For café owners · from Go Direct Catering

5 signs your disposables supplier is costing you money

None of them show up on the invoice. All of them show up in the till.

The five most common supply problems named by café owners in category research, what each one actually costs, and the fix.

Sign 01

You cannot get a price without a phone call

If the price list lives behind a quote form, you are paying for that mystery. Suppliers who hide prices do it because the price depends on how hard you negotiate, and a busy owner does not have time to negotiate over cups.

The fix: buy from published prices. Ours are on every listing, per unit, ex VAT. Compare them with what you pay now, quietly, tonight.

Sign 02

There is a drawer of lids that fit nothing

Every mismatched sleeve in that drawer is money you already spent. It happens because cups get ordered by ounces, and ounces tell you the volume, not the rim. The rim is what decides whether a lid fits.

The fix: order by rim diameter. We print it on every listing and sell the matching lid on the same page, so the pair arrives as a pair.

Sign 03

You ran out mid service in the last three months

The research is blunt about this one. Running out of supplies is the number one pain in the category, and it never happens on a quiet Tuesday. It happens on the Saturday you are three deep at the counter, and the cost is every drink you could not serve.

Never worry about disposables again. The most common answer when owners were asked what they actually want
The fix: put the boring stuff on a schedule. The Coffee Round arrives on repeat, skip or cancel any time, up to 20% off every delivery.
Put cups on repeat

Sign 04

Four vans deliver to one counter

Cups here, lids there, napkins from the cash and carry, stirrers from wherever. Each order costs you checking stock, placing it, receiving it and filing the invoice. Do that four times for one counter and the admin costs more than the goods.

The fix: one box that covers the counter. All You Need is every size a bar pours, three thousand cups in one monthly order, with the lids already matched if you want them.

Sign 05

They want a trade account before they want your order

A credit application, a minimum order, an account manager, a wait. For cups. Owners keep saying the same thing about the big distributors:

Is it difficult to set up an account? I don't have time to do paperwork. Café owner, industry buying research
The fix: no account, no minimum, card or Apple Pay, delivered in five working days anywhere in Ireland. And a 30-day money-back guarantee on the bundles, so trying the switch costs nothing if it is not right.
Count your signs. One is annoying. Two is a pattern. Three or more and your supplier is quietly taxing every coffee you pour.

The low-risk way to switch

The Coffee Round A week of cups, matched lids, napkins and stirrers for about 150 coffees a day. From €79,98 ex VAT → All You Need, 3,000 cups Espresso, regular and large. About a month for a café pouring 100 a day. From €109,65 ex VAT →

Published by Go Direct Catering, Airton Road, Tallaght, Dublin 24. Quotes are from category buying research, not Go Direct Catering customers. Prices shown ex VAT and correct at time of writing.