1. Client Overview

• Industry: Distribution and Outsourcing (Healthcare, Cleaning & Hygiene, Safety, Food Processing, Packaging)
• Business Size: $15B+ global revenue, with complex multi-division pricing structures
• Location: Global operations with regional focus in Australia, UK, North America
• Client Context:
  BUNZL operates across multiple sectors with thousands of SKUs and varying customer requirements. Despite strong topline growth, profit margins were under pressure due to inconsistent pricing execution, legacy cost-plus pricing habits, and frequent override activity in competitive tenders.

2. Challenge / Problem

• Symptoms Observed:
  
  • Uneven discounting practices across business units
  • Outdated price files not reflecting current value drivers or cost movements
  • Margin compression in high-volume consumables despite volume growth
• Strategic Impact:
  
  • EBIT leakage from mispriced SKUs and reactive discounting
  • Internal misalignment between procurement, pricing, and sales functions
• Internal Executive Viewpoint:
  "We needed a smarter, scalable way to optimise pricing without sparking customer backlash or placing further strain on our frontline teams."

3. Objectives of the Engagement

• Replace cost-plus logic with value-based pricing at SKU and segment level
• Identify and capture immediate margin expansion opportunities
• Standardise price-setting structure across product categories
• Reduce pricing errors and override dependency
• Strengthen sales confidence through clear pricing guidance

4. Our Approach

• Phase 1: Diagnostic Analysis
  
  • Reviewed 12 months of transaction-level pricing and margin data across key divisions
  • Identified $5.7M–$8.2M in recoverable EBIT across 4 business units
• Phase 2: Price Architecture Design
  
  • Introduced SKU- and segment-level price ladders and discount guardrails
  • Developed customer-specific value scoring to align pricing power
• Phase 3: Pilot Testing
  
  • Launched in the healthcare and packaging divisions
  • Tested algorithmic recommendations against sales team judgement
• Phase 4: Full Deployment
  
  • Rolled out pricing engine across 18,000 SKUs
  • Embedded approval thresholds, dashboards, and ERP pricing logic
• Phase 5: Margin Expansion Accelerator
  
  • Targeted advanced opportunities in underpriced long-tail SKUs
  • Introduced quarterly price performance reviews at GM level

5. Key Actions Taken

6. Results Achieved (Within 6–12 Months)

7. Client Feedback

“Project Blackbird gave us visibility and control we’d never had before. It wasn’t just about price increases—it was about pricing intelligently. We saw results in weeks, not years.”
— Managing Director, BUNZL Asia Pacific

8. What This Means for Similar Companies

Companies with broad SKU portfolios, decentralised sales models, and legacy pricing approaches can gain rapid and sustained margin growth through algorithmic optimisation. With Project Blackbird, price becomes a source of advantage—not a liability.

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