INSIDE FOODSERVICE
Superior Food Services heralds start of a new era

For over 30 years, Australian owned and operated Superior Food Services has distributed to all facets of the foodservice sector, providing a wide range of dry goods, chilled, frozen, meat, smallgoods and seafood lines. The company is well represented with more than 20 branches nationally including its Global Meats and Mooloolah River Fisheries protein businesses. 

Superior has been part of a buying group for more than two decades, but with the size of its business having grown substantially since partnering with a private equity group some seven years ago, as of this month it is an entirely independent organisation.

The new structure is being launched with Superior’s new marketing program, called SAVE – Superior Adds Value Every Day. According to Chief Executive Officer Craig Phillips, it’s “the most rewarding program in foodservice, in terms of bang for your buck”. He adds: “We’re looking at how we can deliver greater value for our customers, and supporting suppliers, and this is our exciting new initiative in that regard.”

More than 60 per cent of orders now made online

Superior has seen a lot of change in the food distribution market in recent years, such as the ongoing growth of online ordering. “Three years ago we set out to create the first foodservice website on which anyone could search for a product, get a price instantly, pay by credit card and receive delivery the next day. That’s what our website does today, as well as providing inventory sheets to make ordering simple for regular customers. We now have more than 60 per cent of orders coming through online, and it’s continuing to evolve really quickly,” Craig confirms.

“By the end of this year we’ll have all our business on one national ERP platform, which will enable us to centralise purchasing and control ranging, providing greater transparency to our customers. We’ve invested a lot of time and effort in technology and have our own IT team on site. We’re also investing heavily in marketing, to make sure there’s a strong awareness in the market of what we have to offer.”

Challenges for the distribution supply chain emerged during Covid and seem set to remain for some time to come. Craig acknowledges these but emphasises Superior is committed to doing all it can to ensure reliability of service and delivery. “It’s the case today that if you don’t have a product that your customer wants, you need to try to find an alternative, but I’ve never seen a more disrupted supply chain. There’s lack of staff, there’s fuel issues, container issues – there are places where labour is really difficult to get and meeting daily demands can be challenging. That’s the biggest single issue for our industry right now, but as immigration comes back to support the labour force we need, we’ll see stability returning around distribution.”

Superior has a fleet of some 300 fully refrigerated trucks supported by around 1200 staff currently. Craig says the business is currently rolling out dynamic routing GPS optimisation system across the fleet. “At the moment we have 18 branches where effectively one person places the runs every day. With the new system we will be able to hit one button and dynamically route our fleet across the entire country within half an hour. Customers will also have notice of pending arrival, so they can clear the way in the loading bay, make room in the chiller and so on. It’s just a more efficient, cost-effective solution.”

For all food distributors, quality control is of paramount importance, as Craig emphasises: “Unbroken supply chain and cold chain are the keys to your service levels. All of our larger facilities have anterooms where we have unbroken cold chain, and our delivery trucks are custom-built to foodservice standards, which are highly specific. We pride ourselves on our ability to ensure all products reach our customers in the condition they expect.”

Looking to the future, Craig believes customers will respond positively to Superior’s SAVE program which he says is a genuine point of difference from other distributors. “Typically distributors target certain products with redemption points, but the problem with that approach is that the customer isn’t always aware of which products are eligible, or how the points can be accrued. Our program works across the board – you get one point for every dollar you spend, and they accumulate towards rewards like discount vouchers, gift cards and even a charity component which is Challenge – Supporting Kids with Cancer.” Details of the program can be found at www.superiorsave.com.au.

Superior is also investing in new inventory management software, and continues to evolve its business with a focus on improving services to customers. “I think the reason Superior’s been able to succeed in this industry against much larger businesses, is the fact that we’ve remained customer focused all these years,” Craig affirms. “We understand that we don’t exist without our customers – so working to constantly improve those services that underpin our customer relationships is our primary focus.”