The buyer typing "HORECA deli supplier Istanbul" into a search box is usually at step three: the menu is ready, the kitchen is built and someone is needed to deliver. The flow, though, has seven steps, and the first two finish inside the business before any supplier is involved. Below are the steps in order, each with its output.
From needs list to first delivery: the seven steps of HORECA deli supply
- Needs list: item, format, weight, weekly quantity.
- Sample request and kitchen test.
- Quotation and comparison.
- Trade account opening.
- Order day and delivery window.
- Delivery vehicle and cold chain.
- Goods receipt and record.
For the supply logic of the hotel, restaurant and café channel from the beginning, see the fundamentals of HORECA supply; the seven steps here are that foundation applied to Istanbul.
How the needs list is drawn up: item, format and weekly quantity
Four columns for every deli item on the menu: product name, format (sliced tray, log, vacuum, canned), pack weight and estimated weekly quantity. The format column is the one most often skipped and the one that produces the most cost: a café without a slicer that writes "log" ends up buying a machine or generating waste; a high-volume hotel that writes "sliced" pushes its cost per kilo up.
Weekly quantity is calculated backwards from the portion: weekly portion count × portion weight. The number is an estimate in week one and is updated from week two with the real consumption recorded on the goods receipt.
What is asked of a deli supplier at the sample and quotation stage?
Samples are tested in the kitchen in the product's real use: sliced chicken jambon in a sandwich, beef bacon on the plancha, Hungarian salami on a breakfast plate, frankfurters in hot water. Liking is subjective; measurement is objective. Slice weight, cooking loss and units per pack are weighed and written down during the sample test.
At the quotation stage the questions are:
- Is the price VAT-exclusive, and is it per kilogram, per pack or per case?
- What are the units per case and the net pack weight?
- How much of the total shelf life will still be left when the goods arrive?
- Is there a minimum order condition or a delivery charge?
- How many days separate the order day from the delivery day?
- Can the product specification, label sample and requested documents be sent in writing?
The relationship between order frequency and minimum order value is explained in order frequency and minimum order value in food wholesale; it is worth reading before the quotation table is filled in.
Which documents are prepared to open a trade account?
In general practice: the tax registration certificate, a signature circular or the authorised person's identity details, the trade registry gazette or an activity certificate, the delivery address and invoicing details, and the name and phone number of the person who will receive goods. The list varies by supplier; getting it in writing at the first meeting and sending everything at once turns days into hours.
When the account is opened, the ordering channel is agreed as well: phone, email, messaging or an online form. Whichever it is, the order must leave a written trace; a verbal order is the source of the "we never asked for that" argument at the receiving door.
Why is delivery to the European and Asian shores of Istanbul planned separately?
Bridge and tunnel crossings make journey times unpredictable in the morning and evening peaks; every door opening on a refrigerated van raises the body temperature, and a long route accumulates those rises. Suppliers therefore plan the two shores on separate routes and usually early in the day; one van does not cover both shores in a single morning.
On the business side the counterpart is the receiving time. Someone must be at the door within the delivery window the supplier gives; otherwise the case waits at the back door and the cold chain breaks right there. What a broken cold chain does to the product is described in what happens when the cold chain breaks, and that is the reason to take the delivery window seriously.
How is the refrigerated delivery vehicle's temperature verified at goods receipt?
Two readings: the van's body thermometer is read, and then the surface temperature of a product inside one case is measured with the business's own probe thermometer. Both must sit between 0 °C and +4 °C. The values are written on the delivery note together with the time; if either is outside the range the case is not accepted and the supplier is called at once.
Türkiye's Food Hygiene Regulation (yeni sekmede açılır) expects both the carrier and the receiver to maintain and record the cold chain, and those two numbers in the margin of the delivery note are the business's record. Asking for the supplier's business registration or approval number at the first meeting is part of the same discipline; the registration and approval system for food businesses is run by the General Directorate of Food and Control (yeni sekmede açılır).
The HORECA deli goods receipt record: date, batch, temperature, cases
| Field | What is written | Who fills it in |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery date and time | The moment the van reaches the door | Receiving officer |
| Vehicle body temperature | Thermometer reading, °C | Receiving officer |
| Product surface temperature | Probe reading, °C, and which case | Receiving officer |
| Case count and products | Check against delivery note, short/over | Receiving officer |
| Batch and use-by date | One label from each product | Receiving officer |
| Packaging condition | Punctures, loose vacuum, crushed cases | Receiving officer |
| Rejection / conditional acceptance | Reason and time the supplier was notified | Receiving officer + chef |
The record is one page and is completed at every delivery; from week two onward it is the real source of the weekly quantity column.
A four-product weekly order example: chicken jambon, beef bacon, Hungarian salami, frankfurters
An example list for a 60-seat café serving breakfast and sandwiches, with hypothetical quantities:
- Mortella Sliced Chicken Jambon, 450 g tray: 350 sandwiches a week × 2 slices = 700 slices; count the slices in a pack to find the number of packs. Its 120-day sealed shelf life gives stock security in a week when delivery is disrupted.
- Mortella Beef Bacon 1000 g: 120 burgers a week × 2 strips × 20 g = 4.8 kg raw, so 5 packs.
- Altın Dana Hungarian Salami 1250 g (Log): 3 slices per breakfast plate, 200 plates a week = 600 slices; at an assumed 15 g slice that is 9 kg, or 7-8 logs. Without a slicer, the same product's 500 g sliced tray goes on the list instead.
- Mortella Smoked Frankfurter Sausage 465 g: 80 pieces a week on the children's menu; count the pieces in a pack to find the pack count. The vacuum pack gives stock flexibility until it is opened.
The list is the same on either shore; only the delivery window changes.
Step one: the sample request
The first two of the seven steps finish inside the business; the third begins with one email. Prepare the needs list with its four columns and send it to EMKA FOOD together with a sample request; get in touch for a quotation, a trade account and a delivery window.
