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Simon Unger explains how The Procurement Group helps when a finance department is overstretched, using over 20 years’ experience to analyse spend, work with operations and deliver savings quickly on a no win, no fee basis

Questions CFOs often ask

Indirect spend is every pound a business spends on the goods and services that keep it running but are not resold to customers. Energy and gas, telecoms, waste, office supplies, cleaning, printing, travel, courier, facilities management and payroll services all fall into this category. For most UK mid-market businesses, indirect spend accounts for between 15 and 30 percent of total turnover, and most of it is managed by finance or operations teams who already have a day job. That is where savings hide. At The Procurement Group we specialise in finding them without adding headcount, and we do not charge unless we do.
No. We are a separate and unrelated business. The Procurement Group is the trading name of The Procurement Company UK Limited, company number 04892708, incorporated 9 September 2003, founded and still run by Simon Unger. We are an indirect spend cost reduction consultancy based at 124 City Road, London. The Procurement Group Limited, company number 09746944, formerly Simfoni Group Ltd, registered in Richmond upon Thames, is a software business with different owners, a different address, and a different industry classification. If you are looking for them, their Companies House record is the place to find them. If you are looking for us, you are in the right place.
It means exactly what it says. You pay us nothing up front and nothing at all unless we find savings. We run a free savings audit across your indirect spend categories, we identify the opportunities, and we agree a fixed percentage of the savings we deliver as our fee for a defined period. If we do not find savings that meet your threshold, you owe us nothing. The model works because we carry the risk of the audit and because we are paid only on proven results. It aligns our interest with yours, and it removes the budget conversation most Finance Directors dread when hiring a consultant.
We work with UK businesses with annual indirect spend of at least £500,000 across multiple categories. Below that level our model is usually not cost effective for either party. In practice most of our clients sit in the £10m to £100m turnover band, either owner-managed with multiple sites, or private-equity-backed portfolio companies where the investor has asked for a post-acquisition cost review. If your indirect spend is below the threshold, an online Savings Audit page will still give you a useful starting point.
Faster than most clients expect. For energy and telecoms, we can produce a report and a signed contract in as little as one day and rarely more than two weeks. New energy contracts can be signed up to twelve months before your current deal expires, so the new pricing takes effect the day after the old one ends. If you are already out of contract, the new contract typically starts seven days after signature. For waste and card processing, the report takes two to four weeks and implementation follows as soon as the current arrangements end, or one week after signature if you are out of contract. For consumables, the report takes four to six weeks and goes live whenever you are ready. In most categories we do not change supplier at all, so the new prices simply appear on your next bill.
Everything that is not direct production. In practice that means electricity, gas, and energy management; landline rentals and calls, mobile phones, broadband, hosted telephony, conference calls, data lines; office supplies, stationery, printer toner, printers and photocopier rental, water coolers; transport, travel and fleet; logistics; couriers and postage; waste management; cleaning, janitorial and washroom services; water; print management; payroll processing; and HR and personnel services. We do not cover direct materials for manufacturing, and we do not run strategic sourcing for core product inputs. If a category keeps your business running but does not appear on the invoices you send to your customers, it is probably in our scope.
We focus on UK mid-market businesses, weighted towards London and the South East but working nationally. Our strongest track record is in six sectors: retail, hospitality, distribution and logistics, care homes, schools and education, and professional services including accountancy firms, law firms, and insolvency practices. The common thread is multi-site operations with meaningful indirect spend across energy, telecoms, waste, and facilities. Owner-managed businesses and PE-backed portfolio companies make up the majority of our client book.
ERA and Auditel are franchise networks. That means you engage one franchisee and you work with whichever specialists that individual franchisee has in their book. We are a single London consultancy with a consistent team and an aggregated client base. Our negotiating leverage comes from that aggregation, not from a franchise brand. In practice this means a single point of contact, a single contract, and access to the cumulative purchasing power of our full client book in every category we run. No franchise handover, no regional variation. Whether that matters to your business depends on how you prefer to buy advisory services.
Our measured average is 27.3 percent across all categories we review. Some categories deliver well above that, some below, and the exact figure for your business depends on how recently your contracts were last benchmarked and how aggressively your incumbent suppliers have repriced. Occasionally a review finds no material saving available. When that happens we still hand over the full report, our recommendations, and a new contract on the best available terms, but we do not earn a fee because our model is no savings, no fee. We would rather tell you the market is already keen on your pricing than manufacture a saving that is not really there. You get a benchmark either way.
Yes, and it is one of our largest client types. We maintain a dedicated Investor Procurement service line for PE firms who want a post-acquisition indirect spend review across one or multiple portfolio companies. We can run an entire portfolio as a single engagement, which usually accelerates savings because the aggregated volume across portfolio businesses unlocks tier-one supplier pricing that any single portfolio company could not reach alone. We sign NDAs as a matter of course and we work directly with operating partners and portfolio CFOs.
Simon Unger is the founder, sole director and managing director of The Procurement Company UK Limited, trading as The Procurement Group. He has been director since the company was incorporated on 9 September 2003, giving him 22 years of continuous tenure at Companies House. Simon left full-time education at 16 and has spent almost fifty years as an entrepreneur. Before founding the firm he was the youngest main board director at OKI Systems UK Limited at the age of 26, built and exited his own distribution business, and after that earn-out turned around the European operations of a $750m Nasdaq-listed group. He holds no CIPS or MCIPS accreditation and does not pretend to. What he brings is five decades of commercial common sense applied to what a good deal actually looks like for the client. He is the named point of contact for every engagement and is contactable directly on 07768 421901.
Two people sit inside the firm. Simon Unger, founder and managing director, plus one colleague. Behind them is a panel of trusted freelancers that scales capacity up or down for each engagement, a deep layer of AI automation across research, benchmarking and supplier correspondence, and a Zoho ERP backbone that handles the audit workflow and client reporting. This is a deliberate design choice, not a limitation. We would rather invest in technology and carefully chosen specialists than carry a fixed overhead that has to be recovered in your fee. In practice that is how we can run a no savings, no fee model profitably on indirect spend engagements where larger consultancies would need a retainer to stand up a team. You get Simon on every call, and the rest of the machine gets the report done.
We ask three questions. What is your approximate annual indirect spend across energy, telecoms, waste, and facilities, even ballpark. When were the current supplier contracts last renegotiated, and who inside your business owns them today. And what would a 20 percent saving be worth to you against your current finance priorities. Those three questions are enough for us to tell you, on the call, whether a savings audit is likely to deliver enough value for both sides to proceed. If it is not, we say so. If it is, we send a short engagement letter, the savings audit starts, and we move from there. No obligation, no sales pressure, no follow-up chase.

