Central de Compras — Soluciones HORECA

Simultaneous purchase requests, orders consolidated by supplier and sent by WhatsApp or email, and AI scanning of delivery notes that loads stock from a photo.

The origin: software that smells like a kitchen

Central de Compras was not born in an office. I build it with my partner, Alejandro Tomas Pereyra, head chef at Chiringuito El Madero (Estepona, Spain), who uses it in production every day. He sets how the app should evolve from inside a real service; I build it. That combination solves the classic problem of hospitality software: being designed by people who have never set foot in a kitchen.

The problem

Before, supplier orders at the restaurant worked the way they do in almost all of hospitality:

• The scrap of paper on the fridge with what is missing
• The WhatsApp group and direct messages to the person in charge: “don’t forget to order…”
• Writing the message to each supplier by hand, listing product by product and quantity
• And the worst of all: a different web app for every supplier. Each wholesaler offers its own ordering platform — log in and build the order in a different system for each of the establishment’s 30+ suppliers

The solution

A single app where every supplier and every product live together:

Simultaneous requests. Anyone on the team — bar or kitchen — logs what they need from their phone the moment they notice a shortage. The scrap of paper is gone.

Consolidated master cart. Purchasing leads see every request unified and send the consolidated order to each supplier by WhatsApp or email, without writing anything by hand.

Scheduled sends. Orders can be automated: on a given day at a given time, if there are products in the cart, the order goes out to the supplier on its own.

AI scanning of delivery notes and invoices. When the order arrives, a photo of the delivery note does the rest: the AI extracts products, quantities, and prices; matches each item to what was requested in the cart and marks it as received; detects price increases or drops versus previous purchases; and if a product appears that is not in inventory (ordered outside the app, a new product, or a gift from the supplier), it recognizes it and records it. The user reviews and corrects if needed — but the manual loading of stock and purchase history is gone.

In numbers

• 1 year in production with real daily use
• 8 active users at the establishment (bar and kitchen), with 3 leads managing the master cart
• 30+ suppliers managed from a single app
• Stock and purchase history updated with a photo

In the head chef’s words

My partner is not a client: he is a co-creator of Central de Compras and its most demanding user. As head chef at Chiringuito El Madero, Alejandro uses it every day in a real service. I asked him what the day-to-day of ordering was like before the app:

“An outrageous use of time. Where we work, with so many items, it was chaos trying to control everything: notes on the fridges, WhatsApp groups, and then figuring out which supplier to order each product from.”

On what changed once the whole team logs shortages from their phones:

“Things started to settle. Now any team member requests what they need. I already decided who I buy each product from, and that’s it: much easier. I don’t have to keep remembering who I bought each thing from.”

On what he uses most today:

“I actually use everything, depending on the need. Orders became one less worry once they can be automated. What I use most is scanning delivery notes and invoices, to have real-time control of spending: I know the price, whether it went up or down, and that way I analyze the cost of my dishes and the spend with each supplier.”

And what would he say to another head chef still on scraps of paper and one app per supplier?

“I’d tell them to give it a try. It’s a very intuitive app, easy to use, and for those of us who need to stay in control of everything at all times, it’s ideal.”

— Alejandro Tomas Pereyra, head chef at Chiringuito El Madero — partner and co-creator of Central de Compras, Estepona (Spain)

Product status

Central de Compras is ready as a multi-establishment SaaS: a free tier and three subscription plans (from USD 19/month). Today it runs in production at Chiringuito El Madero and is open to new restaurants and hotels that want to get their purchasing in order.