A price rise nobody announced
The dairy supplier's price for double cream went up. There was an email to purchasing a month ago, lost among several others. The butter went up too, but only on the invoice. The chicken thighs moved twice in six weeks. None of it was entered into the recipe costings, so the development chef is still working from last season's numbers.
Three months later food GP across the group is lower than it should be, and the reason is spread thinly across a dozen products and forty dishes. No single change was big enough to notice. Together they matter.
Why price changes slip past a group
- Price changes arrive in different ways: notices, new price lists, or simply a different figure on the invoice.
- Invoices are processed for payment, not for price, so a new unit price does not trigger anything.
- Recipe costings are updated at menu launch and rarely between.
- Sites may be charged different prices for the same item if contracts differ by region.
- Pack size changes hide price changes: the price per case stays, the case gets smaller.
This article is about a group seeing the effect of price changes across every site and dish. Getting individual invoices into the accounts is a separate job, and one many groups have already solved.
What unseen price creep costs
Margin leaks slowly and without a clear cause. The development team prices the next menu on old costs. Purchasing misses the chance to challenge increases that were not agreed, or to switch products before the rise has run for a quarter. Different sites paying different prices for the same item goes unnoticed. By the time the GP drop is investigated, the rise has already been absorbed for months.
How we track prices across the estate
- We read invoice lines from your accounts or purchasing system, or from supplier invoice data where they provide it, for every site.
- Each line is matched to a product in your catalogue, with pack size, so price per unit is compared like for like.
- Unit prices are checked against the agreed contract price and the last price paid, and changes above a threshold you set are flagged.
- Each flagged change shows which recipes use the product and how much it moves each dish's cost and GP at current menu prices.
- Purchasing gets a weekly summary: changes found, whether they were agreed, which sites are paying above contract.
- Recipe costings update from the latest prices, so the development chef always sees current cost.
| Flag | Meaning | Usual next step |
|---|---|---|
| Above contract | Paying more than agreed | Raise with supplier |
| Up since last invoice | Price has moved | Check notice, review recipes |
| Pack size change | Same price, less product | Re-cost affected dishes |
| Site price gap | Sites paying differently | Check contract coverage |
What purchasing and the kitchen get
Purchasing knows within days when a price moves and whether it was agreed. The development chef sees the dishes whose GP has fallen below target, and can adjust the spec, the portion or the price at the next menu change with real numbers. The ops team knows whether a drop in GP is price or practice. Decisions about menu pricing stay with you; the tracking just makes the effect visible early.
Recognise the pattern?
- Recipe costings were last updated at menu launch.
- Supplier price notices sit in someone's inbox.
- Nobody checks unit prices on invoices against the contract.
- Sites are charged different prices for the same product.
- GP drops and the cause is never pinned down.