When choosing a catering supplier, there are many things to consider. After all, reliable access to the ingredients that make your menus special is vital for any restaurant or café business. Slight lapses in this consistent supply mean your restaurant’s kitchen won’t be able to serve a few items listed in their menu.
At Dunns, we want to help you to make the best decision for your business. So we’ve put together a list of considerations to help you make the right choice.
Range
The first thing to consider is the range of your potential wholesale supplier. Do they have every product you’re searching for? If not, can they source it? For example, if you work with niche or fine ingredients, you’ll want the security of a food wholesaler that is experienced in sourcing the ingredients you need for a fair price. However, if your menu is ever-changing, you may wish to focus on provenance and quality. Whatever is important to you, we suggest you define it - this way - you can ask the right questions when getting to know the food wholesalers near you.
At Dunns, we place huge importance on our range and our ability to supply just about anything our customers need, including non-food items. From the highest quality fresh produce to everything you need for a top bar (and everything in between), we have it here at Dunns. If you want to find out more about our range, click here to explore our catalogue.
Reliability
Within the foodservice and hospitality sector, reliability is key. In order to effectively run your daily service, you need to know exactly what is going to be delivered and when.
When considering a wholesale supplier, be sure to ask potential suppliers about their reliability promises. Despite ongoing logistics issues affecting the food supply chain, Dunns is doing everything within our power to ensure our service is reliable as ever. That means getting your order to you exactly on time, and ensuring we can source your favourites year-round and find suitable alternatives when this is not possible. That’s why we’ve continued to thrive for nearly 148 years.
Support
When things go wrong, you want to know you can speak to someone with the power to resolve the issue swifty. At Dunns, that’s exactly the personal service you can expect to receive. You are always free to pick up the phone and speak to one of our helpful team about your order and we’ll be happy to help.
Especially during times of unease within the industry such as the pandemic and in times of rapid and uncertain price increases and food shortages, having a supplier you can trust to support you and keep you informed is a top priority.
Ease
The next thing to consider is ease, running a business is tough, and you want to ensure that procuring your stock is the least of your worries. Consider how you’re going to order your stock? Does your potential wholesaler have a way of working that suits your business such as a convenient phone line or an online ordering system?
Great things to consider are how easy it is to access quantity information, up-to-date allergen information for relevant products and how easy it’ll be to update your orders when required.
At Dunns, we’ve spent considerable time developing an online ordering system and web app which allows our customers to easily find out all of the above, as well as order offline 24/7. No more talking to an answering machine at the end of a busy shift. You can find out more about our online ordering system here.
Communication
In business, communication is key. Hospitality is no different. When choosing a wholesale supplier, consider how easy it is to get in touch with and communicate with your new supplier. Not only should the staff be friendly, but they should also have a great knowledge of the product range and the industry as a whole.
Could your supplier tell you exactly why the price of your basic ingredients could rise?
Does your supplier have a good understanding of the speciality ingredients you need?
If the answer to these questions is no, you should consider shopping around a little more.
Find out more
Want to find out more about Dunns Food and Drinks service? Get in touch today or follow us on social media to stay up to date with our latest product ranges.
Why Dunns?
- Expert Staff
- Quality Products
- Competitive Pricing
- Efficient Service
