Find opportunities at the point of change
The months following acquisition or operational consolidation are a practical time to review external purchasing. New ownership may have better visibility into fragmented contracts, overlapping suppliers or categories that haven't recently been tendered.
We examine what is realistically addressable given current agreements, transition plans, operational requirements and management capacity.
Do not confuse a theoretical synergy with EBITDA
Only implemented, sustainable and appropriately normalised savings should be considered for operating-performance reporting. The finance team should determine accounting treatment, one-off costs and the extent to which any improvement is recurring.
An engagement sized for material outcomes
Our proposed mandate starts around £5m of addressable supplier spend, with larger portfolio-wide opportunities especially relevant. We can assess a specific category or a coordinated programme, subject to delivery capability and agreed scope.
What a portfolio operating partner should require
A post-acquisition buying opportunity only creates value when portfolio companies can actually use the new contract. Some businesses need local coverage, unusual insurance conditions, specialist service levels or support that a group-wide framework provider cannot deliver.
An investor-ready procurement workplan should show supplier-category overlap, contracts that can change within the ownership horizon, implementation dependencies and the timing of finance-verified run-rate savings. The decision pack must distinguish realised reductions from notional purchasing synergies.
A real-world decision to test
Example mandate: after an acquisition, three businesses keep separate contracts for overlapping facilities and logistics categories. Combining volume may improve the commercial position, but historical supplier performance and transition costs still determine whether consolidation makes sense.
What you would receive
An agreed portfolio/category scope, company-level baselines, prioritised synergy candidates and finance-approved realised savings reporting.
PE operating partners, portfolio company CFOs and integration teams.
The investment thesis assumes immediate EBITDA uplift before suppliers have accepted and implemented new terms.
Questions worth asking
Can you work across several portfolio businesses?
The model supports coordinated discovery across businesses, provided scopes, contracts, authorisations and savings baselines are agreed separately.
How do you avoid counting the same saving twice across acquisitions?
Agree a separate baseline for each operating company, record where the new terms were implemented and have each finance team confirm its own invoice-backed improvement.