Client Overview

Industry: Kitchen and Bathroom Fixtures – sinks, mixers, tapware, accessories

Business Size: National manufacturer and distributor supplying B2B and retail partners across Australia

Client Context: Oliveri is a respected player in the premium kitchen and bathroom fittings market. Despite a well-established brand, internal pricing discipline had not evolved to match the complexity of its product range, channel mix, and customer expectations. As a result, margin erosion, pricing inconsistency, and internal misalignment were limiting EBIT performance and undermining Oliveri’s ability to defend value.

Challenge / Problem

Symptoms Observed:

• Pricing decisions driven by historical cost-plus logic with no link to customer value or cost-to-serve
• Significant price inconsistency between similar customers and channels
• Sales teams lacked technical pricing understanding and defaulted to discounts
• No standard process for negotiating or defending value-added services and product quality
• Lack of pricing visibility and analytics across SKUs, regions, and customer segments

Strategic Impact:

• Scope creep and margin dilution in key trade and retail accounts
• Flat price increases failing to address structural pricing issues or channel differences
• Internal frustration around pricing accountability—everyone involved, but no one truly owning the outcome

Internal Commentary:

“We knew we had strong products, but we couldn’t explain our price. Every conversation with a customer turned into a discount conversation, not a value conversation.”

Objectives of the Engagement

• Conduct a pricing diagnostic to identify margin leakage, organisational capability gaps, and governance issues
• Establish a shared understanding of pricing strategy and value communication across commercial functions
• Build capability in pricing maths, negotiation, and price defence across the commercial team
• Deliver a plan of short-term pricing improvements and longer-term strategic pricing transformation

Our Approach

Phase 1: Capability Diagnostic

• Assessed pricing maturity across the 9 dimensions of the Pricing Insight canvas: Value, People, Structures
• Identified an average capability score of 67%, with weaknesses in pricing strategy, analytics, and pricing method execution
• Technical pricing quiz showed a 45% average score—confirming urgent need for pricing education

Phase 2: Executive Alignment and Workshop Facilitation

• Conducted strategic pricing workshops with cross-functional teams to surface key risks and barriers
• Visualised margin opportunities and capability gaps using the Pricing Canvas and Revenue Strength Finder
• Agreed on immediate quick wins and a roadmap for structural improvements in systems and controls

Phase 3: Enablement and Training

• Delivered Pricing University training modules for sales, product, and finance staff
• Developed playbooks and margin simulation tools to support pricing decisions at the front line
• Introduced pricing guardrails and decision frameworks to guide commercial conversations

Key Issues Identified

1. Pricing Strategy Limitations
   Reliance on legacy cost-plus methods; lacked segmentation or value-based approach
2. Unclear Customer Value
   No formal identification of value drivers or how value is communicated to customers
3. Low Sales Confidence
   Sales defaulted to discounting due to lack of pricing confidence
4. Weak Discounting Controls
   Override rules were unclear with no structured pricing authority model in place
5. Management Support Misaligned
   Leadership backed pricing change, but lacked supporting processes and tools
6. Limited Pricing Analytics
   No ability to assess margin by SKU, product line, or customer segment
7. System Constraints
   Pricing logic and discount history were buried in systems, making analysis difficult

Key Actions Taken

1. Commercial Training Delivered
   Ran pricing maths and deal impact sessions to build commercial confidence
2. Margin Simulation Tool Built
   Created a calculator to show the margin impact of discounts, freight, and rebates
3. Override Governance Implemented
   Introduced an escalation structure for discount approvals tied to margin thresholds
4. Value-Based Pricing Playbook Developed
   Defined customer value drivers and built playbooks for quoting and negotiation
5. Strategic Pricing Roadmap Created
   Built a 12-month plan aligning systems, analytics, and roles to drive margin uplift

Results Achieved (Within 8–12 Weeks)

• EBIT Opportunity Identified
  $2.5M–$4.5M EBIT uplift unlocked via improved price execution and governance
• Override Frequency Projected Drop
  Forecasted 50% reduction in discretionary discounting activity
• Pricing Confidence Improvement
  Technical quiz scores lifted from 45% to over 70% following training
• Internal Alignment Achieved
  Sales, marketing, and finance aligned on pricing logic and decision-making flow
• Execution of Quick Wins
  Activated pricing controls, freight recovery, and quote SOP initiatives

Client Feedback

“Pricing Insight helped us make sense of what pricing should look like in our business. We stopped pricing like a manufacturer and started pricing like a market leader.”
— National Commercial Manager, Oliveri Solutions

What This Means for Similar Companies

For manufacturers operating in multi-channel trade and retail markets, the challenges of inconsistent pricing, unstructured discounts, and flat increases are all too familiar. Oliveri’s case proves that you don’t need a system rebuild to recover margin—you need a clear strategy, aligned teams, and the confidence to defend your value.