In a recent post, David Maloni, ArrowStream’s commodity expert, noted that June retail sales for foodservice and drinking establishments (restaurants) were 4 percent higher than the previous year. Even though that is considerable, it remains the smallest annual gain in the last 15 months. Further, the year-over-year gain in June restaurant traffic at just .9 percent was the smallest since January 2018.
“Perhaps this is due to higher menu prices,” said Maloni. “During the month, menu prices were 3.1 percent higher vs. 2018, matching the biggest gain in nearly 11 years. Now part of this is due to higher labor costs and the rise in delivery for the industry. But the lackluster traffic growth raises concerns about the industry’s ability to continue to raise menu prices with this intensity.”
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ArrowStream’s Commodity Intelligence solutions include various reports on over 200 commodities, forecasts and price benchmarking dashboards.
By combining intelligence on commodity markets with ArrowStream’s Strategic Sourcing tool optimized for the foodservice industry’s unique challenges, restaurant chain operators can implement a repeatable process for securing the right product at the right price.
Purchasing teams who embrace a technology-enabled sourcing process will:
- Proactively identify potential impacts to their product costs
- Better plan sourcing activities & align internal resources
- Identify & collaborate with over 6,000 vetted foodservice suppliers
- Execute more sourcing events by simplifying the process
- Create better alignment between sourcing & culinary teams
- More intelligently negotiate their new & renewing contracts
Talk to our sourcing technology experts about how ArrowStream can help save 18% on product costs when regularly using a data-driven, continuous sourcing process.