplier but wouldn’t get a look in to a larger meat framework.
It’s an approach that has now been recognised by the European Union (EU) as best practice, and is a key change to the EU Procurement Directive which will make it easier to dissect frameworks to drive access for SMEs.
It’s an entirely personalised solution that covers the entire range of issues caterers must address in their purchasing behaviour, creating a fully integrated disciplined solution. Facilities Managers have reported that they have saved as much as 30% on purchase volume via the system’s invoice matching capability which translates to major cost-saving. It also allows caterers to re-allocate the purchasing manager resource to other areas where a human touch is needed.
The landscape is vast with clients, consumers and Government increasingly demanding. So what’s the answer? “Knowledge is power’ and this couldn’t be truer in developing purchasing best practice.
Acquire has made information access a central pillar to its business. Visibility and transparency across the supply chain delivers savings, consistency and compliance.
“‘KNOWLEDGE IS POWER’ AND THIS
COULDN’T BE TRUER IN DEVELOPING
PURCHASING BEST PRACTICE.”
Acquire’s approach to buying food related products is completely unique - different to any other service on the market. It is not a “consortium” or a “buying collective” (although it does manage over £500m of food related spend on behalf of their clients). The consultancy simply works with organisations to understand their buying requirements and makes a series of recommendations for improvement. It also provides access to information around every element of a buying process through online procurement tools, which can be seamlessly integrated into existing management and accounting systems.
Maintaining service level agreements, carrying out third party safety audits and continually assessing suppliers’ credentials including due diligence processes and emergency contingency plans is all part of the service that Acquire offers, to ensure that every partner business is receiving the very best value and getting the most out of their purchasing. It’s as simple as that.
www.acquireservice.co.uk twitter.com/TomorrowsFM
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