customers to eat out, any business that doesn’t have its supplier costs firmly under control will struggle to remain competitive.


EVERYTHING IN ONE PLACE There are a number of key ways that technology can help cater- ers keep on top of their costs and make savings, and all revolve around visibility. The best procurement systems avail- able today allow businesses to see everything that’s going on over their entire operation in one place and in real time, mean- ing they can identify inconsis- tences and make adjustments extremely quickly. For example, Pelican’s Pi procurement sys- tem can offer everything from online access to supplier invoices, credits and consolidated statements relating to a site or cost centre to recipe costing with detailed allergen and nutri- tional data breakdown, stock management, contract compliance and graphical reports that provide real-time business intelligence. Similarly, Fourth Analytics software brings together industry benchmarking, Epos data, smart menu design, procurement and stock control, and can be viewed on clear, mobile- friendly dashboards. “Customers can have all their KPIs on their iPhone or iPad so they don’t have to go and look at endless Excel reports on different systems,” explains Fourth’s analytics and insight solutions director Mike Shipley. The simplest way that such systems can


help F&B businesses is by ensuring they pay the right price. “Many businesses do not have the time, resources or systems to check each invoice product line against the agreed con- tract list, and it is surprisingly common for an invoice price to be higher than agreed – mis- takes which often go unnoticed unless there is


“By switching products and suppliers, we were


able to save £10,000” John Stirrat


a proper checking system in place,” says Pel- ican’s head of procurement Martin Hudson. “Computerised systems that can automatically check each invoice against the agreed price to identify inconsistencies would save businesses around 3% to 5% of the total spend on food and drink, not to mention the time and resources if this task were to be done manually.” Operators can also see their most pur- chased items – generally the top 20 product lines represent 50% of a business’s purchases – enabling them to figure out where swapping a product for a cheaper alternative will make


Case study: New Lanark Mill hotel and Visitor Centre


Thanks to Pelican Procurement Services’ Pi system, New Lanark Mill hotel and Visitor Centre, a World Heritage site in Scotland, has reduced its food and beverage cost by 12% through consolidation of products and a tender process, both managed by the Pelican procurement team. John Stirrat, general manager


of New Lanark Mills hotel, says: “With Pi we now have total visibility over our supplier spend, and no longer have to manually input supplier invoices and pay suppliers individually. There is no need for us to check invoices line by line to ensure that we have not been overcharged, and all this is being done automatically.” Management is also using the


online ordering system to control what products the team can


44 | Technology Prospectus 2018


annually – it’s one of its top-spend products – as the hotel produces its own ice-cream, which is sold to the public and distributed to other hotels and restaurants. With the recent price increases, the team was faced with an increased spend of £46,000 a year, but their Pelican procurement manager went to the market and sourced a butter of the same quality from a regional supplier. “By switching products and


order and limit them to contract list items, as well as bespoke reports that allow management to see spend by supply, site or


individual product, and mitigate any potential risk. For example, the business spends around £26,000 on butter


suppliers, we were able to save £10,000,” Stirrat says. “Furthermore, with the head chef using advice and new product sourcing from Pelican, some recipes have been adjusted to use an alternative baking margarine, which has yielded more savings as this product is half the cost of butter.”


www.thecaterer.com


the biggest impact. Pelican Pi, for example, has saved one client £8,400 a year by helping them switch a branded vegetable stock to a non-branded alternative, and delivered savings of £15,000 a year to another cli- ent by finding an alternative flour brand. These systems can also help managers control the products their team buys – allow- ing them to order only from an approved list. Procure-to-pay functionality (the process of obtaining and managing the materials needed for making a product or providing a service) can also save hugely on staff and admin costs. Shipley explains: “The whole process is automated. When you place your order, it sends it to every single supplier automatically; and when the order is delivered, it’s all elec- tronic in terms of receiving it, and the supplier is then paid automatically on the back of it. So not only does it cut a lot of admin cost out, it ensures that there aren’t many mistakes in terms of invoicing.”


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