Switching supplier
Changing your produce supplier without a service gap.
Switching the food supplier a restaurant already runs on, without a service gap, means a parallel-run week, a spec-sheet match on your current lines, and a contracted first-delivery window agreed before you cancel the incumbent. Produce Network runs the new line beside your current supplier first, proves it site by site, and takes over only once it has held — so no site opens without produce.
The fear
The fear is the gap.
The fear is the gap — a site opening without produce, a spec that drifts, a finance handover that drops credits. That is operational fiction, and a switch is only worth doing if it ends that fiction rather than carrying it over — which is why the new line is proved, site by site, before the old one is cancelled.
Opening a new site: how a group ran the same price-locked list into each new kitchen as it opened.
The switch
Three steps, no gap.
- Step 1
Scope
A 20-minute review of sites and spec, with a price in writing before anything changes.
- Step 2
Run side by side
The new line runs beside your current supplier, matched on five lines for one cycle, proved on your own lines site by site.
- Step 3
Take over only once held
Take over site by site, only once it has held. The incumbent notice goes after the first matched paperwork cycle — so no site opens without produce.
Proof
What the switch puts on the record.
The parallel-run method
The new line runs beside the incumbent first, on your own lines, so a problem shows up on a spare order — never on the order the kitchen is cooking from.
A spec-sheet match on five lines
Five of your current lines are matched on the spec sheet for one cycle — product, count, grade and source — and checked drop against drop before anything is cancelled.
Termination after the first matched cycle
The incumbent is cancelled only after the first matched paperwork cycle — the invoice, the order and the proof of delivery reconciled — so credits do not drop in the handover.
Before you sign
Red flags to check before you sign.
- No written delivery window, or a window that moves without notice.
- No proof of delivery — no signature, no temperature, no photo at the door.
- Prices that move mid-period without a written note first.
- A short that is swapped without a call, instead of called and credited.
- No parallel-run offered — you are asked to cancel the incumbent before the new line has held.
- Invoices that do not reconcile against the order and the proof of delivery.
Common questions
Questions before a switch.
A parallel-run cycle proves the new line beside your current supplier before anything is cancelled. The scope is a 20-minute review with a price in writing; take-over runs site by site only once each site has held, so there is no fixed rush and no gap.
Yes. The new line runs beside your current supplier first, matched on five of your lines for one cycle, proved on your own orders. The incumbent stays in place until the new line has held site by site — so no site opens without produce.
A short is logged against the order and the kitchen is called before the van loads — the swap rule is the kitchen's, never ours. A credit is raised against the order and a new source is locked, so the same line is not short twice.
You give the incumbent notice, and only after the first matched paperwork cycle — the invoice, the order and the proof of delivery reconciled. Take-over is site by site, so the handover never drops a credit or leaves a site without produce.
Apply
Apply for a membership.
For London's restaurants, dark kitchens, hotels and catering teams. Apply in 8 minutes. The head of network replies in under an hour.
Next: the produce supplier for restaurant groups, delivery before service, or how the daily cycle works.