Blog posts from November, 2013

November has flown by at National Event Supply. We’ve spent the month talking about how to buy durable dishes for restaurants, showcased a podcast on how to transform your restaurant by focusing on catering, attended the NGCOA Canada Golf Business Show in Victoria and talked about the 2 crucial items to purchase if you’re planning to start a party rental business. We also got the first s.n.o.w. of the season – hopefully the last (I wish)!

More and more franchises are looking to the shifting demographics to dictate their evolving menus. Financial Post showcased how iconic franchises such as Subway are looking to Millennials to influence their menus. With winning market share in a flat market a must to survive, check out this article to learn more about the second largest cohort in Canada and how targeting them can help your restaurant stay ahead of the curve.

Special Events Magazine is renowned for their research findings relating to the Party Rental and Event Rental industry. In this year’s annual Special Events forecast, they revealed that 55% of respondents expect the party and event rental industry to have a better year in 2014. To read the entire article including the rest of the findings, click here.

Golf Business magazine interviews four golf course owners who reflect on the best capital investments they’ve ever made. The different examples of discretionary expenditures and why they chose to do it are showcased in this interesting article.

Catersource magazine asked caterers some of the amazing finds they’ve uncovered that have made a real difference in how they operate, their success, and what they can offer clients. To learn what these caterers have discovered and decided to share with the industry, check out the article here. Perhaps you’ll get a burst of innovation from them!

Hotelier magazine put out their Annual Hospitality Market report to guide hotels and other accommodation businesses with predictions and a focus on strategy and price. With the landscape increasingly becoming more competitive, this must-read report talks about the strategies in service and price to guide hotels into a winning market share. Check out this article to read more.

I hope you found November’s favourite finds interesting and got nuggets of information out of the articles. Tune in next month for the last round up of the year.

In National Event Supply's history we've helped thousands of party rental companies, caterers, restaurants, banquet halls, golf courses, and churches benefit from reliable, commercial-quality, value-based products. Our rapid growth is driven first and foremost by your company's commitment to becoming a world-class foodservice or event service company, and we are honoured to play a role in your success.

We want you to be the first to know that we will be increasing prices on all stainless steel cutlery starting Wednesday, January 1st, 2014. As a result of continued cost increases by our suppliers over a number of years, we need to increase our cutlery prices. This will be our 1st price increase on our cutlery in more than 8 years. Prices will increase roughly 10% from current prices.

To take advantage of our current pricing before our prices increase, click here to request a quote on cutlery.

Why the change?

These changes are being made to allow us to continue to deliver high quality stainless steel cutlery at great value prices and to ensure your inventory is both high quality and durable. As always, please reach out to us at any time with questions or suggestions for improvement. We are always eager to hear from you. Thanks for being a part of the National Event Supply family. We couldn’t do it without you.

Like most warranties, all chip warranties are not made equally; each warranty is different depending on the manufacturer. For example some manufacturers provide a 1 year warranty while others provide 5 or more years for their warranty. With that said however most of the warranties have common terms and conditions that need to be followed for them to be honoured by the manufacturer.

Here are some things that you need to know:

• Only select lines or items may be covered by the warranty (varies by Manufacturer). As a result you should check to find out which items you are purchasing are covered by the warranty prior to finalizing your order.
• As the warranty name implies, they only cover chips, they do not cover any other kinds of damage.
• It may not cover chips/cracking/breakage of handles or knobs on jugs, teapots/coffeepots, and mugs. As well as chips/cracking/breakage on spouts of pots or jugs.
• The warranty will only cover use in food service applications such as washing, preparation, serving, and refrigeration. As a result if the item is going to be used in more extreme conditions, these will not be covered under the warranty.
• The warranty is only valid for the original purchaser of the item.
• Generally a registration form must be filled out at the time of purchase (or soon thereafter) for the warranty to be validated.
• The manufacturer or chosen representative reserves the right to a site visit should they deem it necessary. This may occur if you are experiencing higher than expected breakage. If the site visit reveals poor treatment/mishandling, warranty may be void.
• The warranty is location specific; as a result if the items travel to other locations the warranty may be void.
• All chipped pieces must be retained by the customer and returned to the manufacturer (or their representative) for inspection.
• Finally most have a clause that reserves the right of the manufacturer to void any warranty for any reason.

To fully understand the warranty on the porcelain products that you are purchasing, we encourage you to ask your manufacturer or their chosen representative for details as each warranty does differ. If part of the warranty is unclear to you make sure that you ask questions about it.

National Event Supply does not offer any chip warranty on our porcelain products. We take great strides to ensure our commercially designated porcelain products are of durable quality and not easily breakable given the target market we sell to however we also understand that porcelain by nature is a breakable material. Companies that do offer such a warranty on an inherently breakable product like porcelain must charge extra per dish to cover the percentage of dishware they believe will chip in their given warranty period. As a result this costs you the buyer extra whether you have a plate chip or not. Because we don’t offer a warranty, we can provide you with the best value possible – in some cases costing up to 50% less than standard porcelain suppliers. If you’re interested in viewing the porcelain dishes we have available, their specifications and pricing, download a copy of the National Event Supply Dinnerware Catalogue!

I’m always looking for different kinds of content to share that enrich our prospects and customers’ lives because while one person may enjoy reading an article, another may prefer slides, or a video or a podcast.

This week I stumbled across a podcast I think is a gem for anyone in the restaurant industry looking for additional ways to build revenue. Mark Deo, Veteran CBS Radio Host interviewed a man by the name of Erle Dardick, author of the books "Get Catering and Grow Sales!" and "501 Killer Marketing Tactics for Cranking Up Your Catering Sales". Erle joins Mark’s podcast entitled "The Small Business Hour, as heard on CBS Radio" to discuss how focusing on catering helped transform his restaurant. He gives great lessons on finding a niche market you can dominate and tips on narrowing your focus and dominating a market. To hear more of Erle’s tips, jump to 14:00 below.

With 2013 quickly winding to a close (it’s the middle of November already?!), the industry would be remiss if it didn’t recap what’s hot and what’s not throughout the past year. Special Events Magazine wrote an article on the top rental items flying off the shelves. The top items that seem to be most popular and requested items include the following:

• Tented Events in a variety of tented options
• Illuminated / LED light-up bars
• Rustic items such as farm tables, rustic chairs and benches
• Lounge furniture including modular
• Different shaped tables and plates in the same room
• Specialty linens
• Custom flooring

The full article definitely showcases that more and more consumers and corporate events are looking for one of a kind, picturesque events with uncommon items.

At National Event Supply, we’ve seen an increase in party rental and event rental companies stocking up on irregular sized dinnerware such as the Ovali Line. In the stacking chairs area, we’re seeing more Crystal Chiavari Chairs being ordered. What are you finding with your customers’ events? Is there anything we’re not stocking that you think we should be? Let us know in the comments!