A Buyer’s Strategy for the Post-Pandemic Economy

It’s always exciting when our team grows, and last month, Fresh Avenue added two new team members! Daniel Meder, our Purchasing Manager, is no stranger to produce. In fact, Daniel is a well acquainted with our industry having strong ties to the grocery and retail sector. His career began at a regional grocery store chain where he eventually landed as a produce buyer. From there he worked for FreshPoint Oklahoma City.

With his experience as a buyer, he brings a wealth of insight that augments our team’s capabilities. I caught up with Daniel and asked about his thoughts and advice to buyers on inflation, post-pandemic economy, and volatility we are seeing in supply chains.

With prices climbing, Daniel gives us insights into strategy on how to navigate the post-pandemic inflation. “By looking at the supply chain in three sections; product, labor, and transportation, you will find a cost strategy with your purchasing. Right now we are all struggling with the costs of goods, so look for other points in the supply chain to offset costs. The difficult part is two of these three areas prices are going up. So you can key in on bringing transportation costs down to save on your overall costs.”

Not only is it exciting to bring on new team members, but as they learn about our company and business, they give a little bit of insight from their careers that indicates if what we are doing as a company is on track or not. From a buyer’s perspective Fresh Avenue’s initial business model has now been proven with the pandemic shutdowns and the volatilities of the post pandemic economy of something that bring stability and value to the supply chain.

Daniel continues, “The key to being in an inflationary period is differentiating what we bring to customers with added value. This is where consolidation and minimizing labor with processed produce brings the value our customers. Fresh Avenue does this with our closer relationships with producers, and experience with fresh foods. We are also in a unique position to pair any commodity item with processed and then consolidate all the rest.”

Working hard to bring as much value to customers as we possibly can, that is exactly how we like to do things here at Fresh Avenue. Thanks Daniel, and welcome aboard!

Stop Prepping Your Veggies!

Fresh prepared produce delivers many benefits to foodservice operations from cost and labor savings along with increasing back of house efficiency, food safety, and freshness. With everything that has happened with the pandemic and the new ways restaurants are operating, not prepping your produce is incredibly relevant to foodservice’s post-pandemic plan of action.  Take a look with our downloadable white paper!