January will see a wake-up call delivered to many restaurants, pubs and hotels in the form of supplier invoices for products bought during the key trading month of December.
Rachel Dobson, managing director of Lynx Purchasing, said: “Most operators had set menus in place for much of December, taking them up to Christmas and through to the New Year weekend. With no choice other than to buy the products on the menu, and with trading brisk and money in the till, some may not have been looking too closely at the prices they were paying.
“They may now find that much of the profit margin they were forecasting from December sales has been eroded by lower GPs. That will be a sobering thought for many operators as they face the prospect of the quiet trading months of January and February and the expectation that food and drink inflation will continue to rise steadily throughout 2017.
“We know that a number of suppliers had to raise prices on key products during December – for example, dairy, and especially butter, has seen sharp price rises, and products imported from Europe have cost more as a consequence of the fall in the value of sterling. We’ve been able to negotiate on behalf of our customers to mitigate the impact, but many operators without access to specialist purchasing support will have seen significant increases in their buying costs, with more to come.”
Lynx Purchasing works with more than 2,200 hospitality and catering operators to match them with suppliers and get the best prices on food and drink, as well as other products and services.