A hospitality supplier is the company that provides a restaurant, hotel or food-service operation with the products and services it needs to run: food and beverages, tableware, cleaning, uniforms, energy or maintenance. Choosing them well decides the quality of the menu and part of the margin; controlling them afterwards decides whether that margin holds. This guide covers the types of suppliers, where to find them, how to choose them, how to close the agreement and how to check they deliver, site by site.
Types of hospitality suppliers
Not every supplier does the same job. Knowing the types avoids comparing prices that are not comparable.
- Manufacturers and producers. They sell what they make: wineries, bakeries, meat processors, local producers. Best unit price and distinctive product, but they usually require minimum orders and do not cover the whole range.
- HORECA distributors. They buy wholesale and deliver to sites daily or weekly. One delivery note covers dozens of references; in exchange you pay for the service in the price. They are the main supplier for most restaurants.
- Wholesalers and central markets. Mercabarna, Mercamadrid, cash and carry. Competitive prices and fresh product, but transport and time are on you.
- Importers and specialists. Specific references nobody else carries: cheeses, wines, products from a world cuisine. Small volumes, long lead times.
- Purchasing centres. They negotiate rates for a set of sites or a whole group. They do not deliver: they fix supplier, catalogue and price so that each site buys within that frame.
- Service suppliers. Cleaning, laundry, maintenance, waste, energy. They weigh less in food cost, but they are long contracts and deserve the same discipline.
Where to find hospitality suppliers
The usual channels, from most to least filtered:
- Recommendations from other operators. The most reliable route: ask chefs and purchasing managers of sites similar to yours which distributor they use and why.
- Trade shows. Alimentaria and Hostelco in Barcelona, Salón Gourmets and HIP in Madrid, Gastronoma in Valencia. In two days you see catalogue, product and the person who will serve you.
- Directories and associations. Regional hospitality associations and HORECA directories list distributors by area. Good for a first screening, not for deciding.
- Purchasing centres and buying groups. If you run several sites, a purchasing centre gives you access to rates and suppliers already approved.
- Wholesale markets. For fresh produce, visiting your city's central market is still the fastest way to meet the specialists of each category.
- Cold-calling sales reps. They will come on their own. Evaluate them with the same criteria as everyone else, without letting the most insistent become the one that sells most.
How to choose a supplier: seven criteria
Before comparing prices, define what your operation needs: weekly volume per category, delivery frequency, goods-in time window, formats your kitchen can handle and which products can never run out. With that clear, evaluate each candidate on these criteria:
- Consistent quality. Not the first order's, the tenth's. Ask for samples in different weeks and ask about the origin and traceability of what they sell.
- Delivery reliability. Times, days, what happens when a reference is missing. A supplier that warns you of a shortage before delivery is worth more than one two cents cheaper.
- Price and price stability. Compare by real unit (kilo, litre, portion), not by case. Ask how and when they review rates and whether they notify you in writing.
- Range and formats. The more categories covered without lowering quality, the fewer delivery notes, goods-in events and errors.
- Payment terms and rebates. Terms, volume discounts and credits for incidents. Supplier rebates only count if someone checks them afterwards.
- Documentation. Health registration, certificates, technical sheets and allergens for every reference. If they are not up to date, the problem will be yours at an inspection.
- Ease of working together. Orders through a digital channel, legible and priced delivery notes, a contact who answers. It seems secondary until you manage twenty suppliers across ten sites.
Two pieces of advice that never fail: check references from the supplier's other customers, and never depend on a single one for critical categories. A second approved supplier for meat, fish and fresh produce is the cheapest insurance there is.
How to negotiate and close the agreement
What is not in writing does not exist at goods-in. The agreement with each supplier should fix, at a minimum:
- The rate per reference and unit, with validity date and the procedure to change it (written notice, your acceptance).
- The approved catalogue: which references, brands and formats they may deliver, and which substitutions are allowed and which are not.
- Frequency, time window and minimums per site.
- What happens with incidents: shortages, breakages, product in poor condition, quantity different from the order. How they are documented and how they are credited.
- Payment terms and rebates, with their calculation spelled out.
With a single site, this agreement fits in an email. With several, it is the basis against which every delivery note is validated.
How to make sure every supplier delivers what was agreed
Choosing well is only the first step. The real problem appears afterwards: prices that change without notice, delivery notes with differences, references outside the catalogue, brand or format substitutions, off-contract purchases and sites that end up ordering different products for the same recipe. Each of those deviations walks in through the back door looking normal and ends up in recipe costings, food cost and traceability. In the projects we have measured in multi-site groups, delivery-note deviations add up to 1-3% of purchase volume when nobody validates them; for a group buying five million a year that is 50,000 to 150,000 euros leaving the margin without showing up in any report.
Control has three pieces. First, the order is born inside the system with the approved catalogue and the current rate: that is the reference everything will be validated against. Second, goods-in approval: the delivery note is read and matched against the order and the rate for product, quantity and price; whatever does not match raises an incident while the supplier is still reachable. Third, the reading per supplier: accumulated deviations in euros, per supplier and per site, to renegotiate with data or change supplier with arguments. That is how you catch errors before paying, not at the month-end close.
Suppliers in groups with several sites
In a chain, the risk is not choosing badly: it is each site choosing on its own. Without a common catalogue, every site buys different products from different suppliers at different prices, and head office loses the scale it negotiated. A supplier can be approved and still generate constant deviations if nobody compares, site by site, what was delivered against what was agreed. Silent price increases are the most common example.
The solution is not to ban site autonomy, but to make buying well the easy path: the order is suggested from forecast demand and real stock, with the authorised supplier and the approved reference by default, and stepping outside the channel is a visible exception. That is what Controliza Purchasing does, and what we explain in depth in the multi-site purchasing use case: the purchasing centre negotiates, the ERP does the accounting, and the operation executes the purchase as agreed at every site.
Frequently asked questions about hospitality suppliers
How many suppliers should a restaurant have?
Enough to cover the range without multiplying goods-in events: one main distributor, one or two fresh-produce specialists (meat, fish, fruit and vegetables) and a second approved supplier for critical categories. More than ten active suppliers at a single site is usually a sign of disorganised purchasing.
Is a single distributor better than several specialist suppliers?
A single distributor simplifies orders, delivery notes and goods-in; specialists give better product and price in their category. Most groups combine both: a distributor for dry goods, frozen and beverages, specialists for fresh produce, and a second approved supplier wherever a shortage is not acceptable.
How do I know whether a supplier is raising prices without telling me?
By comparing the price of every delivery-note line with the agreed rate at the moment of goods-in, not when reviewing the invoice weeks later. If the comparison is manual, it happens at the sites with more time and not at the rest; if it is automatic, it happens everywhere. This is how reconciliation at goods-in works →
How often should suppliers be reviewed?
Rates, whenever the supplier changes them and at least once a year; performance, every week, with goods-in data: incidents, shortages, substitutions and price deviations per supplier and per site. An annual review without goods-in data turns into a conversation about impressions; with it, into a renegotiation with figures.
What documentation should I ask a food supplier for?
Health registration, technical sheets for every reference with allergens, quality certificates if declared and, for fresh produce, lot traceability. Keep them next to the approved catalogue so any site has them at hand during an inspection.
If you want to go deeper, we recommend reading Getting the Kit Digital for hospitality and Order management in hospitality.
