Rigid foam insulation manufacturer

The plant carried a full book of unaudited indirect spend: merchant processing, energy, freight, telecom, packaging, and copying, all on legacy vendor relationships that had never been benchmarked. Ownership and operations leadership stayed with the work through an acquisition mid-engagement. The review continued under the new corporate parent, with contracts re-audited as they came up for renewal.

• Merchant processing versus market
• Energy
• Freight
• Telecom contracts and unused capacity
• Packaging materials, priced item by item
• Copying services

• Phase I audited five categories in parallel.
• Merchant processing sat 55 basis points above market and was repriced to interchange-plus.
• The telecom contract was padded with unused capacity; we rebid and moved to a lower-cost carrier.
• Packaging was priced item by item. We added competing suppliers to a single-source program.
• Copying services: we replaced the equipment lease and service agreement.
• After the ownership change, legacy telecom lines were re-bid.

Telecom (landlines, internet)

~42% savingsRebid the account and moved to a lower-cost carrier

Copying services

~24% savingsReplaced the equipment lease and service agreement

Merchant processing

~17% savingsRepriced to interchange-plus with a new processor

Packaging materials

~12% savingsAdded competing suppliers to a single-source program

Telecom (year three)

~37% savingsRe-bid legacy lines after the ownership change

Phase I recurring savings

~$50,000/yr

Blended reduction

~17%

5-year value after ERC fees

~$200,000

Year-three telecom re-audit

+$3,000/yr

1. 01

   The audit did not stop at signing

   New categories were audited and old ones re-audited as the business changed hands.

2. 02

   No operational disruption

   Every switch was a vendor swap, not a process change. Same materials, same output, better pricing.

3. 03

   The risk-free structure survived new ownership

   The corporate parent kept the relationship because there is no fee unless savings hit the invoice.