Client Overview

Industry: Rural Supplies, Agricultural Services, and Consumer Retail

Business Size: $1B+ revenue cooperative with nationwide operations in New Zealand

Location: Headquartered in Christchurch with retail and field teams across the country

Client Context: Farmlands operates as a co-operative, serving diverse rural customers with a broad product range. The business faced systemic margin leakage, pricing complexity, and internal misalignment. A fragmented pricing structure and lack of clear strategic control led to inconsistency in customer treatment, missed margin opportunities, and operational inefficiencies.

Challenge / Problem

Symptoms Observed:

• Inconsistent pricing decisions across branches and regions
• Uncontrolled discounting and frequent overrides at POS
• Manual, ad hoc quoting processes and pricing structures
• Underutilisation of digital pricing tools and data

Strategic Impact:

• Annual margin erosion estimated at 150–250 basis points
• Sales team misalignment and weak price confidence
• Lack of pricing governance undermined decision-making credibility

Internal Commentary:
“Our teams rely heavily on gut feel and local judgment. Pricing structures are inconsistent, and freight and rebate data are unreliable. It’s costing us margin—and trust.”

Objectives of the Engagement

• Create alignment across executive, category, sales, and finance teams on pricing strategy
• Surface and quantify sources of margin leakage for immediate remediation
• Redesign pricing structures to simplify and rationalise price setting
• Establish delegated pricing authority and override controls
• Implement pricing governance, systems visibility, and quick-win margin expansion tools

Our Approach

Phase 1: Diagnostic Assessment

• 120 staff completed pricing capability assessments
• Analysed 55 functional pricing indicators across 9 pricing domains
• Identified gaps in governance, segmentation, systems, and operational execution

Phase 2: Strategy Workshop & Quick Wins Roadmap

• Facilitated executive workshop to align pricing ambition and define priorities
• Identified EBIT improvement levers including freight pricing, override controls, and quoting efficiency

Phase 3: Execution Support

• Delivered dashboard mock-ups, SOPs for pricing decisions, quote desk structures
• Created “cheat sheets” and tiered authority models for pricing controls
• Prioritised key initiatives across private label pricing, freight optimisation, and margin management

Key Actions Taken

1. Margin Risk Mapping
   Identified areas of override abuse, discount leakage, and margin blindspots
2. Delegated Authority Model
   Established pricing approval thresholds and escalation logic
3. Freight and Rebate Transparency
   Improved visibility and alignment of rebate and freight costs at POS
4. Pricing Dashboard Design
   Enabled live override monitoring and margin tracking
5. Quick-Win Toolkit
   Delivered tools for quoting, pricing governance, and margin defence
6. Sales and Category Training
   Refocused teams on pricing strategy, margin drivers, and value selling

Results Achieved (Within 8–12 Weeks)

1. EBIT Improvement Opportunity
   $3.5M–$6.2M identified in near-term gains
2. Override Reduction
   Action plan launched to reduce override frequency by 50%
3. Freight Margin Leakage Addressed
   Built plan to reprice freight cost recovery and improve margin integrity
4. Pricing Maturity Score Lift
   Diagnostic baseline at 61%, with a future-state goal set at 75%
5. Engagement & Alignment
   99 completions and executive consensus on top 10 pricing initiatives

Client Feedback

“This diagnostic opened our eyes to where margin was bleeding. The quick wins weren’t just theory—they were implementable, and gave us the language to start fixing pricing governance and sales execution across the co-op.”
— Executive General Manager, Commercial

What This Means for Similar Companies

If you operate across multiple locations, with decentralised pricing and legacy habits, you’re likely losing margin every day without realising it. This case proves that with a structured diagnostic, measurable EBIT gains can be achieved—without changing your product range or customer base.

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