St Monica Trust Boosts Purchasing Power with Caternet

Caternet (powered by Zupa Tech), has announced the mobilisation of its cutting-edge eProcurement system with leading care provider St Monica Trust. The system has been rolled out across multiple care homes in Bristol and North Somerset as part of a strategy to boost purchasing power and reduce admin time for chefs, allowing them to focus on creativity and quality catering provision for residents.

St Monica Trust is already benefiting from immediate cost savings via the intelligent live price supplier portal as well as accurate reporting, automated stock control and complete visibility of spending across its network. The Trust has been looking for the right partner to support its growing procurement requirements since it parted ways with Indicator last year.

The business challenge

Gary Ford, Executive Chef at St Monica Trust explained,

"Previously if we had an issue with our system we had to raise a ticket, which might take two days to receive a response. Working with Caternet, responses to queries are much more immediate and the team are always on hand to provide support when we need it. Training has been great too and we are already saving money through the live price comparison."

The solution

The other chefs at St Monica Trust are also delighted with the impact the technology has had on day to day stock control and managing spend.

Ford continued,

“We’ve seen instant benefits to using the system, for example even something as simple as switching from chopped tomatoes to peeled plum tomatoes has saved us at least £60 in one month alone, and that is just by switching one product. Over a year, that cost saving is quite significant. It is also a great relief to know that when you order an item it is automatically added to your stock sheets, which reduces time spent on admin, avoids wastage and keeps inventory up to date.”

St Monica Trust is keen to empower its chefs with greater managerial visibility over operations and cost control and enable greater buying power. Having access to live margin control and an understanding of what every individual has ordered and how much they have spent, has been invaluable as is the integration of financial reporting.

“We have already started putting recipes together across a four-weekly menu cycle and its great to have visibility of allergens and nutritional content across items too,”

added Ford.