Establish a consumption baseline first
Food contracts go wrong at the volume stage. Before writing quantities into a tender, measure what is actually consumed over a representative period — per site, per week — and reconcile that against headcount and the menu cycle. An estimate carried over from a previous contract is usually wrong in both directions: over-ordered items expire, under-ordered items run out mid-term.
Where consumption data is thin, structure the contract so quantities can be called off in agreed instalments rather than delivered in one drop.
Match delivery frequency to storage, not convenience
A delivery schedule is really a storage decision. If a site has limited dry storage and no reliable cold room, weekly deliveries of perishables will not survive; if it has ample storage, frequent small drops add cost without benefit.
Walk the store before agreeing the schedule. Confirm capacity for each category, whether cold chain is available and monitored, and how deliveries will be received, counted, and signed for.
- Measured storage capacity by category, including cold chain.
- Delivery frequency and windows that match staffing for receiving.
- Offloading arrangements and who provides labour.
- Documented receiving and counting process at each site.
Agree the quality check and rejection process up front
Quality disputes are far easier to resolve when the standard and the process were agreed before the first delivery. State the standards that apply — packaging integrity, labelling, batch or expiry dates, temperature on arrival for chilled items — and who inspects against them.
Then state what happens when something fails: whether the item is rejected at the gate, replaced within a fixed window, or credited. A supplier who knows the rule and the consequence rarely argues about it.
Build in contingency before you need it
Institutional kitchens cannot simply stop serving. Agree in advance which items may be substituted, who authorises a substitution, and how quickly an emergency top-up can be delivered. Two or three named alternatives per critical category is usually enough.
Also agree the notice period on both sides — for changes to volumes and for any suspension of deliveries — so that neither party is left holding stock or an empty store.
Fix a price review mechanism
Food prices move. A contract that assumes a fixed price for a long term will either be broken or quietly under-delivered. Instead, agree a review mechanism: which categories are reviewed, how often, what evidence is used, and how a new price is confirmed in writing.
That structure protects both sides — the institution from unexplained increases, and the supplier from absorbing movements that make supply unsustainable.