Drive by the store, reorder pasta and vegetables online or stock the beer garden with new chairs at the click of a mouse? Restaurateurs shop whenever it fits into their hectic schedule. METRO offers different ways to access products and services. Each channel has its benefits.
‘As a delivery customer, I can place my orders by phone, online, by email or through my customer manager, who visits the restaurant every few days. Several times a week, the MAKRO van rolls up and supplies us with fresh and non-perishable goods, from vegetables to cleaning products,’ says Rabih Haddad. He runs the Mune restaurant in a side street in Madrid’s trendy Justicia district. It offers traditional Lebanese delicacies such as fattoush, tabbouleh, kibbeh and kofta, served in a modern setting. As a delivery customer, Mune receives its goods from the warehouses in Quer and Leganés, both near Madrid. Some items are loaded directly from the manufacturer’s truck into the METRO delivery vehicle. This way, more products are available – and guaranteed fresh. Orders are placed when and how it’s most convenient: digitally via online shop, app or email, with special requests ordered directly by phone. Rabih Haddad schedules the delivery in a fixed time slot so that someone is there to receive the goods.
‘When the METRO online marketplace went live in September 2019, I was immediately on board with my non-food hospitality supplies shop,’ says Mario Derksen, operator of MDC-NOLIMIT. ‘After less than 1 year since the launch of the whole thing, we have made noticeable sales through it, which is pretty impressive.’ For more than 25 years, his company has been supplying customers around the world, such as hospitals, day-care centres, canteens, sports clubs, catering companies, restaurants and hotels, with equipment and furnishings, decor and cleaning products – whatever they may need. Being one of the first traders to start doing business on the METRO online marketplace was an exciting experience for Derksen. That’s because METRO MARKETS brings non-food merchants like him together with customers from the hospitality industry. They can get everything they need there, from refrigeration and seating to soap dispensers. The mission: to meet all the needs of professional customers as a one-stop shop. This way, restaurateurs don’t have to search through umpteen online shops or travel to various store-based retail locations. Instead, they get everything they need via www.metro.de. Launched in 2019, the marketplace’s product range now includes more than 600,000 items in Germany and 50,000 in Spain. Expansion into Italy and Portugal is planned for 2022.
‘With online reservations, phone calls have decreased by 90%,’ says Michael Wankerl, owner of the restaurant Gerüchteküche in Graz, Austria. ‘I used to have to run out of the kitchen, jam the phone between my ear and shoulder and go back to cooking. Then I would write down the reservation on a random piece of paper. Now people also make reservations in the morning or at night – during times when they would otherwise not have been able to reach anyone, would’ve left a message on the answering machine, and we would have sent the confirmation hours later.’ Gerüchteküche is decorated with 2 Gault & Millau hats. There is a small lunch menu and 4 to 6 courses in the evening. The guests only find out what is being served when the plate is in front of them. After all, the cooking is creative, regional and consistently sustainable. Michael Wankerl uses food with virtually no waste. It takes more effort, but digital solutions provide relief elsewhere: the restaurateur relies on DISH Reservation, a tool provided by METRO subsidiary DISH Digital Solutions. Gerüchteküche is available online for reservations around the clock. This makes it easier for Wankerl to calculate and avoid surpluses when shopping and cooking. Other applications help METRO customers like Wankerl create their own website or easily offer take-away and delivery services – including an online menu and ordering features. The latest DISH tool is a digital cash register solution for the hospitality industry.
Frank Schwarz is a caterer operating throughout Germany and the rest of the world. He is based at Duisburg’s wholesale store. He sees his METRO customer manager ‘practically every day’, and they usually talk on the phone several times a day. The caterer is a METRO delivery customer, meaning that he purchases goods via Food Service Distribution (FSD). The truck arrives 5 times a week, bringing dairy products, meat and pasta as well as cleaning products and kitchen equipment. His close relationship with his customer manager is extremely important to Schwarz. ‘The personal touch is what makes the difference,’ he says. A dedicated contact person helps, and not only when it comes to purchasing. The METRO sales force provides comprehensive support for restaurateurs: How can they reduce costs and run the business more profitably? How can they increase sales and productivity? The customer consultants even help in the search for good staff. Working as a team with colleagues from the back office, the wholesale store and delivery, they ensure that restaurateurs have time for what matters most: their guests.
As part of the sCore growth offensive, METRO is focusing even more on the needs of professional customers. The core is the multichannel marketing strategy, which METRO continues to expand: with the local stores, Food Service Distribution (FSD), the online marketplace and the DISH Digital Solutions tools, the company is supporting HoReCa customers wherever they are. The goal is to help restaurateurs master the challenges of the industry sector and grow together with them. For example, METRO focuses its product mix on the most important A-brands and strong METRO own brands. Freed-up storage space in the stores is used for the delivery business (delivery out of store), which is in high demand. The goal is to at least double the sales force, which currently consists of 6,500 customer managers. At the same time, METRO continues to invest in new digital services.
More on the METRO strategy: sCore – Wholesale to the max.