Office Supplies
Situation
Our Member, a global chemical manufacturer, had previously approached their Office Supplies category at a country level and wanted to engage CoVest to build a global category approach. Total spend in the US and Europe exceeded $3 million annually.
Approach
Working with our Member we gathered the detailed spend information at a country level and pricing for those items relative to our leveraged agreement with Staples. In the process we identified many opportunities for product alterations as well.
Impact
In this case the savings generated by switching to our agreement were immediate and sizable, driven by a much broader “entire spend” approach with a wide focus on all items purchased rather than a narrow core list that had previously been in place.

Company Description
Global Chemical Manufacturer
Category
Office Supplies
Product Sub-Categories
- Paper
- Toner
- General Office Supplies
Current Supply Situation
Contracted, varies by country
Procurement Strategy
Category had been sole sourced but did suffer from some compliance issues with a newly acquired portion of the business.
Timeline of Engagement
This was the very definition of a quick win. From the beginning of CoVest’s involvement it was approximately 2 ½ months from the beginning of benchmarking analysis to the finalization of the category implementation.