Restaurant Supply Companies

Specialty distributors supplying commercial kitchens, restaurants, and foodservice operations with equipment, smallwares, chemicals, and non-food consumables. A B2B business critical to the operational foundation of every foodservice business.

Restaurant Supply Companies startup costs and profit margins

Estimated startup cost
$100K to $2.0M
Typical profit margin
8% to 25%

Revenue model

Product sales with distributor margin (20-40% on equipment). Installation and service fees for kitchen equipment. Equipment rental and leasing programs. Consulting and kitchen design services. Recurring supply sales for chemicals and smallwares.

Startup requirements

Warehouse facility, product catalog (thousands of SKUs), sales team with foodservice knowledge, delivery fleet, installation technicians, manufacturer partnerships and credit terms, B2B sales infrastructure.

Key challenges

Capital tied up in large equipment inventory, long payment terms for restaurant clients, high delivery and logistics costs, intense online competition from Amazon Business and Webstaurant Store.

Complete startup guide

Read the complete guide to starting a Restaurant Supply Company