Organizational buyer behaviour: a study of UK restaurant chains

The food service sector represents almost two fifths of total household expenditure on food and continues to grow at a pace. While the major part of the food service industry remains highly fragmented, the importance of restaurant chains is increasing. Examines procurement policies adopted by chain restaurants using the buygrid model and presents the findings from six case studies. Concludes that restaurant chains have adopted many of the procurement practices introduced by the multiple retailers (centralized buying and distribution) and tend to look for similar characteristics in their suppliers ‐ volume, quality, consistency and competitive prices. The buygrid model was found to be a good predictor of buyer behaviour among restaurant chains.