Rival, Stockholm
Tobias Wikberg has worked at Rival since the beginning. His role as Food & Beverage Manager includes the responsibility for procurement putting him in direct contact with suppliers – of which there are many. Some of these are tied to multi-year contracts and for them, there are no prices that are maintained throughout the period. “No supplier can guarantee the same price over several years,” says Tobias, referring to currency fluctuations and inflation.
So how did he keep track of price increases, and what did he do about them? Tobias tells us that they did random samples of invoices to try to catch price changes, but emphasizes that they were still hard to grasp. Although he sometimes found errors, he couldn’t know when or for how long a price had increased. “It takes so much time to analyze an invoice correctly. And continuously analyzing purchases is not a priority when you work in a restaurant – although it should be,” he says and points out that this is the reality that many restaurateurs live with today.
Before Parsly, he spent ‘several man-hours’ making random samples of invoices, which he printed out and went through line-by-line. The data was then entered into various Excel templates to make comparisons and retrieve statistics. After all this time-consuming, manual work, the paper invoices were thrown away – “talk about a waste of resources!” exclaims Tobias.
There was also an issue with the cost calculations for new dishes and drinks. The cost that applied at the time the analysis was made rarely agreed with the invoiced price, further down the line. “It was difficult to follow how a cost base changed, and to adjust the guest price in time to protect the profit margin that was set from the start,” says Tobias. Before Parsly, he could request statistics from suppliers for the products they bought the most, but that information was isolated per supplier and was therefore difficult to reconcile with other purchases.
Since the summer of 2022, Rival has let Parsly handle its purchasing administration. It was an ‘easy’ decision to make as no complicated technical integration was required. “The only thing I had to do was change an email address, which felt very safe and smooth”.
According to Tobias, Parsly has facilitated ‘enormously’ when it comes to new procurements. “Before, I had to first collect all the invoices and then compare them, side by side. Now everything is gathered in Parsly, and it’s super easy to quickly sort out the information I need for that particular negotiation,” he says happily.
He further emphasizes that there is value in joining Parsly sooner, rather than later. “I’m looking forward to seeing a full year’s worth of data as the more data that comes in, the more use I’ll have.” But you have to start somewhere, he says, adding that “the best thing about Parsly has been catching price variations in time to react. If the price of something is too high, we can raise the guest price or replace the product with something equivalent. We couldn’t do that before.”
In fact, he really likes the price monitoring feature. “Price increases happen all the time, but with Parsly it becomes really obvious – you can’t miss them anymore!”. To conclude, he comments on the user-friendliness of the service. “What I like most is that you understand – it’s not 20 clicks until you find what you’re looking for. It’s a click or two -– and you’re there!”.
We at Parsly are proud to be able to help Tobias take control of Rival’s purchasing costs. We are pleased to hear that the service helps him react in good time to price increases and facilitates his procurement work with suppliers.
We wish Rival all the best! Especially with their newcomer ‘Tavernan’ where guests are welcome for ‘lunch, coffee or a light dinner’. Tobias warmly recommends the grilled ‘Iberico Abanico’-dish and the drink ‘Elamo’, a concoction of tequila, kahlua and campari. Regardless of what you choose, he promises a break from everyday life, with a touch of indulgence.
Thanks, Tobias!