Founder POV: Some hospitality operators use systems that plug “supplier products” straight into recipes.

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

Some hospitality operators use systems that plug “supplier products” straight into recipes.

There’s no "ingredient" intermediary...... And the reality is: this is bad news for operational longevity.

Let’s straighten it out:::::

👉 Supplier Products are what you BUY (each one links to only ONE Inventory Item)

👉 Inventory Items, or ingredients, are what you USE (can have MULTIPLE Supplier Products)

Because the source might change, but the ingredient shouldn’t.

If you buy carrots from 3 different suppliers, you’ve created 3 different supplier products.

But in your kitchen? They’re just carrots............They all feed into the SAME inventory item: "Carrots"..

And that matters because inventory items are what you:

• Count during stock take
• Use in recipes
• Track across reporting periods

So if you purchase: 🟧 500g from Supplier A 🟧 300g from Supplier B 🟧 200g from Supplier C

And nothing gets sold…the system expects to see 1kg of carrots in stock.

Now zoom out to multi-site: 👉 London buys cheddar from Supplier X 👉 Manchester buys the same cheddar from Supplier Y

Same ingredient..SAME cheddar........different supplier products.

If your system ties supplier products directly to recipes, switching suppliers means rewriting EVERY recipe that product touches.

When you separate what you BUY from what you USE:

• You can change suppliers without rewriting menus
• You can test new vendors without breaking costing
• You can scale without rebuilding your system every six months
• Multi-site groups can keep 1 global recipe while sourcing locally

At Hops, the structure stays clean:

1️⃣ You order a Supplier Product 2️⃣ It gets delivered 3️⃣ It becomes an Inventory Item 4️⃣ That Inventory Item feeds recipes and stock takes

Next time, we’re gonna take a look at this concept in action by adding a new supplier product on 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: Some hospitality operators use systems that plug “supplier products” straight into recipes.