FoodByUs unveils price tracking to help venues combat costs

FoodByUs, Australia's online hospitality wholesale ordering platform, has introduced a new feature, Price Tracking, to provide real-time pricing visibility across all items and suppliers to more than 90,000 independently owned Australian restaurants, cafes, and caterers. This initiative is designed to optimise purchasing decisions, lower food costs, improve expense management, and enhance venues' profitability.

The hospitality industry faces significant challenges with rising food costs, the third major expense for venues behind rent and staff wages. Food costs are the only expense that venue operators can substantially control. The Price Tracking feature was specifically created to provide unprecedented transparency, enabling venue operators and chefs to make informed purchasing decisions and maximise their operating profits.

The technology behind this feature, which took six months to develop, utilises artificial intelligence (AI) to interpret invoices, including each line item, quantity, unit of measure, and price. This data is fed into an easy-to-use online interface within the FoodByUs platform. Key features of the Price Tracking tool include access to live prices, detailed price history and trends, expense management, and price and spend alerts.

One notable feature is the ability to access accurate, up-to-date pricing from any supplier at any time. This ensures that chefs have the latest information to make cost-effective purchasing decisions. The historical pricing data allows chefs to view the price history of any product over the past 12 months, helping them identify trends and anticipate future costs. This component is particularly beneficial as it allows chefs to plan their budgets more effectively and avoid unexpected price hikes.

The expense management feature monitors and manages food costs with precision through spend tracking. This includes detailed reports on total spending and spending by product, highlighting areas where potential savings can be made. Additionally, the capability to set price or spend alerts for various products aids chefs and venue operators stay on top of shifting market prices.

Ben Lipschitz, CEO and co-founder of FoodByUs, stated, "As costs continue to rise, venue operators are looking for innovative ways to improve their business operations and bottom line. Unlike for consumers, open and transparent pricing for food businesses is not common, so it becomes incredibly important to easily track price changes. At the click of a button, Price Tracking enables a venue to proactively review individual product costs across thousands of suppliers at any point in time over the past 12 months. At FoodByUs, our mission is to empower the hospitality industry with mission-critical software, data, and insights to help them run a more profitable venue."

According to Lipschitz, the feature was designed to benefit buyers and suppliers in the hospitality industry. "Understanding price movements is critical and often based on a number of factors. For example, an out-of-season fruit can cost ten times the same item when it is in season. Having access to this level of industry intel can have a significant impact when it comes to making better business decisions," he added.

Christopher Dobbie, executive chef at Zest Waterfront Venues, shared his experience: "Using FoodByUs Price Tracking to monitor our food costs has been extremely valuable for us. The ability to see fluctuations in food items has helped us save up to 50% on certain ingredients by buying smartly, especially with fruits and vegetables. It helps us identify out-of-season items, which influences our menu planning. It allows us to confidently set menus for functions months in advance, ensuring we keep costs down while maintaining our high-quality meals."

FoodByUs started as an online marketplace connecting thousands of restaurants, cafes, and caterers with suppliers. It has now evolved into an advanced software solution that assists venues in efficiently managing their entire back-of-house operations, including ordering, invoicing, payments, and finance.