The chain restaurant business is one of the most significant segments in foodservice. Technomic’s Top 1500 chains, for example, will deliver nearly $400B of the total $569B in restaurant and bar sales projected in 2022.*

DMA (Distribution Market Advantage) delivers customized distribution solutions to top chains on behalf of the nation’s leading, privately-held, foodservice-focused distributors. This unique position in the industry offers a behind the scenes view of what’s happening in this highly complex supply chain.

• In spite of inflation, consumers continue to dine out and the country’s supply chain continues to be stretched. Technomic projects Fast Casual restaurants to grow sales 2.2% and Fine Dining establishments to jump 6.9% in 2022!**
• Manufacturers are recovering from historically low fill rates into distribution – but are still not 100%. Many have converted available production capacity to grocery items from foodservice skus as well, prolonging supply challenges in this channel.

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This leads to one of the biggest issues confronting chains today: distribution capacity.

Physical warehouse space has filled with extra inventory to assure operators’ supply, while drivers and equipment continue to be challenging to source. The implications to chains are:

• Increased cost to serve from distributor partners
• Less flexibility to offer unique, proprietary menu items
• Challenges executing limited time offers

So what’s a chain to do? Successful chains (and independents as well) are adapting by increasing focus on (and visibility to) their Supply Chain partners:

• Plan new items and LTOs as far in advance as possible.
• Convene all parties – from ingredient supplier through manufacturer to the distributor.
• Deliver analytics – visibility to timely data has never been more important.
• Communicate constantly – collaboration to solve challenges, rather than assigning blame to failures will drive successful execution.

2023 is projected to be a strong year for all commercial foodservice segments. What are you doing to prepare your supply chain to deliver the best solutions?

*Technomic Top 1500 Chains Report, August 2022
**Technomic 2022-23 Wallchart, August 2022