Corner Bakery Café, a Dallas-based fast-casual restaurant chain serving 24 states and Washington, D.C., partnered with Intesource, a provider of eSourcing solutions for grocers, retailers and restaurants, to revamp its approach to procurement.

"Having a reliable, sustainable supply of ingredients is critical for the success of our business," says Ric Scicchitano, executive vice president of food and beverage for at Corner Bakery. "Intesource not only helps us find the best value within our supply base, but [also] works with us side-by-side to identify alternate sources, so we can easily pull the trigger on a new order whenever necessary. This not only helps mitigate the risk of disruption in our supply base, but also takes a huge burden off of our internal team."

Corner Bakery is using Intesource's managed sourcing approach and suite of tools to uncover value across the entire sourcing process and identify additional viable suppliers. Intesource works with Corner Bakery to analyze and find the best suppliers based on quality, service and price. This managed approach identified significant savings across a variety of categories, including 11% on packaging and to-go supplies, 7% on pre-cooked chicken, 24% on paper and plastic cups and lids and 16% on napkins.

"A strategic, holistic approach to sourcing can help restaurants enhance relationships with suppliers, and ultimately increase the quality of food served to customers," says Brian Miller, vice president of services for Intesource, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based division of PROACTIS. "For most restaurants, profit margins and procurement teams tend to be quite small, which makes maximizing the value secured through sourcing critical."

Intesource works side-by-side with procurement teams and provides organizations with all the tools, processes, people and expertise necessary to foster innovation, boost efficiency and drive bottom-line growth.