The CORE Blog
Sharp takes on a shifting supply chain.
Inflation, tariffs, sourcing strategy and the outlook for hospitality & foodservice — practical guidance from the operators and procurement veterans behind CORE.
Latest articles
LatestCost Control
Who Can Lower a Restaurant Group's COGS?
A managed procurement partner lowers the purchased-price half of restaurant COGS: supplier pricing, contracts, invoice auditing, and vendor optimization.
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Market Intelligence
Why Do Chicken Prices Fall While Diesel Climbs?
Every commodity answers to its own supply and its own inputs. Chicken tracks flock and processing capacity, diesel tracks crude, refining, and freight.
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Procurement Strategy
How Do I Know If I Have the Right GPO?
There is no single right GPO. The right one depends on what you are actually after: lower unit costs, bigger rebates, or better reporting and control.
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Cost Control
Am I Getting the Best Prices From My Suppliers?
You cannot tell from the invoice alone. Benchmark what you pay, audit it against your contract, and ask exactly how every partner in the chain gets paid.
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Cost Control
How Restaurants and Hotels Cut Non-Food Supply Costs
Non-food supplies like packaging, gloves, chemicals and linens come down when you standardize the item list, specify the right grade, and control usage.
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Cost Control
How to Reduce Restaurant Food Costs
Cut restaurant food costs by renegotiating supplier pricing first, then tightening menu, portions, and waste: every one of those levers lowers COGS.
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Cost Control
How Do You Audit Foodservice Invoices for Overcharges?
Check your top 25 items against your contract each month. Most overcharges are drift, not fraud, and every dollar you recover is pure margin off COGS.
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Procurement
How Do Restaurants and Hotels Handle Food Supply Chain Disruptions?
Flag single-source items, write substitute specs in advance, and price any swap before you accept it: emergency buys land at market price and raise COGS.
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Procurement
How Does Foodservice Distributor Pricing Work?
Your price is the distributor's cost plus a markup, a percentage or a fee per case, as Sysco states in its 10-K. Both are negotiable, and both drive COGS.
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Procurement
GPO vs. Procurement Consultant vs. Managed Procurement: How to Choose
Decide by who does the work, how they are paid, and where rebates land: many GPOs earn from your spend, a consultant advises, managed procurement executes.
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Cost Control
How Do Hotels Reduce Food and Beverage Costs?
Hotels cut F&B cost of goods sold (COGS) by fixing purchasing first: benchmark and renegotiate pricing across every outlet, then tighten menus and waste.
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Procurement
Is There a GPO for Country Clubs? (And the Better Alternative)
Yes, club GPOs exist, but CLUB360 is the better way to lower food and supply COGS: free to join, no membership fees, savings built into the purchase price.
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Procurement
Do the New 2026 Tariffs Really Raise Restaurant and Hotel Costs?
Mostly no. This round largely renews a roughly 10% global tariff at 10% to 12.5%, and tariffs rarely reach food and supply COGS at the headline rate.
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Procurement
What Does a Hospitality Procurement Consultant Do?
A hospitality procurement consultant runs sourcing, negotiation, and contracts so a hotel, restaurant, or club pays less for food and supplies (COGS).
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Cost Control
Do GPOs keep rebates, or pass them back?
Many GPOs keep some or all of the rebates negotiated on your volume. CORE is not a GPO: CORE360 clients pay a fee and get 100% of rebates and incentives.
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Team
Get to Know John Reardon, SVP Strategic Sourcing
John Reardon, SVP Strategic Sourcing at CORE, spent two decades in hospitality operations, then 13 years at Starwood, rising to lead its sourcing team.
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Procurement
Are Restaurants Outsourcing Procurement to Protect Profit Margins?
Yes, more restaurants are outsourcing purchasing because lowering the purchasing-driven portion of COGS protects margin without the guest noticing.
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Procurement
What Is CORE's Procurement Center of Excellence?
The CORE Procurement Center of Excellence is one platform uniting people, processes, and technology, including data and AI, for best-in-class sourcing.
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Procurement
Can you work with any distributor?
Yes, CORE works with your existing distributors rather than replacing them, and opens the wider market category by category where one supplier limits you.
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Procurement
How does CORE get paid?
CORE360 runs on one transparent, agreed fee, never a markup on your spend, and 100% of every rebate and allowance it negotiates is passed back to you.
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Procurement Service
The real story of 2025 (and what to expect in 2026)
2025 brought pressure but not the disruption many feared: inflation cooled, food and beverage costs rose around 3%, demand held. 2026 is about execution.
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Procurement
Tariff Turmoil: Taking a long- and short-term view
Tariffs may pay off long term through reshoring and trade leverage, but near term they raise the cost of imported supplies. Sort imports by spec rigidity.
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Procurement Service
How to prepare for 2025? Who the hell knows!
No one knows what 2025 holds, so CORE's advice is a strong sourcing strategy, not forecasts: stay cautious, stay nimble, avoid speculative commitments.
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Procurement Service
Operators: Get Ready for Change in 2025
As a new administration reshapes labor, energy, tariffs and food costs, here are the key 2025 themes restaurant and hospitality operators should prepare for.
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Procurement Service
Shifting the Paradigm: A Refreshing Approach to Procurement Services
CORE Insights Group was founded because the GPO model had tilted value away from operators. The fix: a transparent, operator-first procurement partner.
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Procurement Service
Understanding the Vital Role of Food Supply Services in Ensuring a Safe and Nutritious Food Supply
Food supply services keep food safe, nutritious and locally sourced. Food service purchasing is how: quality sourcing and contracts that lower food COGS.
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