How Campbells can help you thrive in challenging times

With 90 years’ experience of helping clients through economic crises, here are the ways you can thrive in these challenging time:

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Speaking every day with our valued clients, it’s clear that many are doing it tough due to, among other reasons, inflation, rents and the general economic uncertainty that these trying times produce in businesses and their customers.

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Fortunately, at Campbells, we can draw on 90 years of experience to help our clients weather the storm, particularly for the smaller and independent businesses that help drive our economy, provide competition for the larger players and provide employment for millions of Australians.

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For these smaller businesses, finding ways to make savings while not sacrificing quality is vital and empowers them to compete against much larger entities with their buying power, deep cash reserves and established brands.

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It can almost seem unfair on the smaller businesses, but there are ways for savvy business owners, often nimbler and more adaptable than their larger competitors, to maintain their market share and margins.

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Here are four ways to manage rising costs without compromising on quality.

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Forge close relationships with staff at all levels

For larger companies, the distance between their frontline workers, middle managers, upper level managers and ownership can delay or even prevent crucial feedback from reaching the decision makers in a business. This can result in a business that isn’t able to quickly adapt to the changing needs of its customers and ultimately affect its bottom line.

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This needn’t be the case for smaller businesses where the owners are often in close contact with all employees. For these owners, their staff are not only a source of labour and stability but valuable intelligence on what is and isn’t working within a business, be it stock levels, staff morale or any of the smaller details that might escape the attention of the decision makers in larger businesses.

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Listen to your team members and allocate responsibility and ownership of aspects of the business as this will increase your ability to respond quickly to any issues.

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And, most importantly, reward them for their hard work.

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Reduce food wastage

In addition to helping the environment, reducing food wastage can have huge financial benefits for your business.

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Measuring food costs and waste, generally the largest expense for any restaurant or cafe, can have massive benefits with (TAG) The Australian Institute of Food Safety citing a 2019 report showing an average return on investment of $7 for every $1 invested in food waste reduction.

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And while food waste is somewhat inevitable, the downsides of this can be alleviated by partnering with an organisation like (TAG) OzHarvest, a food rescue organisation that will collect your excess stock and distribute it to charities around the country.

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And for the food retailers, who face similar challenges when it comes to food wastage, there is the excellent (TAG) Food For Change initiative, the (TAG) IGA Food Rescue Program, where food that would otherwise be disposed of is sent to those in need. You can learn more about it and register your business here.

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Reduce the burden on staff

With the number of hospitality workers yet to recover post-covid, seek out short cuts to reduce the workload on your staff without compromising quality.

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An example here is using “Ready to Use” sauces and gravy, which are often as inexpensive as they are delicious, allowing your staff to focus on other pressing duties and responsibilities that make up the bulk of their working day.

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Home brands needn’t equate to lower quality

Have you ever been to the chemist to buy some painkillers to ease a headache, reached for a known brand, only to have the pharmacist offer their generic brand containing exactly the same active ingredients, quality and producing the same results?at a fraction of the cost?

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The same applies for many of the products you’ll use in your business, especially cleaning products which is why we offer our clients our own ‘in-house’ brand, Korta. It’s every bit as effective as the big name brands at a fraction of the cost.

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Don’t be blinded by the big names and afraid to experiment with new products - high prices don’t always equate to high quality.

Learn more about how Campbells can support your business with high quality products, great service and wholesale pricing.