Want to start a family feud quickly? Tell your Aunt or Grandmother...……………...
Today’s post is written by Heather Powell, Director of Major Accounts and Special Projects at SafeSourcing Inc.
Want to start a family feud quickly? Tell your Aunt or Grandmother you made your potato salad with mayonnaise, Miracle Whip®, or sour cream! Traditionalists will say that their potato salad is only made with mayonnaise, while others will say their choice of potato salad creaminess is open to whatever pleases the palate.
Manufactures of potato salad want the best of both worlds and many are choosing proprietary blends of mayonnaise to meet the traditionalists’ tastes, but also provide new tastes options to the foodie groups. Small companies can make their own creaminess and control the amounts of sugar, salt, vinegar, dairy, and oils that go into their special recipes, but how to manufacture control in what goes into their product to keep it the same time after time? How do they know the manufactures of the mayonnaise are meeting their client’s needs? Are the manufactures of potato salad getting the best pricing for their purchase of mayonnaise?
Custom or proprietary blends of mayonnaise or really anything can be taken out for bid. The key is knowing exactly what is in your proprietary item and what the ratios are. If you have a contract agreement in place that you own the proprietary blend made for you by a manufacturer, you need to have this in your possession for several reasons—what happens if the manufacturer has a natural disaster or fire? What happens if they are shut down due to a salmonella or e-coli issue? And what if you want to test the market place for pricing and capabilities?
Is now the time to review your mayonnaise purchases? Look your contract over and see when it expires (ed) or do you have an out clause? Be prepared to take your time to do this right. You want to ensure you have the proper suppliers who can handle your volume needs and manufacture custom items. You will want to know exactly what the market rates are for oils and eggs as these will directly affect your pricing expectations and longevity of the contract. You will also want to allow time for the manufactures to make your mayonnaise or product or allow equivalent blends for sampling. Some suppliers will do this at no charge; others will expect a minimum order purchase to be able to provide your custom product as they need to schedule the time to put your product in a small quantity into their production line.
While the family feuds will probably always occur over what makes the best potato salad, do not allow a manufacturer make you feel as if you have no options to replace your mayonnaise provider. This is your product and you have the right to get the best product at the best price.
SafeSourcing can assist you in exploring your procurement solutions for your business or on our “Risk Free” trial program for RFPs and RFQs, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative. We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.
This author hopes that you found this series fun and educational. While I enjoy the traditional mayonnaise potato salad with a touch of yellow mustard, my favorite has become the new red skin potato salad with a bacon, chive, sour cream, and shredded cheddar cheese. There are many manufactures of this combination but I truly enjoy making my own and playing with this recipe by adding more bacon/different smoked bacons, chive or dill, and various cheeses.
We look forward to your comments.
