Case study · Wholesale and distribution · Electrical products · 14 min read
Source: Legend Corporation project briefings, project plan and KPI dashboard, and Pricing Insight engagement records. The A$3.7m is realised, as confirmed by Pricing Insight; weekly figures are early actuals from the client's dashboard. Not independently audited. None is a benchmark for another business.
A$3.7m of EBITDA realised on prices the business already charged. Legend Corporation, an electrical products group based in Seven Hills, New South Wales, sold about 5,500 products through its Cabac, Power and LPT business units to electrical wholesalers, electricity utilities and Bunnings, about A$78m of revenue a year. Adamantem Capital, the Sydney private capital firm that owned Legend, engaged Pricing Insight to work on the business as part of its portfolio development program. Its list prices had no common logic across products, discounts were set customer by customer, and the sales team could see cost, margin and rebates on every line. Discount overrides affected 25 to 30 per cent of sales. The board set an objective of A$3.5m more EBITDA, measured as real gross profit after freight and rebates. Pricing Insight ran the five stages of Project Blackbird: price bandwidth and pareto analysis of the transaction data, a list price algorithm built on each product's value drivers, a customer price list model, workshops with the category and sales teams, and an optimised price file loaded into the ERP with a backbone discount structure, floors and a 3 per cent discretion for the sales team. The modelling sized the uplift at A$3.67m, lifting real gross profit from A$30.63m to A$34.30m, and the business realised it. New prices went live in May 2020, and in the first weeks the dashboard recorded uplift ahead of goal, Cabac gross margin above its target and override impact in single digits.
| Client | Legend Corporation, Seven Hills, New South Wales: an electrical products and industrial solutions group. The program covered the Cabac, Power and LPT business units, supplying electrical products to wholesalers, utilities and retail. Pricing Insight was engaged by Adamantem Capital, the owner, as part of its portfolio development program. |
| Service | Project Blackbird price optimisation: list price algorithm, customer price lists, discount structure, ERP controls, sales training and KPI tracking. |
| Status | Realised. A$3.67m of EBITDA uplift, measured as real gross profit after freight and rebates, against a board objective of A$3.5m; early weekly actuals after go-live ran ahead of goal in the client's dashboard. |
| Scope | About 5,500 SKUs and about 1,000 customers; about A$78m of revenue: Cabac A$59.7m, Power A$11.9m and LPT A$6.8m in the base year. |
| Period | New prices live in May 2020, with price files and letters sent to customer head offices beforehand. |
The brief
Implement price control and discounting disciplines across the Power, Cabac and LPT business units, and increase EBITDA by A$3.5m, tracked as real gross profit after freight and rebates.
01Three business units, 5,500 products and a price list without a common logic
An electrical products supplier selling the same catalogue three ways. Legend Corporation describes itself as a market leader in electrical products and industrial solutions, serving infrastructure, electrical, communications and industrial markets. Its largest business, Cabac, designs, manufactures and distributes electrical connectors, cable jointing systems, test and measurement instruments, cable management and structured wiring, copper and fibre connectivity, and low and medium voltage power connectivity products, engineered and tested to Australian standards. Cabac sells through a national network of electrical wholesalers into engineering and construction, residential, commercial and infrastructure projects, with same-day dispatch across Australia.
Legend sold through electrical wholesalers such as MM Electrical Merchandising, Rexel and L&H, to electricity utilities such as Ausgrid, Essential Energy and Energex, and to retail through Bunnings. Cabac was by far the largest business unit, with about A$59.7m of the group's A$78m of revenue at the time of the program.
The catalogue was wide. About 5,500 SKUs were sold to about 1,000 customers, so a review one product at a time could not keep prices consistent, and the pareto analysis was needed to show which products and customers drove growth and gross profit.
The range has since grown. Legend now reports about 300 staff across Australia and New Zealand, 10 sales divisions, 80 sales representatives and more than 30,000 product lines, with Cabac alone listing more than 28,000.
The owner set the agenda. Adamantem Capital, a Sydney private capital firm investing in Australian and New Zealand businesses, engaged Pricing Insight to work on the Legend business as part of its portfolio development program. The executive team wanted two things at once: more EBITDA, and control over how price reached the invoice. It set an objective of A$3.5m more EBITDA and chose a measure that could not be met by moving cost around: real gross profit, after freight and rebates, tracked in the business's reporting system.
02What the diagnostic found: prices set product by product, and discounts set by whoever was selling
Three problems, one for each pillar of the Pricing Periodic Table.
Value
List prices did not follow what customers valued. Prices had been set product by product over many years. The price bandwidth analysis measured the spread of net prices paid for each SKU, customer by customer, to show where customers of similar size and channel paid different prices for the same item.
People
The sales team could price from cost. Sales representatives could see cost, margin and rebates on every line in the ERP. When a representative can see the margin left on a line, the discount conversation starts from that margin rather than from the product's value to the customer. Overrides were common: the dashboard put discount override impact at 30 per cent for Cabac and 25 per cent for Power and LPT.