How can you buy better than us?

Because we aggregate. By adding your volume to ours we get better prices (economy of scale). So far we have a 100% success record, but if we can’t then our service doesn’t cost you a penny.

How much work is involved for me in the change-over?

Very little. We copy any invoices, ascertain the status of existing contracts and suggest cost savings. If we suggest a change of supplier we fill in the account application forms and get your account pre-cleared where possible. We then provide a full report which enables you to see all the necessary figures and make a decision.

What if I’m in contract with a supplier?

We ensure that you serve notice in a timely manner and diarise when the contract terminates so that we can review the costs ahead of that time.

We are happy with our existing suppliers.

We are not about changing suppliers; but we always look at removing any unnecessary overheads.

When do I pay for the savings?

If you accept our pricing suggestions, savings are paid for quarterly in arrears. They are therefore both profit & loss and cash positive.   In our Dec 2013 Client Survey 100% of respondents said we provide value for money with 85% rating us as excellent or very good in terms of the overall value for money we deliver.

We only want you to look at one area and it won’t be worth your while.

We’re happy to make the call on that. Give us the opportunity and let us decide.

Why do I need to sign an agreement?

From your side it lays down the timelines for us to provide information and states that the products and/or services that we quote for will at least match those you currently enjoy. From our side it merely confirms your commitment to pay us for the work done and information provided. It therefore protects the interests of both parties.

What if I’m not happy with the supplier you recommend?

You don’t have to use our suppliers. If you wish you can use our information to negotiate directly with your existing suppliers, or simply not go ahead and receive cost savings.

We have a lovely local supplier who we would like to support if they are competitive.

No problem, tell us whether or not you wish us to contact current or specific suppliers and we’ll act accordingly. Be aware though of how you may react if someone acting on behalf of your biggest customer contacted you and said that the business was up for competitive tender and that you needed to sharpen your pencil or run the risk of losing the business.

How do you negotiate?

We use best practise and only give suppliers one chance to quote. We are in regular contact with key suppliers in each of the markets in which we operate in order to maintain our price competitiveness. Our systems are constantly refined to ensure that we are aware of market prices, and your prices reflect this. We contact at least three suppliers with any requirement, and are always on the look out for new suppliers.

What happens if prices change after you negotiate?

Some markets rise and some fall – it’s our business to know which are which. If they are rising markets we will protect you against price increases by suggesting that you enter into a contract, e.g. gas and electricity at present. If they are dropping markets we will not tie you in to long term contracts and will pass on all price decreases during the period of our agreement.

How do you collect your information?

We need copy invoices which we will gladly copy on your premises. In addition we will need any passwords or other access information that you have in place on accounts, typically mobile and landline ‘phone accounts’.

How quick is your service?

We’ll have the information about how you can receive savings on your desk within 10 days of receiving the copy invoices – as long as your diary permits!! Savings can be on your bottom line within 1 month of you signing our agreement.

Our business is unique; a “standard” service will not help us.

All of our clients are unique. If we are unable to save you money it won’t cost you anything BUT if we can save you money….

Have you ever looked at….

The skills in our business are in identifying suppliers and negotiating the right outcome. We have deep knowledge in a wide variety of specific markets and, as always, if you give us the challenge and we can’t save you money it won’t cost you anything.

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The Procurement Group

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