Hospitality procurement: how Meadow Croft boosted restaurant footfall

The solution: a new procurement partnership with Avendra International

I’ve been with Meadow Croft Garden Centre for around 18 months. In that time, we have not only launched a brand-new restaurant, which has significantly increased footfall, but we have also introduced a new procurement partner, Pelican Procurement Services (now Avendra International). We were recommended to Avendra International by another garden centre, and they were very enthusiastic about the benefits they have received, so we were keen to go down that road ourselves to seek support. While our original objectives were focused on cost savings, we were impressed by the support offered in the back-office to help us take better control of our purchasing, budgets, suppliers, and menus.

At the outset, Avendra International worked us to review existing supplier contracts and pricing.

Having received the report analysis, the choice was ours as to which suppliers we went with. With regards to the wholesaler, we didn’t go with the cheapest, but in fact, selected the supplier that offered a greater breadth of products. This would mean we could access more of what we need from one supplier, to simplify and consolidate our overall purchasing. We have also chosen to work with seven new suppliers across other food and non-food categories.

Automated allergen and nutritional information for every meal

In addition, Pi includes a comprehensive tool that automatically updates and maintains the allergen and nutrition information of every item purchased.

The allergens data is brilliant! The information is automatically updated in our files and allows us to present everything so professionally for our customers. It’s a huge time-saver for us as we don’t have to manually search for this information and the system provides a number of ways to help us share the information with our clients easily!

Removing manual invoicing with a single monthly payment

Before Avendra International, managing multiple suppliers was cumbersome and time-consuming. We previously had 12 different suppliers, all sending separate invoices that we were having to process as separate payments.

However, Avendra International streamlined the invoice management process, providing a single point of contact and alleviating administrative burdens. Now it’s all taken care of: Avendra International coordinates with our suppliers, negotiates and monitors prices, handles delivery queries and more. For example, the accounts team no longer need to check multiple invoices, line items and prices – instead, we receive just one direct debit from Avendra International for all of our orders.

Exceptional, ongoing procurement support

Darren and Yolanda at Avendra International are really supportive. They’ve helped me not only with managing the procurement for our busy restaurant but also with secondary catering and looking at additional suppliers.

This partnership has been extremely beneficial for the whole organisation; we’ve seen operational time savings, and I have a clear view of what we are spending, how we can cost our meals, and allergen data at my fingertips. I have complete transparency of the total catering function while reducing our administration. I can’t fault them—and I, too, am now singing their praises to others!