We rebuild indirect and packaging spend from the contract up — structured RFPs, market-indexed pricing, and senior-led negotiation. Results measured in signed contracts, not slide decks.
Indirect and packaging spend is the most under-managed line item in retail. Four reasons it quietly compounds:
Pricing set years ago, never re-tested against the market, quietly auto-renewing every cycle.
Multiple vendors serving the same category across regions and DCs — with no leverage built into any of them.
Quotes compared informally instead of run as structured RFPs with benchmarks and scenario modeling.
Volume has shifted faster than procurement has caught up. Specs, freight, and packaging no longer match how the business runs.
The result is predictable: retailers routinely pay 15–40% above market across multiple indirect categories — year after year, contract after contract.
A handful of indirect categories consistently deliver the largest addressable savings. These are the ranges we see on first engagement.
Boxes, cases, dunnage, mailers — usually the single largest unmanaged spend in retail.
Labels, bags, tags, receipt paper, and in-store consumables across every location.
Contracted services, maintenance programs, and recurring operational fees.
Uniforms, blades, store fixtures, pegs, and tail-spend across the footprint.
Representative outcomes from recent Fortune 500 retail engagements.
Achieved on a $250M indirect spend base through supplier consolidation, competitive RFPs, and category-level renegotiation.
A representative engagement showing how disciplined sourcing compounds across a national footprint.
Corrugated and mailer spend split across four regional suppliers, pricing set years earlier, no market benchmarks, and SKU proliferation driving hidden cost into freight and dunnage.
Full spend classification, packaging SKUs reduced by roughly 40%, competitive RFP with a qualified supplier panel, award structured around market-indexed pricing and performance SLAs.
Packaging unit cost down 45% across the footprint, consolidated to a primary + backup supplier, with indexed renewals that protect savings as e-commerce volume scales.
Six disciplined services, delivered end-to-end or as standalone engagements. AI-assisted spend analysis and supplier benchmarking accelerate every phase.
What to source, from whom, on what terms, and when — grounded in your actual spend and operating model.
Data-backed negotiations grounded in benchmarked pricing and market leverage — not relationship inertia.
AI-enabled spend classification, supplier mapping, and savings opportunity modeling across every category.
Structured RFP and RFQ processes with clear scoring rubrics, scenario modeling, and defensible awards.
Pricing, terms, and service-level comparisons against market and peer retailers — so you negotiate with leverage.
Reduce supplier count, build leverage, and standardize specifications across regions and banners.
Corrugated is the single largest unmanaged spend category in most retail and omnichannel businesses. It grows with e-commerce volume — usually on outdated pricing, without benchmarks, and split across too many suppliers.
We rebuild the category from specifications up: consolidate SKUs, re-tender with a qualified supplier panel, and lock in market-indexed pricing that protects savings across contract cycles.
Across corrugated, mailers, and dunnage — captured in the first contract cycle.
Phase 1 delivers the bulk of savings in 90 days. Phase 2 locks in the results and identifies the next wave.
A 15–20 minute call to identify 15–40% cost reduction opportunities in your indirect spend. No slides. No follow-up sequence. Just a direct read on where the money is.
A short intake form captures scale, categories, and supplier structure.
Principal-led. We review spend visibility, vendor concentration, and category fragmentation.
Two to three concrete categories with likely 15–40% savings, plus benchmark context.
Act now, monitor, or revisit in six months. A retainer proposal only if the audit justifies it.
A 15-minute call. No pitch deck, no follow-up sequence. We tell you exactly what we see.
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