Baked Goods

Procurement leaders are increasingly asking what digital transformation means for them and how they deliver it for their organisation. Despite access to exchange-traded soft commodities like sugar and grain, baked goods suppliers and manufacturers Leipurin, Vandemoortele and Warburtons found that they had blind spots in their data for key ingredients and flavourings such as vanilla. These ingredients often represent significant spends to the business, and negotiating the best price based on current market conditions is essential. A lack of price visibility for these key ingredients restricted their ability to benchmark these market prices to actual supplier prices, preventing cost-saving opportunities being identified, resulting in higher costs and increased competitive risk. This situation was compounded by the challenges caused by a lack of time and resources, limiting their ability to integrate and analyse disparate data sources.

The result was an incomplete picture where a lack of clarity restricted collaboration, hindered their ability to standardise processes and maximise efficiency savings. Furthermore, the lack of granular raw material price data prevented effective cost modelling and monitoring price volatility effects on product costs. Ultimately, this all restricted the companies’ ability to adapt their buying strategy and buyers to negotiate effectively with suppliers.

Expana implemented its raw materials and commodity price tracking services through its proprietary commodity price dashboard and supply analytics platform. This approach has delivered a combination of data, market insight and analytical tools to large manufacturers like Kambly SA, Carrs Foods Grupo Bimbo and Lantmannen Unibake. The solution has enabled them to access any of the +36,000 commodity prices to manage and respond to current challenges accurately.

Expana gives them access to:

• Integrated raw material and commodity analysis
• Personalised price dashboards for supplier contract management
• Market insight and extensive price data
• Benchmarking supplier pricing across a range of commodities
• Commodity price forecasting
• Cost model creation for their range of products

Expana data and procurement tools have become an integral part of our customers’ procurement and product strategies. The breadth of data and access to the insight it provides supports their commercial teams, freeing up valuable time and resources to focus on their core roles – sales, supplier negotiations, and supply strategy. Access to reliable market prices on relevant materials all in one easy to access location has reduced the time spent collating data, performing analysis and preparing for planning and supplier negotiations.

Expana also underpins customers’ ability to accurately track price movements and enable procurement to respond to any price volatility. By being able to use the resources in Expana, they can better track prices in these markets and benchmark their suppliers. This ensures they are better able to control their costs and remain more competitive. They were able to consolidate their workload of manual market tracking and create customised dashboards and cost models for a wide range of products, all of which can be updated regularly and in bulk using data integration tools APIs.