Why run a commissary?

If you have competing sales channels in your restaurant space, building a commissary can yield many benefits:

• It can better handle volume
• It’s not hardwired to being designed to deliver plate service, and
• It can be designed from the ground up to have more efficient workflows.

When I morphed my deli/restaurant business to handle business-to-business catering, my restaurant kitchen just wasn’t built service that capacity, especially the high volume catering items. With the commissary operation, I never looked back.

* The space doesn’t necessarily have to be a new leasehold – for instance, in today’s market, before closing an owned chain store in a dense market, it may make sense to repurpose the location for commissary.

A commissary can help you with needed diversification, and it can prepare you for subsequent diversification as well: if you’re thinking of testing the direct to consumer (MailOrder) waters, or wholesale channels (e.g. breads, sauces, or signature convenience foods) you will need more production capacity – a commissary can be used as an initial base operation. Success stories in both the catering and retail spinoff space are easy to find, including the story of chef Jonathan McDonough, who is the co-founder of Toronto’s Shasha Bread Co, and also the owner of Chef Jono Catering & Fine Foods. Great interview HERE

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(0) Comments • Permalink • 07 23 2009

• Erle Dardick
• Photo by Sean Burns

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