Yes. More restaurant operators are moving purchasing to an outside procurement partner, and the driver is the math of a thin-margin business. Food and labor are the two largest line items on a restaurant's P&L, and unlike rent or menu prices, the cost of goods can be lowered without the guest ever noticing. When margins sit in the low single digits, a few points off purchasing flows straight to the bottom line. The problem is that a single restaurant rarely has the volume, the market data, or the staff time to negotiate that on its own. Outsourcing procurement closes that gap by bringing in buying leverage and a dedicated team. CORE Insights Group delivers this as managed procurement: a transparent agreed fee, no markup on spend, and 100% of rebates passed back to you, working with the distributors you already use.
What is driving restaurants to outsource purchasing?
Three pressures are pushing operators in the same direction. First, cost volatility: food and supply prices have moved sharply and unpredictably, and a kitchen team focused on service cannot track and renegotiate hundreds of line items in real time. Second, thin margins: when the profit on a dollar of sales is small, the savings hiding inside what you buy become some of the most valuable dollars in the building. Third, lean teams: many operators have cut back-office headcount, so there is no one whose full-time job is sourcing, benchmarking, and holding vendors to their contracts. Outsourcing answers all three by putting that work in the hands of a specialist team that does it every day, across many operators, with the data to know what a fair price actually is.
Why does purchasing matter more than the menu for margin?
Operators often reach for the menu first, raising prices or shrinking portions, but those moves are visible to guests and can cost loyalty. Purchasing is the quiet lever. The same chicken, produce, and cleaning supplies bought at a better price improve margin with zero change to the plate or the experience. Because cost of goods is such a large share of a restaurant's spend, even modest improvements in what you pay compound across every order, every week, all year. That is why a procurement partner that focuses on landed cost, not just sticker price, can protect profit in a way menu engineering alone cannot.
What does a restaurant actually get by outsourcing procurement?
A good managed procurement partner brings four things a single location struggles to assemble: scale, because pooled volume across many operators earns pricing one restaurant cannot; visibility, because the partner sees the wider market and knows when your price is out of line; execution, because a dedicated team sources, negotiates, contracts, and reports so savings are implemented rather than just recommended; and continuity, because someone owns the program day to day, which keeps pricing from drifting back up after the first round of negotiations. CORE brings this through more than 100 years of combined industry experience, over $15B in leveraged purchasing volume, and more than 50,000 cost-controlled items.
Is outsourcing procurement the same as joining a GPO?
Not quite, and the difference is where the money lands. A group purchasing organization (GPO), like Foodbuy, Entegra, or Buyers Edge, pools volume to offer catalog pricing and is paid out of the spend that flows through it, often keeping a share of the rebates. Managed procurement is the operator-favorable alternative. CORE is not a GPO. Instead of being paid from your spend, CORE charges one transparent agreed fee, takes no markup, and passes 100% of rebates back to you, while keeping the distributors you already trust. CORE is also GPO-agnostic, so if a GPO program is already working for you in a category, CORE works alongside it to pull more value out, rather than forcing you to rip it out.
What is CORE360, and how does it work for restaurants?
CORE360 is CORE's managed procurement program, and for a restaurant it works like a fractional procurement department. CORE becomes, or augments, your buying team and runs sourcing, contracting, supplier management, auditing, and reporting on an ongoing basis, so you get a dedicated procurement function without hiring one full time. The program is built around your operation rather than a fixed system, you keep the freedom to use any supplier, and you own every contract CORE negotiates on your behalf. Fees stay simple and transparent: a fixed monthly service fee plus a quarterly management fee applied only to the purchase volume CORE manages, with 100% of rebates and incentives passed back to you.
Restaurants can engage CORE360 at the level that fits them. The program comes in three tiers: Complete, a fully customized program that comes closest to outsourcing procurement to CORE for operators with lean back-office teams; Essential, a versatile program that targets your priority categories and expands as you grow, where most CORE clients land; and Flex, which augments what you already have, including operators who want to bring their own GPO and have CORE pull more value from it. Comprehensive consulting is included in every CORE360 program, so strategy and day-to-day execution come together rather than living in separate silos.
"We started CORE to make sure that operators were getting the value they rightfully deserve, and that no one was profiting from their business without providing value." Ross Kellman, co-founder, CORE Insights Group
How to tell if outsourcing is right for your restaurant
The cleanest test is your own numbers. A short conversation, or a year-to-date AP vendor spend report, is enough to show what an outside procurement program would do for your costs and how much of the savings you would actually keep. If your team is stretched thin, your prices have not been benchmarked in a while, or you are not sure where your rebates are ending up, those are the signs that purchasing is leaking margin you could recover. The goal is the lowest true landed cost with full transparency, with the savings staying in your operation rather than in a middleman's pocket.
Frequently asked questions
Are restaurants really outsourcing procurement?
Yes, a growing number are. With food and labor costs high and profit margins thin, operators are looking for savings that do not require raising menu prices or cutting quality, and the price paid for goods is exactly that kind of lever. Many restaurants lack the volume, market data, and staff time to negotiate purchasing well on their own, so they bring in an outside procurement partner that does it full time across many operators.
Why is purchasing such an important lever for restaurant margins?
Cost of goods is one of the largest line items on a restaurant's P&L, and unlike menu prices or portion sizes, it can be lowered without the guest noticing any change. When margins are in the low single digits, a few points off what you pay for the same products flows straight to profit, and that improvement compounds across every order all year. That is why purchasing often protects margin more reliably than menu changes.
Is outsourcing procurement the same as joining a GPO?
No. A GPO pools volume to offer catalog pricing and is paid out of the spend that flows through it, often keeping a share of the rebates. Managed procurement is the operator-favorable alternative: a dedicated team runs your buying for a transparent agreed fee, takes no markup, and passes 100% of rebates back to you. CORE Insights Group is a managed procurement partner, not a GPO, and it is GPO-agnostic, so it can even work alongside a GPO you already use.
What does a managed procurement partner do that my own team cannot?
It brings scale, visibility, execution, and continuity that a single location struggles to build. Pooled volume earns pricing one restaurant cannot, market data shows when your price is out of line, a dedicated team handles sourcing and contracting so savings are actually implemented, and ongoing ownership keeps pricing from drifting back up. CORE delivers this with more than 100 years of combined experience, over $15B in leveraged volume, and more than 50,000 cost-controlled items.
Will outsourcing procurement force me to change distributors?
No. CORE keeps the distributors you already use and the quality your guests expect, then works to lower your true landed cost within and beyond those relationships. The aim is to improve what you pay with full transparency, not to rip out suppliers that are already serving you well.
What is CORE360 and is it right for a restaurant?
CORE360 is CORE Insights Group's managed procurement program, and it works like a fractional procurement department for a restaurant: CORE runs sourcing, contracting, supplier management, auditing, and reporting as an extension of your team. It comes in three tiers, from Complete (closest to fully outsourcing purchasing to CORE) to Essential (where most clients land) to Flex (which augments what you already have, even a GPO you bring). You keep the freedom to use any supplier, you own every contract, and 100% of rebates are passed back to you.