Structures
There was no backbone to the discounts. Customer prices were set by customer price group, but discounts by product group were inconsistent, there was no floor below which a price could not go, and there was no limit on how far a representative could discount without approval. Reporting compounded the problem: one report under-stated profit on more than 100 SKUs until it was corrected during the program.
Six priorities followed.
Rebuild list prices on value.
One algorithm for every SKU, built on the drivers that set what a product is worth to the customer.
Build customer prices down from the list.
A customer price list model, so customers of similar size and channel pay similar prices.
Give discounts a backbone.
A discount structure by customer price group and material group, with floors and fences.
Set the sales team's discretion.
A defined discretion for representatives, with anything beyond it approved by the pricing team.
Change what the sales team sees.
Cost, margin and rebate visibility kept for the roles that need it, removed for the rest.
Increase EBITDA by A$3.5m, tracked through real gross profit after freight and rebates.
03What Pricing Insight did: the five Project Blackbird stages, each building elements of the Pricing Periodic Table
Five stages, run in order. Project Blackbird moves from diagnostic analysis to price architecture, testing with the people who will use the prices, full deployment and performance against a baseline. At Legend, each stage built named elements of the Pricing Periodic Table, shown in brackets below and mapped in section 05.
Diagnostic analysis.
Transaction data and customer price groups built into one validated data set. Average net value by product and customer, pareto analysis of growth, price bandwidth and margin by SKU, and interviews with category and sales managers on each range's value drivers. (46 Pm, 47 Ps, 44 Or, 03 Vq)
Price architecture.
A list price algorithm set a new price for each of 5,500 SKUs from its value drivers, with uplifts of about 1 to 2.8 per cent per SKU. A customer price list model built customer prices down from the list, with a backbone discount by material group, floors and a 3 per cent sales discretion. (49 Lp, 50 Md, 51 Dt, 54 Co, 61 Da)
Testing with the teams.
The models were tested and calibrated, then the draft price list went to a workshop with the category team and a workshop with the sales team before the optimised price file was finalised. (22 Rs, 28 Cc)
Full deployment.
The price file loaded to the ERP, internal and external trade prices repositioned, access to cost, margin and rebates reset role by role, naming protocols agreed, price files and letters sent to customer head offices, and the sales team trained. (57 Dq, 60 Pl, 43 Pi, 30 Vt)
Performance against the baseline.
A daily KPI dashboard with an owner for every goal, measured as real gross profit against a base year, with the SKU list frozen so new ranges could not flatter the result. (07 Po, 12 Mi, 20 Ed, 48 Kp)
Implement price control and discounting disciplines across the Power, Cabac and LPT business units.
The discount structure was the control. Every customer price now started from the list and moved down through set steps: the backbone discount for the customer's price group and the product's material group, a floor below which no price could be offered, a discretion of up to 3 per cent for the sales team, and approval from the pricing team for anything beyond it.
04What changed: A$3.7m of EBITDA realised, with the first weeks ahead of goal
A$3.67m realised, against a board objective of A$3.5m. The modelling sized the uplift from the new price file at A$3,671,980, lifting real gross profit from A$30.63m in the base year to A$34.30m, and that uplift was realised. LPT's share of the goal was A$373,277.
The business tracked the result daily. A KPI dashboard gave each goal an owner: real gross profit for the group and for LPT, gross margin and revenue for each business unit and state, and discount override impact for each business unit. To keep the measure clean, the SKU list was frozen at the end of April 2020, so new product ranges loaded later could not inflate the result.
The first weeks ran ahead of goal. In the first period tracked after go-live, the dashboard recorded A$382,762 of uplift from Project Blackbird alone against a goal of A$352,637 for the same period. Cabac's weekly gross margin ran between 38.8 and 43.7 per cent, an average of 41.5 per cent against a base of 37.9 per cent and a goal of 40.1 per cent.
Discount overrides fell to single digits. Against a target of 5 per cent, override impact averaged 2.2 per cent at Cabac and 3.8 per cent at LPT in the first weeks, from 30 and 25 per cent before the program. Power averaged 9.5 per cent over the two weeks recorded, down from 25 per cent and still above target.
Status: realised. The A$3.67m is the uplift sized by the Project Blackbird modelling, set as the EBITDA goal and realised, as confirmed by Pricing Insight. Metric: real gross profit, after freight and rebates, as the business's measure of EBITDA. Basis: the base-year result for the SKUs repriced, with the SKU list frozen at the end of April 2020. The post go-live figures are early weekly and period actuals from the client's dashboard, as reported, after corrections for a duplicated report and an under-stated SKU report. Go-live fell in the first months of the COVID-19 restrictions.
