Founder POV: Managing suppliers is a mess: there’s no “one-stop-shop” in hospitality

This article is adapted from a LinkedIn post by Robbie Francis, Founder of Hops.

Managing suppliers is a mess: there’s no “one-stop-shop” in hospitality

You order a few items from one supplier, a few from another, etc etc

And whilst you can’t control HOW you engage each supplier → You can certainly document and centralise the process.

In today’s instalment of Hospitality Operators OS, we’re talking about WHY tracking + managing suppliers properly is so important.

Managing multiple relationships has always been a bit of a “you” problem in hospitality:

• Chefs juggling info from Whatsapp and spreadsheets
• Fragmented ordering processes creates confusion
• Missed orders from forgotten cut-off times
• No idea who to call when something goes wrong
• No leverage in price negotiations
• No way to scale without operational pain

You may not feel the cost of this fragmentation every day……… but it’s there.

That’s why Hops doesn’t force you into a cookie-cutter workflow; it wraps around how you already operate.

✅ View and manage every supplier relationship ✅ Easily see cut-off times, delivery schedules and order minimums ✅ Effectively store compliance documents ✅ Leverage the cold hard facts during supplier price negotiation ✅ Give EVERYONE access to contact info for all supplier teams

The reason tracking and managing suppliers is so important comes to 4 variables:

🔎 Visibility: Know what’s happening, where and with who 🗂️ Organisation: Store cut-offs, contact info, credit terms all in one place 💰 Leverage: Track spend across all sites and use that data to negotiate 🫵 Accountability: Define who can buy what & stop the finger-pointing when GP slips

In our next instalment of the Hospitality Operator OS series, we're gonna take a sneak preview of what managing suppliers looks like in Hops® itself.

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About Robbie Francis
Robbie Francis is the Founder of Hops. He has spent years building and implementing hospitality technology with operators, focused on simplifying back-of-house operations across inventory and finance.

Follow Robbie on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/robbiefrancis

View the original LinkedIn post: Managing suppliers is a mess: there’s no “one-stop-shop” in hospitality