The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment has just carried out a study to find out the behavior of hospitality establishments in terms of their supply policy.
Despite the fact that the number of hospitality establishments has decreased in our country in recent years, we continue to be among the countries in the world with the most establishments of this type per inhabitant. Spain has been characterized by a structure of restaurant establishments in which independent establishments predominate, compared to organized restaurant chains, which barely represent 20%, although with a growing trend.
Independent catering establishments are supplied in a loosely integrated way. The portfolio of products from which they are supplied is very broad. Beverages are the most common products in the supplies of these establishments. In fact, 100 of them buy soft drinks, beers and waters.
Regarding fresh products, 82% buy bread, 61% vegetables and meats, 55% buy fruits and 43% fish. Of course, from the point of view of spending by type of product, fresh products have a greater weight, especially the purchase of meat is one of the main supply costs.
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It is also striking that, on average, an independent catering establishment works with an average of 8,5 suppliers (9,5 restaurants and hotels, 6,6 night-time consumption and 8,7 cafes, bars and coffee shops). Interestingly, the operators belonging to organized catering work with more suppliers, some with more than 200, however, the existence of logistics operators allows grouping the supply.
This is because restaurant chains work with large volumes and that allows them to establish negotiations directly with manufacturers or producers.
Procurement management takes about 4 and a half hours for those responsible for purchasing. In both organized and independent catering.
Another interesting aspect of this study is how spending is distributed by type of provider, 77% of spending comes from distributors (specialists or multi-category), 9% from cash & carry, 4% from manufacturers.
Finally, another aspect to assess is that all those responsible for horeca purchases consider quality (especially fresh produce) and price to be important when choosing their form of supply. The strong point for choosing a dealer is, in addition to prices, comfort. We cannot lose sight of the fact that many hoteliers still have to travel to buy the products they need, compared to the convenience offered by buying products to distributors who visit the hotelier.
Regarding the average volume of purchases, the Ministry study estimates the monthly expenditure on purchases of food, drugstore and cleaning products. The average is € 4.902 (€ 7.396 for restaurants and hotels, € 5.468 for night-time establishments and € 3,705 for cafes, bars and coffee shops). The items that generate the most spending are fresh (€ 1.234) and alcoholic beverages (€ 1.945).
In summary, it should be noted that there is a great opportunity for integrated supply management, provided that they are able to offer a wide portfolio and especially with a good supply of fresh products, at competitive prices.
Author: Jose Miguel Herrero