MULTI-CONCEPT HOSPITALITY GROUP
“Hacíamos las licitaciones tecnológicas, la RFP, la RFQ. Hacemos el mismo proceso, pero para comprar zanahorias, aguacates y salmón.”
“We used to run tech procurement, RFPs, RFQs. We run the same process now, except we're buying carrots, avocados and salmon.”
Marc Conte · CEO · Grupo UMAI
Three venues in 2020. Twelve by the end of this year. Grupo UMAI scaled fourfold without diluting a premium product proposition, by running enterprise procurement discipline on a restaurant group.
A company that didn't know what it was paying
Marc Conte is not a hospitality lifer. His background is process, systems and technology consulting, and he took over a three-venue family business in 2020 that had none of that.
“Esta compañía no sabía qué precios compraba, no sabía qué inventarios tenía, tenía un libro de recetas impreso pero en ningún otro sitio, no sabía cuánto costaba ni cuál era el food cost de un plato.”
“This company didn't know what prices it was paying. It didn't know what stock it held. There was a printed recipe book and nothing anywhere else. It didn't know what a dish cost, or what its food cost was.”
That mattered more here than it would elsewhere, because the whole proposition rests on serving product you'd expect at triple the price.
“O lo tenemos supercontrolado, o no podríamos hacer esa apuesta. No puedo pretender que un cliente pague 40 euros y tener producto excelente si encima se me va en mermas o en proveedores que me facturan de más.”
“Either we control it tightly, or we couldn't make that bet at all. I can't expect a guest to pay 40 euros for excellent product if I'm bleeding it in waste or in suppliers overcharging me.”
Enterprise process, restaurant scale
- Annual RFQ process run against suppliers, using consolidated purchase volumes
- Negotiated prices loaded into the system; every delivery note checked against them automatically
- Delivery notes photographed and uploaded daily from each venue, twice a shift
- Goods booked on receipt date, not invoice date, for accurate stock control
- Supplier requirements: numbered delivery notes, order code printed on each note, weekly or per-note invoicing
- Returns and credits raised the same day as a negative delivery note
- Kitchen bonuses tied to delivery-note discipline
What changed
Metric
Before
After
Metric
Delivery note processing
Before
8 to 10 hours a day scanning
After
Photographed at the venue
Metric
Document transport
Before
Company couriers, venue to venue
After
Cost eliminated
Metric
Price error detection
Before
Found at month end, if at all
After
Same day, first delivery note
Metric
Venues
Before
3 (2020)
After
12 (end of year)
“Si me doy cuenta de que es un precio que no debería estar, hago la reclamación al momento, porque este error de un proveedor me lo va a alargar por 10 locales más y por 40 albaranes.”
“If I spot a price that shouldn't be there, I raise it immediately, because one supplier's error multiplies across ten more venues and forty delivery notes.”
Where to focus, according to Marc Conte
“No mires el corto plazo. Vas a incrementar el margen el mes siguiente, pero después ese margen te va a bajar porque los clientes van a empezar a desaparecer.”
“Don't look at the short term. You'll lift margin next month, and then lose it, because the guests start disappearing.”
“Hay organizaciones que van como un elefante, lentamente, y otras que se mueven como leopardos dentro del sector.”
“Some organisations move like an elephant, slowly. Others move through the sector like leopards.”
Watch the full interviews
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