Ellis Brigham is a family-owned business, run by third generation Robert Brigham. It sells outdoor wear in-store and online and has a notable reputation, surviving, and thriving, as an independent retailer on the high street as well as with its award-winning online store.
Robert wanted to be able to further cut costs but had reached the limit of being able to do this internally. Having met Jonny and had excellent recommendations for JMCL’s services, Robert decided to see what support JMCL could offer.
We carried out our procurement diagnostic, analysing and categorising Ellis Brigham’s entire spend. We identified savings opportunities for Ellis Brigham’s management team to consider.
Initially we focussed on stationery & consumables and couriers.
With stationery & consumables, we identified ways to significantly reduce internal costs as well as consolidating and streamlining supplies, with price savings alone of 30%.
The courier services provided a dilemma: we identified a strong, and significantly cheaper supplier than the incumbent which would deliver significant savings. However, Ellis Brigham stress the importance of the “last mile” in their customer service, and had a well-established, trusted relationship with their current courier. They were concerned about the risk of moving. We understood this very well and were able to negotiate a significant cost reduction with the incumbent courier without any change in the level of service they provided. Savings are 25% pa and we recommended staying with the incumbent. Here we worked closely with Ellis Brigham, recognising the whole business perspective, listening to their concerns, taking their risk issues into account and we were happy to receive lower fees for the broader benefit of the business.
With utilities, our consultancy model provides greater transparency on fees, no conflicts of interest and a much wider service than the typical brokerage model which Ellis Brigham was using. As a result they moved to us and we provide them with independent advice on reducing usage while obtaining the best price for electricity, so far resulting in savings of over 10% pa simply on price and significantly more when reduced usage and internal management time is taken into account.
“You’ll send us your bill and we’ll know that you’ve saved way in excess of what we paid you. We’re paying you a small percentage of what you’ve saved… that sounds fantastic.” “I kind of always knew that a company such as yours could deliver that, or deliver something better. But delivering it well is different. And giving us options is different.” Robert Brigham, Managing Director, Ellis Brigham Mountain Sports
“You’ll send us your bill and we’ll know that you’ve saved way in excess of what we paid you. We’re paying you a small percentage of what you’ve saved… that sounds fantastic.”
“I kind of always knew that a company such as yours could deliver that, or deliver something better. But delivering it well is different. And giving us options is different.”
Robert Brigham, Managing Director, Ellis Brigham Mountain Sports
