Super Yacht Provisioning, buying Supplies and stock control
Super Yacht Provisioning, buying Supplies and stock control
Each yacht and each yacht captain will have their preferred way of provisoning onboard.
Make sure at an interview you ask as many questions as you can about how the provisioning is done onboard, any budgetary constraints, are you at anchor a lot, going remote etc
Some captains already have a list of provisioners they will use, you might have your own favourites so you should discuss this topic before joining a yacht to avoid any dissapointment or issues.
If you are new to yachting we recommend you create a word document and start researching where to buy provisions in the port you are located in.
If you go for a job in Antibes do the pre-interview research and make sure you know where to buy fish, meat, dry goods, veg, organic/bio, Asian or other Speciality products etc.
If its a small yacht and you have scoped Antibes and know where all the shops are then when you have your face to face interview with the Captain and he asks what do you know about provisioning in this area you are ready and can let him know that even though you are new to yachting, you know where the key shops are.
Same goes for provioning using provisoning companies. On your word doc get a list of the top 5 or so companies who supply provisions to that area.
We have a list of provisioners on this site so feel free to use that to start getting ready for that job interview!
Larger yachts should have preferred supplier lists and systems in place and some provisioners are now offering stock ordering and control systems all online so you can order, re-order and integrate these orders with whatever accounts system they use onboard.
Smaller yachts will of course expect you to go shopping in person so do your research and make a list of all suppliers local to the ports you will be based in or visiting that season.
So to summarise our advice is...
'be prepared and get your research done in advance'
It might be the deciding factor when a captain compares you to other chefs he has interviewed if they can see you are organised and operate in a professional manner!
Good luck!
The YachtChefs.com Team