Saving the dough

From left: ERA’s Nigel Rosehill is joined by ERA analyst Paul Fordham, Max Wright, PH (UK) and Gerard Carolan, financial controller, PH (UK)

EXPENSE REDUCTION ANALYSTS UK
Expense Reduction Analysts (ERA) UK has sliced the print distribution costs of market leading restaurant chain Pizza Hut (UK) by more than 40 per cent. ERA analyst Nigel Rosehill carried out a strategic review of the firm’s processes, policies and procedures and identified several key areas where cost savings could be made.

"We are delighted with ERA’s work!" says Max Wright, commercial procurement manager of PH (UK) who was appointed as the key client contact on the project after a brief was agreed. "Nigel and his colleague Paul Fordham were highly focussed and were able to pinpoint exactly how best to approach this project. When they met with key personnel from PH (UK) there was a minimal amount of disruption to the ongoing business.

"All reports have been clear and concise and backed up by detailed analysis, which has enabled us to make well-informed decisions. Nigel and Paul were then able to follow through the recommendations by handling the negotiations and implementation. This, to my mind, is one of the key reasons why ERA is so successful - its analysts are totally focussed which means they are able to meet deadlines and actually make things happen!"

Pizza Hut Fact File:
- Pizza Hut has 12,000 outlets in 90 countries worldwide
- It employs more than 300,000 staff
- It is the largest restaurant company in the world
- It serves more than 1.3 million pizzas daily
- It sees approximately four million customers every day

What the papers say

"ERA focussed on operative costs without interfering with our core business. They focussed instead on areas where we have limited experience or that we just don’t have the time to monitor. They proposed a list of categories to analyse, finding significant savings in most of them." Interview featured in El Observador, Uruguayan national newspaper

Green solution saves US$650,000

ERA’s team of Ken Johnstone (left), Andrew Lees (second right) and Howard Ward (right) are joined by Carillion’s David Isteed

Expense Reduction Analysts UK
Expense Reduction Analysts (ERA) UK has saved more than US$650,000 on energy expenditure for major UK construction company Carillion after identifying a nationwide supplier of electricity generated from renewable sources at a cost saving.

Carillion’s Supply Chain Management Group brought in ERA’s Andrew Lees to review its strategic and non-strategic overheads, with a view to getting the most competitive prices from suppliers while maintaining the required quality and service standards. After analysing data from Carillion’s 120 UK sites, ERA was able to identify a ‘green' supplier that would save money, improve energy consumption and simplify administration.

ERA’s work achieved an overall saving of more than 38 per cent for Carillion, enabling it to publicly demonstrate commitment to environmental sustainability.

"I am very impressed with the professionalism of the ERA team, and with the level of savings they’ve helped us achieve across a large number of sites," says David Isteed, Carillion estate manager.

ERA takes on Taiwan

ERA’s team in Taiwan

Expense Reduction Analysts Taiwan
Expense Reduction Analysts (ERA) has launched a new operation in Taipei, Taiwan, headed up by CEO and president Waldo Yeh. Launched in June this year, the new business has hit the ground running with eight clients already signed up, among them leading Taiwanese firms in the motor service, computer, information technology and banking industries.

The primary client focus for ERA Taiwan will be private and public sector organisations with a sales turnover of more than US$10 million and more than 50 employees. Waldo and his support team of 14 will offer expense reduction and profit enhancement services on corporate operating and overhead expenses including banking fees, office supplies, record management, cleaning services and products, computer consumables, insurance and other categories.

Lower costs for Ludowici

ERA’s Adrian Slooten (right) with Stephen Kattan, general manager, Ludowici Plastics

Expense Reduction Analysts New Zealand
Expense Reduction Analysts (ERA) New Zealand has achieved cost savings of more than 25 per cent for major manufacturing firm Ludowici Plastics, based in Auckland, with branches in Christchurch and Brisbane, Australia.

Ludowici brought ERA on board to cut down its supply chain, improve business processes and reduce overall costs.

"ERA has enabled us to save over 25 per cent on our international freight bill and we now deal with one supplier for all our needs, improving our processes and cutting back on our paper work," says Stephen Kattan, general manager, Ludowici Plastics.

"Having ERA look at a range of our costs has meant that we have become more cost conscious in the day-to-day running of our business, and our bottom line has definitely improved."

APRA produces outstanding results for Unilever

Jeremy Gimson of ERA and Philip Cox, business support services manager of Unilever

EXPENSE REDUCTION ANALYSTS AUSTRALIA
Unilever is a leading marketer of household products, food, and toiletries. The company runs a shared service operation to process all of its payables.

As a result of the impending move of the processing of invoices, Unilever business support services manager, Philip Cox, was keen to run an independent check on the systems and historical payments to check for reliability.

"I knew that the systems were working well but I needed the extra confidence that errors had not crept in," says Philip. "We decided to get ERA in to give our systems a health check and recover any overpayments that we had made."

ERA works on site verifying each error and preparing a case for the recovery of the overpayments from suppliers. ERA then contacts the supplier, makes the case, and recovers the funds. ERA works unobtrusively and keeps the client informed at all stages of the process.

