Here at IWP, we help companies in the food and drink industry to develop their brand identities and market themselves effectively to their consumer and trade audiences. We also like to share the insights of thought leaders in the field, so recently we spoke with Dave Ford, director of Field to Fork Solutions, an organisation that helps improve the profitability of companies operating in the food and drink hospitality industry.
We asked Dave for his tips on what suppliers and manufacturers can do to get a foot in the door with trade customers.
IWP: “Hi Dave, good to meet you, tell us a little about your background”
Dave: “I’ve been in the food and drink industry for about 27 years; I started off as an operator and for 14 or 15 years did the whole operations career pathway. I worked for companies like Whitbread, Pizzahut, Scottish and Newcastle and then ended up at Mitchells and Butlers or Bass as they were then. The position of head of food came up and I was given the opportunity to take it for about 18 months as a personal development break and I ended up doing it for about 10 years as during that time the whole industry moved to being food led.
I set up my own business about 4 years ago and since then I’ve been involved in contract catering and hotels, leisure, casinos; a whole massive remit of food related businesses. It’s been quite enlightening for me that whether it’s a big contract food service cafeteria, a coffee shop or a very busy restaurant, they all face the same problems. It’s about people, it’s about consistency and it’s about product.”
IWP: “How about the work you do with suppliers and manufacturers?”
Dave: “When I’m working with a manufacturer, it’s with a view of making them better equipped to approach the end user, whether that’s a buyer, restaurant or a company. It’s about me understanding their infrastructure in terms of whether they can cope with rapid turnaround of product development, whether they can do small product runs, all that stuff.”
IWP: “So when you work with suppliers and manufacturers, if they were looking for some advice on how to get on the radar of a new buyer, how would you work with them?
Dave: “The first thing I say is “I need to spend a couple of days with you” so I can get a very clear understanding of the company, its values and what they are trying to achieve. Then the second step is to try to understand what they offer so I can then benchmark them against other companies who do the same thing that I might be more familiar with. I’ll identify things that they need to do, and if they can convince me that they can do those things, I’ll speak to people who I know to see if they’ve heard of the company I’m working with, and whether there is a barrier to them spending 45 minutes with the company.
I make sure that the manufacturers or suppliers that I work with have a real purpose about what they are going to the meeting for. If that purpose is to show a product that everyone else is showing, I wouldn’t even waste anyone’s time. I have to know what makes them different; it could be a particular innovative product or the story behind the product, but there has to be a reason why the person they are going to meet is going to give up their time to meet with them. Some companies think that all they need to do is get in front of someone to get in the door, so I do an awful lot of explaining of what the other guy wants, why he may have never responded to their emails etc.
If it is a case that I think they have something different but they haven’t thought through things like pack size, costs, shelf life etc. I will fill them in and show them behind the scenes in some of the businesses they are targeting so they know what sort of kit they use and what the skill level in the kitchen is like. If the product is great but it takes 25 minutes to cook in an oven, you are out of the food service game unless you are talking top end fine dining.
These are some of the sorts of things that big companies who are perhaps strong in retail don’t understand about food service, and some of the smaller businesses don’t understand that to supply to a restaurant chain or pub group, you need to be incredibly flexible, you need to turn things around really quickly.”
IWP: “What do you think about the way suppliers and manufacturers go about marketing themselves?”
Dave: “Actually, I think that some of the big, established businesses are so behind in terms of what they are spending their marketing budgets on because they have lost track of what the end user, the chef wants.
One of the big food and logistical companies that I did some work with had the traditional 500 page brochure which was their only way of showcasing to the world what they did. Their sales reps would go out with this brochure and it was so user-unfriendly and the sales team were constantly being told that they needed something easier to use and a bit more useful for more than just buying a product; what we came up with was a very basic catalogue, aimed at the tenancy market outlining what the top 10 selling items were in the pub market and indicating, if you were a pub whose average meal price is £5, what pies, what chips you needed to buy, all the codes and the prices and photographs of what the dishes might look like. To the tenant who doesn’t know any of that, it added value in terms of what the end dish would look like and the indicative selling price and the margin. It’s about doing something a little bit cleverer and always thinking about the end user.”
IWP: “How do things differ with the bigger chains where you need to communicate with buyers as well as the chefs?”
Dave: “The buyer is a procurement person looking for benefits rather than just the taste of the product; if the product is as good as one they are already using but there are benefits somewhere else along the line, be that financial, speed of cooking, storage space etc. then they’ll take that into account. Buyers and chefs always want slightly different things.
The relationship with the buyer is important as they are the custodian of the budget and the decision maker on who can join the supply chain – but the relationship with the chef is crucial – there might be 6 suppliers who can offer similar things, but it’s the one with the relationship with the chef and the best track record who will be the preferred supplier.”
The big take home message from our chat with Dave is that you always need to be thinking about your customer’s customer. Even if you don’t sell directly to the end user of your product, the chef, you need to take their challenges into consideration and align your efforts appropriately: Something that we’d heartily agree with.