Archive for August, 2022

Seller-Driven Auctions

Wednesday, August 24th, 2022

 

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

A seller-drive auction is an auction where sellers post goods for sale and buyers will bid on them. A good example of a seller-driven auction would be eBay. A seller would place a particular item that they want to sell online, and buyers wanting to purchase that item will place bids trying to ultimately win the auction for the product (s).

An often-overlooked tool is an online Forward Auction. Forward Auctions can be used to reduce over stock and decrease associated loss prevention costs.

Online forward auctions are an ideal way to get the best price for capital equipment, materials, overstock, and services you may want to sell, such as when you need to liquidate excess inventory. There are two basic types of forward auctions. The first is a liquidation or Forward auction where sellers are reducing inventory from overstock or liquidation.

If you’d like to learn more about how SafeSourcing can assist in properly identifying and selling your overstock and other back-room accumulations through the use of a SafeSourceIt™ Forward Auction, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

 

 

Summer is still here, and Lobster Prices are still High!  

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2022

 

Today’s blog is from our SafeSourcing Inc. Archives

As the nation moves past the coronavirus pandemic, lobster is more expensive than usual.   Due to a limited supply, high demand and the reopening of the economy, tourists are headed back to seafood restaurants and lobster markets for the first time in months.  Some stores charged $17 or $18 per pound for live lobster in May, and that was about twice the price a year ago.  In June, pricing is $13 or $14 per pound.  The wholesale price for live, 1.25-pound lobsters in the New England market was $9.01 per pound on May 1, business publisher Urner Barry reported. That was about $2.70 per pound more than the previous May 1, and the highest price for that date in at least five years, the company reported.

Customers are looking to get back out to restaurants, and that high-end seafood is in high demand, said John Sackton, an industry analyst and founder of SeafoodNews.com.

Some factors influencing the high prices include a lack of available inventory and what appears to be a slow start to the fishing season. New England’s busiest lobster fishing season takes place in summer, and many harvesters are just starting to get their traps into the water.

U.S. lobster fishing is based primarily in Maine, though many lobsters also come ashore in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Fishermen managed to have a productive season in 2020 despite the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.  Fishermen in Maine brought more than 96 million pounds of lobsters to the docks, and while that was the lowest total since 2010, it was still much more than they typically caught in the 1990s.

For more information on how SafeSourcing can help your procurement efforts, or on our Risk

Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service RepresentativeWe have an entire team ready to assist you today.

References

Patrick Whittle, Associated Press, June 8, 2021, 1:29

 

Will the CO2 shortage affect you?

Wednesday, August 17th, 2022

 

Today’s post is by Troy Lowe; Vice President of Development at SafeSourcing.

Well, I was reviewing the news headlines on some of the sites today like I usually do and found another weird shortage that may affect a lot of people’s moral.  This shortage may make those of us that go out for happy hour a little less happy.  There is a CO2 shortage that may impact our beer supply nationwide.  CO2, carbon dioxide, is used to carbonate beer.  This carbonation is what makes the bubbles and foam which is particularly important to retaining the beers temperature.  The experts are saying that the CO2 shortage is due to a contamination issue at the only company in the eastern United States that provides the CO2 to breweries and manufacturers.  The carbon dioxide hub is located in Jackson, Mississippi and they are comparing the CO2 shortage to the same type of situation that occurred in the nationwide baby formula shortage that I wrote about earlier this year.  The carbon dioxide supplies were already very tight because all of the pandemic shutdowns that forced many of the key suppliers to go offline and they are still not fully recovered from that.  The summer is also a troubled time because the key facilities go offline for their yearly scheduled maintenance.  According to experts, the CO2 problem could be indefinite and may impact the soda industry next.   Below are some other things that could be impacted by the CO2 shortage.

  • Wine
  • Carbonated Beverages
  • Dispense drinks
  • Packaging of Meats, Baby Foods, Fresh Foods, and Baked Products
  • Decaf Coffee
  • Fire Extinguishers
  • Refrigerant
  • Oil
  • Pharmaceutical and Medical Applications
  • Aviation Fuels
  • Lasers

Interested in learning how SafeSourcing can help your company save money during these and other shortages?  If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help you, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

 

 

Season’s Greetings :-)

Tuesday, August 16th, 2022

 

Today’s blog is by Margaret Stewart, Director of HR, and Administration at SafeSourcing Inc.

