Straight answers to the questions senior leaders ask before they decide to engage a supply chain consultancy.
We typically mobilise within 5–10 business days of contract signature. Our discovery phase is structured to deliver a diagnostic report with high-confidence savings opportunities within the first three to four weeks — so you see tangible value long before a traditional consultancy would have finished their scoping workshops.
Our sweet spot is organisations with annual revenues of £20M to £500M+ — large enough to have significant supply chain complexity, entrepreneurial enough to act quickly on recommendations. We serve manufacturing groups, logistics companies, FMCG businesses, and private equity-backed companies across the North of England and beyond.
Both options are available and we'll recommend what's right for your situation. Diagnostic and transformation projects are typically delivered on a fixed-fee or milestone basis, giving you cost certainty. For clients requiring ongoing governance support, procurement leadership, or interim resource, we offer retained arrangements at a significant premium to day-rate alternatives.
We operate on a high degree of confidence in our projections, and we have a strong track record of delivering or exceeding our initial estimates. In some engagements, we offer outcome-linked arrangements where a portion of our fees are tied to verified savings achieved. We are happy to discuss appropriate commercial structures depending on the nature and scope of your engagement.
Our engagements are specifically designed to augment, not replace, your internal capability. We typically accelerate what your team cannot do at speed — category strategies, market benchmarking, contract renegotiations — while transferring knowledge to leave your internal team stronger. We frequently hear from clients that one of the most valued outcomes is the upskilling of their own people throughout the engagement.
We operate under a strict mutual NDA from the first conversation. All client data — commercial, financial, and operational — is handled with the highest standards of confidentiality. Our team members are individually bound by contractual confidentiality obligations, and we maintain clear data handling protocols aligned with UK GDPR requirements.
We begin with a structured spend and contract diagnostic — typically 2–3 weeks of intensive data analysis and stakeholder interviews. This produces a prioritised opportunity map segmented by category, improvement lever, and ease of implementation. We then move into execution: renegotiations, specification reviews, alternative supplier sourcing, and demand management. All savings are tracked and verified against a baseline throughout the engagement.
Absolutely. We are experienced in working within the compressed timelines of a live transaction process. We can scope and deploy a focused supply chain due diligence workstream within days of instruction. We work efficiently within virtual data room environments and provide executive-ready reporting to support your deal team throughout the process.
Our deepest experience spans manufacturing (discrete and process), logistics and distribution, food and beverage, construction materials, and business services. That said, the fundamental principles of procurement and supply chain excellence apply across sectors, and we have successfully delivered in retail, healthcare, and professional services environments. We will always be transparent about our relevant experience when discussing your specific situation.
This varies considerably depending on scope and ambition. A focused diagnostic with a prioritised opportunity map typically takes 3–5 weeks. A full Cost Optimisation programme covering multiple spend categories might run 4–6 months. A comprehensive Supply Chain Transformation engagement could extend over 12–18 months. We work with you to scope the right shape of engagement for your objectives and budget, and we're never incentivised to extend an engagement beyond what adds value.
