Finding Your Total Cost of Ownership
Consider this scenario: You are purchasing steam table pans, and you’ve decided to go with the cheapest line because of the obviously lower up front cost. Each economy pan is $10.00 less than the Vollrath pan, and you buy 45 of them. You just saved $450.00 right? Wrong.
Fast-forward one year. You’ve been serving acidic and salty foods in these pans, busboys have been dropping them, they’ve been smacked with spoons – in short, they’ve been put through everything a typical steam table pan goes through. And look at them.
Rusted pans are a health concern. Dented and bent pans are horribly inefficient to warm, letting heat escape and driving up your utility usage like you wouldn’t believe. And they are making your establishment look about as classy as a barn. You have to throw them away.
HOW MUCH DID YOUR “LOW-COST” PANS REALLY COST?
Operational Costs: The real operational costs of your pan include the full cost of your pans + the cost of energy inefficiency calculated at $27 annually per pan + the risk of transmitting foodborne illnesses to your customers.
Opportunity Costs: Time and money spent on replacement of pans instead of making other investments (your competitor down the road just spiced up his buffet line by adding Super Pan® Super Shapes pans).
This time when you go to buy replacements you do some research and find out that Vollrath pans have been known to last for years and years, plus they pay for themselves within twelve months time anyway through energy savings. So you buy Vollrath and wish you had done that to begin with.