"We were very impressed with the professionalism and tenacity of the ERA team," says Philip Cox. "They did all of the work, always advised us what they were doing, and were very professional in their dealings with suppliers."

As a result of this work ERA was able to recover significant overpayments and advised Philip how these errors had occurred, thus helping to prevent a recurrence of the overpayments in the future.

And, given ERA’s contingency-based payment structure, Unilever was only invoiced for a proportion of the recovery after it had been received. There was no financial risk for Unilever.

"We really felt that we had much to gain and nothing to lose by asking ERA to do this work for us," says Philip. "I now know that my systems, which indeed were good, are now just a little bit better. And this gives me the confidence I need."

A final word from Philip, "I think it’s easy to think that your systems are working smoothly and mistakes are not occurring. However, my feeling was that an independent expert could bring other skills to bear which maybe we didn’t have. I’m delighted with the result. ERA did an outstanding job for us."

Savings for Planet Hollywood

Expense Reduction Analysts France
In France, Planet Hollywood like many businesses in the catering sector has felt the impact of the 11 September terrorist attacks. The offer from Expense Reduction Analysts (ERA) chain reduce its costs without affecting quality or service, came at the right time. The expense reduction consultant team declarations to check the new tax laws had been correctly applied. ERA found a processing error which resulted in an annual saving of more than US$120,000. ERA affiliates were paid 50 per cent of the savings achieved for Planet Hollywood for the first two years.

Major savings for ERAMEX

Juan Jose Bravo, director, ERA Mexico

Expense Reduction Analysts Mexico
Business has taken off for Expense Reduction Analysts Mexico (ERAMEX) - since its launch last year the company has achieved savings across 16 cost savings projects in sectors ranging from the chemical industry and financial and computer services to educational and medical organisations.

"We have had a very successful first year," says Juan Jose Bravo, "Over the next year we will be working from a portfolio of 20 clients and the recruitment of two new partners at our head office in Ciudad de Mexico and the opening of two new regional offices."

ERA drives savings for car dealership

In the driver’s seat: ERA’s David Tabah (left) and Michel Leroy (right) with Groupe Park Avenue’s Normand Barabé

Expense Reduction Analysts Canada
Expense Reduction Analysts (ERA) Canada has achieved up to 28 per cent cost savings in a number of areas for Canadian car dealership consortium Groupe Park Avenue, based in Montreal.

The project was a challenging one - ERA consultants Michel Leroy and the fact that Groupe Park group for automotive dealers in Canada, as well as the issue decentralised, with each dealership handling its own accounts. This presented a number of challenges for gathering and auditing data.

Despite the presence of the buying group, ERA was able to negotiate even greater savings with suppliers outside the group in printing, telecommunications, office supplies, uniforms and couriers - ranging from 21 to 28 per cent of total costs.

The success of the project has led to ERA’s first monitoring contract in Canada."Groupe Park Avenue is a very lean run organisation and when we were nearing the end of our 24-month mandate, Normand Barabé was delighted to enter into our new 24-month monitoring agreement," adds ERA’s Michel Leroy. "He wanted peace of mind that he could continue to benefit from our expertise and our vigilance in monitoring the agreements we had put in place."

The procurement debate

Expense Reduction Analysts Australia
To make a real impact on business efficiency and to get long-term benefits from cost support, says Martin Wiesenhaan, ERA Procurement Solutions.

"Rapidly developing markets, new dynamics in the supplier-customer relationship, interpersonal skills are moving from that of hard-core negotiator to relations manager. They need to view their role from an entirely different perspective. The procurement department needs to become an integral part of the business, to participate in every discussion that could impact cost or capital expenditures with a view to implementing innovative solutions.

Their ability to facilitate cost-saving changes depends on their skill set, the tools they use and whether they have the know-how to apply them. The tool set they use is rapidly expanding and is starting to incorporate vendor audit tools, decision support models, spend monitors and sensitivity analysis.

"For many companies who don’t have the specialised purchasing expertise in-house, bringing in an outsourced professional to train-up the procurement team can ensure effective supply-chain management and optimum cost savings."

ERA Chile launch

Members of the ERA Latin America team

Expense Reduction Analysts Chile
Expense Reduction Analysts (ERA) continues to expand in Latin America with the launch of a new office in Chile. Based three partners, Gonzalo Sorolla, Juliana Medero and Magdalena Ortega, who are all ex-partners in major consulting firms and have extensive experience in the consultancy business.

"Chile is the only country with free trade commerce agreements with both the USA and the EC and therefore most multinational companies are established here," explain the Chilean partners.

"We believe the Chilean operation will generate major new opportunities for ERA globally," adds Bernardo Faincaig, head of ERA Latin America.

Value-added service

Expense Reduction Analysts Benelux
ERA’s core service of analysing business overheads and recommending cost-effective changes is being taken a step further, according to Bert Hummel, managing partner for ERA in Benelux.

"Some clients do not have the necessary resources to implement the recommendations we make, so we are offering them value-added services. For example, ERA Brussels helped a client set up an internal cost management system." For another client they helped train purchasing staff how to negotiate best-price deals.