How to Stock Your Restaurant?

When it comes to stocking your restaurant, there are tons of work to do, such as choosing cutlery, buying equipment for your kitchen, and managing raw materials. 

In fact, to run a food business successfully in a highly competitive market, it is crucial to ensure that you have enough raw materials to handle the orders. If not, you will see people going away from your restaurant. And that’s not what you would want. 

Not only restaurants but even craft wine distributor would not want to disappoint your customers. 

Here are a few tips for effective stock management.

Conduct Regular Audits

Before you start stocking your restaurant, you will first need to know how much you already have. If you have already bought tons of raw materials, you would like to check if they are in good condition or not. At times, raw materials get spoiled earlier than expected. 

Train Your Team Properly

Your team has the people who are actually going to use the raw materials for cooking food. Make sure you provide them proper training to manage the inventory effectively. It is always helpful to keep more than one person accountable for stocking. Why? Because in case one person is on leave, another one can manage the stock easily. 

Talk to them about how you can prevent wastage and how they can keep track of everything that’s coming in and going out. 

Restrict Access

Being a restaurant owner/manager, you would not want anyone misusing the inventory. And the best way to secure your stock from being abused, limit staff access to the information, that they don’t need to perform their role effectively. 

For instance, you can prevent waiters from entering into the storeroom or let cleaners enter the inventory only in your presence. 

If you have implemented biometrics in your restaurant, allocate separate credentials to each of your employees. 

Use FIFO (First In, First Out) Strategy

It is essential to use the material that is going to expire first. Make sure you ask your staff to line up the stock as per their expiry date or when they were bought. At the same time, it is crucial to use the ready-to-serve food that has been cooked first. 

Meanwhile, make sure that:

• You don’t overcook or undercook the food.
• The dish is tasty and remains fresh when served to users. 
• Create a plan to consume the stock at the earliest.
• Track your monthly or weekly stock requirements and order accordingly. 

Remember, if there’s a shortage of stock every week, it is advisable to order more raw material, and if there’s a surplus, reduce the order. 

If you have been running the restaurant for quite a few time now, you will have an idea of how much material is being used per day. 

You can pile up a huge stock of the foods that don’t rot instantly, such as spices. Meanwhile, limit the stock of the foods that get rot soon, such as vegetables or meat. 

Inventory Management Software

In this digital world, having software to track inventory and manage stocks is a great idea. With a restaurant inventory tracking system, you can manage materials, vendors, stock, taxation, and everything in one place. 

Another great way to stock your restaurant is by installing freezers that can store food for many days without letting them rot. 

Additionally, you can make a deal with your dealer to supply you fresh stock every day or every week. This will help you reduce wastage and manage stock efficiently. 

Another place where inventory management software can come in handy is keeping track of wastage. This way you can understand what is the real cause of wastage and then take measures to reduce it. This will help you stock your restaurant all the time.

Wrapping Up

Stocking a restaurant has always been tougher for restaurant owners, especially if you are new to this business. This article covers everything you will ever need to stock your restaurant and to manage the inventory effectively. It is advisable to make the best use of technology and prevent access to the employees in the restaurant as per their role.