Five price lists and no common unit
Since going free of tie, you have a wholesaler for lager and spirits, two regional brewers for cask, several local breweries for guests and a soft drinks supplier. Each sends prices in its own way. One sends a monthly PDF. One has a portal where prices only show when you add to basket. One emails a spreadsheet. The local breweries tell you on the phone.
Comparing a lager in a fifty litre keg with another in a thirty litre keg, or a nine gallon cask from one brewery with a firkin from another at different duty treatments, means a calculator and a scrap of paper. So you mostly stick with what you bought last month, because comparing properly takes an evening you do not have.
Why free of tie buying is hard to manage
The point of being free of tie is choice. But choice only helps if you can compare, and suppliers have no reason to make comparison easy. Different container sizes, delivery charges, minimum orders, promotions and retrospective discounts all make the real cost per pint hard to see.
Prices also change without much notice. A supplier puts prices up, the new list sits in an email, and your selling price on the till stays where it was. Your margin on that line shrinks, and you find out when the stocktaker's gross profit figure drops.
Promotions complicate it further. A wholesaler's deal on a lager for a month, a brewery's discount for taking a mixed pallet, or a retrospective rebate paid quarterly all change the real cost per pint in ways that never appear on the price list you compare against.
What you miss without a comparison
| Blind spot | Effect |
|---|---|
| Different container sizes | The cheaper keg is not the cheaper pint |
| Price changes in emails and PDFs | Selling prices not updated, margin lost |
| Delivery charges and minimums | Small orders cost more than they appear to |
| No history of prices | No evidence when negotiating with a supplier |
| Cost per serve unknown | Selling prices set by habit, not by margin |
One price list across every supplier
- Each supplier's prices are captured from wherever they arrive: a PDF or spreadsheet read automatically, a portal export, or a quick manual entry for suppliers who quote on the phone.
- Products are matched to your own product list, so the same beer from two suppliers, or two lagers you might swap between, sit side by side.
- Prices are converted to comparable units: cost per litre, cost per pint and cost per measure for spirits, including delivery charges spread over a typical order where you tell us what they are.
- When a new price list arrives, changes are highlighted, and each changed product shows your current selling price and the margin at the new cost.
- A history of prices per product and supplier is kept, so you can see how each line has moved over the year.
- Your EPOS sales can be added, so the view shows which price changes affect your highest-volume lines most.
The comparison shows costs. Choosing suppliers, beers and selling prices stays with you, and so does anything to do with the terms of your agreements.
Reviewing prices once a month
The wholesaler's new list arrives. The tool reads it and shows five changes. One lager has gone up, and at your current selling price the margin per pint has dropped noticeably. You see that the same lager in a different keg size from another supplier works out slightly cheaper per pint. You adjust the till price on one line and order the other lager size next week.
- Every supplier's prices in one list
- Cost per pint and per measure, compared like for like
- Price rises spotted before the margin disappears
- A price history to take into supplier conversations
Could this be your free house?
- You buy from four or more drink suppliers.
- Price lists arrive as PDFs, emails and portal pages.
- You rarely compare cost per pint across suppliers.
- Price rises have reached your costs before your till prices.
- Your gross profit surprises you when the stocktaker visits.