Challenge
A leading global packaged foods company recognized that its secondary packaging procurement was under increasing pressure. Rising costs, fragmented supplier relationships, and growing expectations around sustainability created the need for change.
The company set out to achieve three objectives:
- Improve cost efficiency across secondary packaging.
- Enhance supplier collaboration to unlock innovation and long-term value.
- Embed sustainable practices while building lasting procurement capability within internal teams.
The challenge was to balance commercial rigor with strategic uplift, ensuring immediate benefits while strengthening the foundations of procurement for the future.
Approach
Design and deliver a structured program that combined cost optimization with capability building. The approach brought together governance discipline, supplier market expertise, and collaborative engagement to drive lasting impact.
Key elements included:
- Governance and capability building – Established clear governance mechanisms with defined roles for project sponsors and initiative owners. Introduced decision gates to track progress, provide accountability, and embed lasting procurement discipline, while upskilling internal teams along the way.
- Rigorous supplier evaluation – Conducted a comprehensive supplier market review, beginning with an RFI to qualify potential partners. Shortlisted suppliers were then assessed through a detailed RFQ process against five dimensions: financial strength, operational capacity, quality and sustainability standards, product innovation, and business continuity planning.
- Competitive tension and collaboration – Orchestrated three rounds of RFQs, supported by structured supplier briefings and in-person discussions, to refine proposals and encourage innovative solutions.
- Optimized award decisions – Performed detailed cost and logistics analyses to determine optimal supplier allocations, balancing commercial savings with delivery feasibility, capacity, and geographic considerations.
This combination of commercial rigor and structured collaboration ensured the client captured immediate savings while also embedding resilience into procurement practices.
Results
The initiative delivered strong results across cost, capability, and sustainability:
- 20–35% cost savings across five secondary packaging subcategories.
- Enhanced procurement governance and capability, ensuring benefits extended well beyond the project.
- Stronger supplier relationships, built through transparent engagement and structured collaboration.
- Sustainability embedded into procurement, with EHS and innovation criteria included in supplier selection.
By blending structured sourcing with capability uplift, the client unlocked significant cost savings while embedding a more resilient and future-ready procurement function.
The program not only delivered immediate commercial wins but also created the governance, skills, and supplier partnerships needed to ensure that procurement could continue driving value—commercially, operationally, and sustainably—well into the future.
This project was delivered by Proxima’s APAC team, under the former brand name, ArcBlue.
