The Strategic Benefits of a Single Source Supplier for Multi-Location Businesses

Packaging plays a vital role in today’s fast-paced business landscape, ensuring product protection, preservation, and presentation. As the packaging industry continues to grow and adapt to changing market demands, it’s crucial for companies to stay ahead and offer exceptional packaging solutions. To provide insights into this dynamic landscape, we have developed Packaging Talks – a series of conversational panels with Crawford’s packaging experts. Whether you’re a business owner, a packaging professional, or simply curious, our panels aim to offer valuable information and inspiration.  

This month, we chat with Yvonne Butler, Crawford’s General Sales Manager, about the strategic benefits of a single source supplier for multi location businesses.

Yvonne, why should a multi-location business consider engaging with a single-source supplier instead of using multiple vendors?

It’s very simple. If you’re in charge of procurement or operations at a multi-location business, some of your challenges likely include keeping costs under control and ensuring consistent operational efficiency across all your locations. This is never an easy task, and while it requires many moving pieces to work well together, engaging with a single source supplier can offer significant advantages, such as better cost control. For example, a single source supplier can provide consistent pricing for your products, eliminating the discrepancies often faced when dealing with multiple vendors. This consistency not only prevents overpaying for certain products but also allows for more accurate budgeting and forecasting. If you need to purchase stretch film or corrugated boxes for all your facilities, a single source-supplier ensures you pay the same price regardless of the ship-to location. This approach helps you keep your costs under control and saves time, as you don’t need to negotiate separate deals with different vendors. Think about it – single purchase order, single payment, and one receiving process – all consolidated into one supplier. The administrative overhead is effectively removed for you, turning the relationship into strategic collaboration.

And what about operational efficiencies?

Best-in-class suppliers offer a variety of performance-enhancing programs, such as conducting regular audits to identify opportunities for efficiency improvements and cost savings. For example, they might suggest optimizing the use of certain consumables to reduce waste, building a business case to automate parts of your process to enhance your production performance, optimizing your equipment settings, or advising you on how to meet your sustainability goals – all while driving costs down. In other words, they become the extension of your team. This type of strategic collaboration is crucial for maintaining the quality and reliability of products and services across all your business locations. Best-in-class suppliers provide complete solutions, such as packaging consumables, equipment, and technical support. They can sell you a piece of equipment, advise you on the most optimal consumable compatible with your equipment and suited to your needs, and provide preventive maintenance, reducing the risk of unexpected downtime. These suppliers know your business and take accountability for your performance.

This all sounds really good.

Yes, and the value of having a dedicated team that understands your business should not be overlooked. If your company manages multiple manufacturing plants or logistics centers, a single source supplier should understand the specific equipment and consumables used at each location. This knowledge allows them to provide tailored support, ensuring that any issues are quickly resolved, and puts them in a better position to offer solutions that can significantly impact your bottom line, whether through automation, process improvements, or other enhancements. I was recently involved in a project where, given today’s labour shortages, we helped a large client eliminate the need for an additional shift. By recommending automation for part of their process, we significantly improved productivity, increased packaging volumes, and generated substantial cost savings. The client was able to realize their ROI very quickly.

Additionally, having a single point of contact simplifies communication, making it easier to manage orders, handle emergencies, and implement changes across all locations.