When it comes to supply chain, there are no shortcuts for restaurants
It’s crucial for operators to be flexible and nurture distributor relationships
Joanna Fantozzi Senior Editor
Although the supply chain was a disaster during the peak of the pandemic for every retail and consumer goods industry, including foodservice, the challenges have not abetted in a post-COVID world; they’ve just evolved. Supply experts are quick to point out the issues that labor struggles and pricing surges have had on their companies, from not being able to get products on time or struggling to afford ingredients and packaging that they’ve never had an issue with purchasing in the past. While operators might hold out hope for a secret hack to somehow get around supply chain shortages and pricing increases, experts say there is no shortcut when it comes to maintaining a stable supply chain. Success comes down to building solid relationships with your distributors and being flexible about where your ingredients come from or finding substitutions if necessary. “I think at the start of 2022, we were thinking,‘We’re finally going to feel some relief,’ because we were seeing prices decrease a bit even with inflation and there was some stabilization,” said Maryam Chaney, vice president of food and beverage at private equity firm Savory Fund, which owns and operates several emerging concepts. “But now there are other factors like staffing shortages and avian influenza that have caused people to shift from turkey and chicken and go to pork and beef, which has caused a new floor for beef pricing…
For an Asian-influenced concept like Teriyaki Madness, many of its supply chain woes come from trying to ship ingredients overseas.
Supply chain issues were a perfect storm [in 2020] that became an earthquake and now we’re having a radioactive meltdown on top of that.” The operators we spoke with consistently lamented the same supply chain issues over and over: astronomical pricing and issues with international shipping challenges. Whereas 2020 and 2021 were the years of scarcity and product shortages, now labor challenges and the trucking crisis have caused commodity costs to skyrocket. Almost all restaurant operators raised menu prices to keep up with commodity cost inflation. Denver- based Teriyaki Madness CEO Michael Haith said that his company raised prices like everyone else, but is being conscientious of margins, franchisee profitability needs, and what the consumer would actually be willing to pay.
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