Supply chain evaluation reduces cost base by £3million

Not only was this project successful in delivering a cost base reduction of £3m, but it also delivered considerable benefits to the operational finance teams. As a result of rationalising the supply base, the number of suppliers was reduced by 60%, reducing supplier relationship management costs and allowing the team to refocus on other priorities.

In addition, we reduced labour investment to the value of £140,000 in Purchase Order requisitioning, goods receipt, query resolution and invoice processing thanks to a reduction from 15,000 to 7,000 transactions all the way along the Purchase to Pay cycle.

We also estimate that 250,000 transport miles were taken off the road as a result, equating to 150,000 tonnes of CO2 – enough to cover the annual electricity consumption of 24,000 homes.

A fragmented supply chain was split across several long-standing supplier relationships combined with numerous smaller suppliers who had been rushed into the supply chain in response to the Covid 19 pandemic and the launch of a new ‘At home’ offering. There were also huge inefficiencies in supplies to both restaurants and the central kitchen, posing a sustainability challenge.

Procure 4 was asked to deliver a supply chain transformation programme, encompassing a cost base reduction exercise, with a key deliverable of streamlining the supply chain for a post-Brexit and Covid recovery world.