How to Be the Preferred Partner: 5 Things Every Foodservice Supplier Should Offer Their Partners

For foodservice operators — the restaurants, cafés, clubs, and caterers you supply — managing food costs isn’t just a business challenge; it’s the difference between profit and loss. Fluctuating ingredient prices, unpredictable demand, and the constant threat of waste make it a tough balancing act.

As a supplier or distributor, you might think food cost control is their problem alone. But here’s the truth: when you actively help your kitchen customers control food costs and order smarter, you’re not just selling products, you’re building a partnership. One that drives loyalty, smooths order consistency, and ultimately boosts your own bottom line.

Becoming the preferred partner means delivering value beyond the invoice. It means giving your customers the tools and knowledge to succeed, making you an indispensable part of their business.

Tip 1: Provide Granular Data and Insights

Kitchens are busy, often short on time and resources to dive deep into their spending. Can you help by delivering clear, detailed reports? Think purchase breakdowns by category, historical spend trends, or even benchmarking against similar businesses (anonymously, of course). Sharing these insights regularly can highlight opportunities for savings and smarter ordering.

Pro tip: Reports showing price trends on their frequently purchased items or comparing ordering patterns can reveal hidden efficiencies.

Tip 2: Offer Tools for Smarter Ordering

Manual orders lead to mistakes and headaches for busy kitchens. If you can, provide or integrate with digital ordering platforms that make life easier:

• Full Order History: Helps them quickly reorder what they know works.

• Real-Time Pricing & Stock Levels: Avoids surprises at delivery and helps with budgeting.

• Customisable Order Guides: Speeds up repeat orders with their go-to items.

Pro tip: Highlight how digital ordering reduces errors from misheard or illegible requests, cutting costly returns or missing ingredients.

Tip 3: Educate on Product Utilisation and Yield

Your role goes beyond selling ingredients—share your expertise to help kitchens get the most value out of every product:

• Proper storage tips to reduce spoilage.

• Maximising yield through smart prep or butchery advice.

• Creative alternative uses for products to minimise waste.

• Guidance on seasonal availability for better value and quality.

Pro tip: Consider creating quick guides, videos, or running workshops to position yourself as a trusted expert, not just a supplier.

Tip 4: Facilitate Better Inventory Management

While you don’t run their kitchen, you can support better stock control by providing ordering visibility and advice. 

Pro tip: Encourage regular stocktakes and explain how accurate ordering based on real needs frees up capital and reduces waste.

Tip 5: Be Transparent and Proactive About Pricing

Price changes happen. How you communicate them makes all the difference. Give your customers as much advance notice as possible, and be open about what’s driving the change. Transparency builds trust.

Pro tip: Share insights into market factors—seasonality, global events—that impact pricing so your customers can plan ahead.

Become Indispensable to Your Customers

When you shift from simply supplying products to actively partnering on profitability, you create a relationship that’s hard to break. By helping kitchens manage food costs through data, smart tools, education, and transparency, you become more than a vendor—you become a trusted advisor.

That means more consistent orders, deeper loyalty, and a solid edge in the competitive Australian foodservice market.

Ready to deliver better value and service? Let FOBOH’s AI-powered workforce show you how to get the job done faster and more accurately. Chat with us today!