The Challenges of Food and Beverage Procurement
Managing food and beverage procurement is far from simple. The stakes are high, with tight regulations, perishable goods, and fluctuating supply chains that demand constant oversight. Here’s what sets F&B procurement apart.
Strict Compliance Requirements
Food safety isn’t negotiable. Suppliers must meet strict guidelines for certifications, inspections, and traceability. Failure to monitor these details can lead to recalls, fines, or reputational damage that’s hard to recover from.
Graphite’s third-party risk management capabilities helps streamline compliance with new regulations like the Food Traceability Act by leveraging its Question Library of over 6,000 industry-standard questions.
Supply Chain Volatility
From weather to fluctuating demand, the F&B sector faces constant uncertainty. Seasonal products like produce often face limited availability, while supply chain disruptions make it tough to maintain inventory levels. Unlike non-perishable industries, F&B businesses can’t over-order to compensate, given the short shelf life of many items.
Graphite integrates with your go-to data providers for this data like EverStream Analytics to bring this data in one place and streamline supplier risk reviews.
Changing Consumer Demands
Constant changes in customer demand is leading food and beverage companies to onboard new suppliers in record numbers to be prepared for influxes in growth along new product lines.
With new suppliers constantly entering your ecosystem, speed matters. Graphite improves onboarding times by 85%, helping procurement teams keep up without losing the data quality they need to do solid performance management.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How does Graphite Connect help with compliance in the food and beverage industry?
Graphite takes supplier-managed data and streamlines the onboarding and review process through an integrated network approach. Suppliers share data once in their Graphite profile, then can share that data with any buyer on the Graphite network. True many-to-many sharing means that suppliers are actively managing their Graphite profile constantly, so your information is updated in real time, leading to better compliance, automated risk reviews and scoring, as well as stronger performance management capabilities.
What solutions does Graphite Connect offer for managing seasonal supply fluctuations?
Graphite gives you access to a network of vetted suppliers, making it easy to find alternatives during shortages or disruptions. This ensures your supply chain stays reliable, even when demand or availability changes unexpectedly.
How can Graphite Connect reduce the risks of supply chain disruptions?
Yes, Graphite minimizes risks by providing real-time supplier data, compliance monitoring, and ability to onboard backup suppliers quickly through streamlined and AI-driven onboarding. This helps you adapt to unexpected challenges without compromising inventory levels.
What kind of time savings can F&B businesses expect with Graphite Connect?
By automating manual tasks like compliance tracking and supplier updates, Graphite drastically cuts the time spent on procurement, freeing up resources to focus on growth and customer satisfaction. Graphite customer Casey’s save hundreds of hours a week just on risk reviews by leveraging the power of the network.
Take Control of Your Food and Beverage Procurement Today
F&B procurement may be strict, but compliance doesn’t have to be a challenge. With Graphite Connect, you gain a powerful platform that simplifies compliance, mitigates supply chain risks, and builds transparency into your operations.
Take the first step toward smarter procurement today. Request a demo and see how Graphite Connect can transform your processes while saving you time and resources. Don’t let outdated processes hold your business back: get the tools you need to stay agile, reduce risks, and drive real results in F&B procurement.
