Food waste is something that has been a constant issue for restaurant operators. For the larger names, a custom inventory system has been the answer, but for some of the smaller restaurants, inventory was previously a grueling manual process resulting in inefficiencies in back-of-house.
Building on more than a decade of experience spent pioneering mobile apps and technology development globally, Noam Wolf, Igal Wolf, and Or Mintz set out to close a gap in the restaurant industry that remains a well-recognized problem to most restaurant operators in the U.S. While exciting technological advancements have vastly improved front-of-house operations and customer experience, back-of-house operations have largely remained stagnant, reliant on outdated phone, mailed or even faxed order forms and invoices, slowing down operations for the entire restaurant. Wolf quickly honed in on a solution designed to minimize time spent manually composing orders, resulting in over-ordering and wasted funds.
By seamlessly connecting the silos between operator and vendor through streamlined software, MarketMan allows restaurant operators to reduce both food costs and inventory management time, all through an easy-to-use cloud-based platform. Since its creation four years ago, MarketMan has enabled its restaurant clients to realize an average of 2-5 percent reduction in food costs within the first year. Time saved on orders is even more impressive, with MarketMan clients reporting an average boost in order efficiency by up to 50 percent, on average, thanks to MarketMan’s integrated ordering platform, which allows day to day operations to migrate seamlessly between multiple vendors and suppliers with no disruption. Instead of manually taking count on when certain items see an influx of orders or which beverage is the most popular, MarketMan provides a simplified solution that has allowed restaurant operators to put focus elsewhere.
“MarketMan allows both restaurant owners and suppliers to streamline supply chain management in one single, convenient place, and in the process, solves one of the industry’s biggest challenges” says Wolf. “Talk to just about any restaurant owner and you’ll find them dealing with manual, disorganized processes that are prone to errors. In many cases, owners have no idea how efficient or profitable their operations really are. MarketMan solves that problem instantly, and in the process, helps to level the playing field. Single unit restaurants and smaller chains now have the same opportunity to be fully efficient in their back-of-house as a bigger name chain that might have more collective buying power.”
MarketMan also took initiative to get involved in the food waste issue on more of a local scale. The team joined forces with City Harvest, a non-profit that works to end hunger in communities throughout New York City. The MarketMan team worked together to package food that would have otherwise been wasted for their New York City neighbors who are food insecure.
“Volunteering and giving back to the community is always great, but the fact that this is so closely related to our work makes it a very ‘tangible experience,’” says Wolf.