05The Pricing Periodic Table elements this work built
Nineteen elements built across the five Blackbird stages, three identified for the next stage. The Pricing Periodic Table maps 61 elements of pricing capability in nine domains across three pillars: Value, People and Structures. Most of this work sits in the Price Architecture, Analysis and Processes, and Systems and Controls domains.
| 1 Diagnostic analysis | 46 Pm Price modelling, 47 Ps Price position and key value items, 44 Or Override and discount analysis, 03 Vq Value quantification: the data set, pareto, price bandwidth and the value drivers from the interviews. |
| 2 Price architecture | 49 Lp List price alignment, 50 Md Price-setting method, 51 Dt Discount structure and tiers, 54 Co Price corridors and exceptions, 61 Da Discount authority and controls: the algorithm, the backbone discount, floors and the 3 per cent discretion. |
| 3 Testing with the teams | 22 Rs Roles and decision rights, 28 Cc Commercial capability and training: category and sales workshops on the draft price list. |
| 4 Full deployment | 57 Dq Pricing master data, 60 Pl Price-list publishing, 43 Pi Price increase process, 30 Vt Value marketing and sales tools: the price file and access rules in the ERP, customer letters and sales training. |
| 5 Performance to baseline | 07 Po Profit objectives, 12 Mi Margin improvement program, 20 Ed Executive direction, 48 Kp Price realisation KPIs: the EBITDA objective, goal owners and the daily dashboard. |
| Next stage | 16 Rb Rebate and incentive design, 33 In Sales incentives, 45 Pr Cost to serve and profitability: rebates, sales incentives tied to real gross profit, and freight and cost to serve. |
06Three lessons for a CEO or private equity owner
Measure the goal after freight and rebates
Legend Corporation set its A$3.5m objective as real gross profit after freight and rebates, so the result could not be met by moving cost below the line. Choose the measure before the program starts, and freeze the SKU list so new ranges do not flatter it.
Build every customer price down from one list
A list price algorithm for 5,500 SKUs, and customer prices built down from it through set discounts, gave the business one reference point. Workshops with the category and sales teams before go-live meant the people who would defend the prices had tested them.
Give the sales team a structure, not a cost price
When representatives could see cost and margin, discounts were argued from the margin left over, and overrides affected 25 to 30 per cent of sales. With a backbone discount, floors, a 3 per cent discretion and approval beyond it, override impact at Cabac averaged 2.2 per cent in the first weeks.
07Questions this case study answers
How much EBITDA can price optimisation add for an electrical products supplier or distributor?
At Legend Corporation, Project Blackbird delivered A$3.67m of realised EBITDA uplift across 5,500 SKUs and about A$78m of revenue, measured as real gross profit after freight and rebates. That was above the board's A$3.5m objective. In the first period after go-live, the business recorded A$382,762 of uplift against a goal of A$352,637. The result depends on the spread of prices in the transaction data and on how well the new structure is enforced.
How do you stop a B2B sales team discounting below a set price?
Give every price a structure and every discount a limit. At Legend Corporation, customer prices were built down from a new list through a backbone discount by price group and material group, with floors, a 3 per cent discretion for representatives and approval from the pricing team beyond it. Access to cost, margin and rebates was removed for sales roles, and override impact was tracked weekly by business unit. It fell from 25 to 30 per cent to single digits in the first weeks.
How do you set list prices for thousands of B2B products?
Use an algorithm rather than a SKU-by-SKU review. In the first two stages of Project Blackbird, Pricing Insight analysed the transaction data for price bandwidth, margin and growth, interviewed category and sales managers to capture each range's value drivers, and built a list price algorithm that set a new price for each of Legend Corporation's 5,500 SKUs. Customer price lists were modelled from it, tested in workshops with the category and sales teams, and loaded to the ERP as one optimised price file.
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How much EBITDA is sitting in the spread of prices you already charge?
A first conversation covers your price file, how discounts reach the invoice and the measure you would track, and whether Project Blackbird fits. Ron Wood, +61 410 534 099.
Ron Wood is the Founder and Managing Director of Pricing Insight, an Australian pricing strategy consultancy he established in 2007. He has worked in pricing for around 30 years, first as a pricing and commercial manager in consumer goods, building materials and capital equipment, and since then across 160+ pricing engagements. He also founded Pricing University, which has trained more than 5,000 executives.
To discuss price optimisation for your business, contact Ron Wood at info@pricinginsight.com.au or on +61 410 534 099, or visit Pricing Insight.
Adamantem Capital's engagement of Pricing Insight is from Pricing Insight's records; Adamantem's description is from adamantem.com.au, reviewed 11 November 2026. Company facts are from legend.com.au, including the Cabac and Acculec Power pages, reviewed 11 November 2026; staff, division and product line counts are current figures, not figures at the time of the program. Engagement details are from Legend Corporation's project briefings, project plan and Project Blackbird KPI dashboard, and Pricing Insight's engagement records. The A$3.67m is a realised EBITDA uplift, measured as real gross profit after freight and rebates, as confirmed by Pricing Insight. Post go-live figures are early weekly and period actuals from the client's dashboard, as reported and not independently audited. Figure 3 is a diagram of the structure. No figure on this page is typical or guaranteed.
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