You do not expect to hear people talking about the holidays just yet, but you should be thinking about them!

While Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day, and so many other holidays seem pretty far off, many retailers already have their holiday plans in place. This does not mean they know whose house their gathering and whether they are making a turkey or ham. This has more to do with how they plan to sell those turkeys and hams and where they might get them from. In addition, there are a number of other items associated with the holiday season, and not just those for resale.

With the holidays often comes inclement weather, so retailers and organizations must have some sort of plan for snow removal and deicing capabilities. If people cannot get to your store, they certainly cannot shop at your store. Having a plan of your season items and services is something you should be working on if not already completed.

A procurement partner like SafeSourcing can help you with your planning. While it might still be up in the air who will make pumpkin pie, we want your business to be able to get pumpkin pie and can help your procurement efforts find the right suppliers and products that fit your organization’s needs. We will collaborate with your team and can help overcome challenges you have faced and know that when the time comes, you will be ready for those season’s greetings.

For more information on what the SafeSourcing team can offer you, or on our Risk-Free trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.

Can Aggregation be your friend during these times?

Friday, August 12th, 2022

 

Today’s post is from Ron Southard CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.

Aggregation is a process whereby a number of a firm’s smaller projects are combined and treated as an individual project. The main purpose of aggregation is to ensure accurate reporting and compliance with regulations regarding the permitted levels of provisional limits for a single commodity.  Aggregation is also a total made up of different parts from various sources.

The SafeSourcing Inc Collaborative Aggregation Philosophy supports the thought that disparate buying groups can on occasion work together successfully as a loosely coupled purchasing organization in order to combine volumes for better pricing consideration by suppliers. Often the specifications for these events need to be very similar in nature such as office supplies or other similar categories. Separate shipping charges and other terms and conditions may apply to each participant. Participants must support single supplier award in order to ensure the success of collaborative aggregation events to ensure that suppliers honor their prices.

We have recently seen a lot of activity in this area with dramatic savings for spends of all different sizes. Some categories have even achieved savings of over 30%. That’s 30% better than what you negotiate.We mapped these savings and are seeing some retailers with as few as 20 stores paying less than some very large customers who ran these categories during the last two years.

The markets are ripe! If you would like to learn more about how our customers and suppliers collaborate and aggregate to work together, please contact SafeSourcing.

Source:  www.fitchtraining.com

 

Sourcing in Q3 2022: Very Few Caveats Remain  

Monday, August 8th, 2022

 

Today’s post is by Dave Wenig is the Senior Vice President of Sales and Services at SafeSourcing Inc.

Last month, I shared a small list of categories as an example of where SafeSourcing’s clients have been successfully sourcing their needs using our eProcurement tools. That list was meant to represent a sample but was certainly not exhaustive.

The reality is that over the past several months, we have seen a reduction in the number of vendors who are not able to quote in our customers’ RFQ events across nearly every category we source. Here again is that list I shared last month. Below, I will share a little more about what we are experiencing.

  1. Paper Coffee Cups
  2. Waste Removal
  3. Equipment Rentals
  4. Plastic Cutlery
  5. Labels
  6. Print Fulfilment
  7. Bottled Water
  8. Retail Displays

Again, this is just a sample. We are adding to the list daily. There are only a few categories that exist that I would consider to be caveats, which is an incredible improvement over this time last year.

One of the most noticeable factors (from SafeSourcing’s point of view) is vendor participation. We are souring categories today that have dramatically improved year-over-year. An example is sausages. Last year, sausage vendors were barely able to commit to volumes, let alone quote competitively. This year, we are seeing the full roster of potential vendors lining up to earn our customers’ business.

I am not here to talk about the factors today, I am just pointing out that there are many positive signs and from SafeSourcing’s perspective, you should be seeing very few supply chain challenges at this stage. If you think you are still experiencing supply chain issues and wonder if others are seeing the same, let me know and we can trade notes on the categories.

For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

 

 

 

Getting your best freight pricing will also require Less-Than-Truckload (LTL)

Friday, August 5th, 2022

 

Today’s post is by Ronald D. Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc

Yesterday we discussed Case Cubes and Full Load Shipments. So today what is LTL? Because everyone needs to use both.

LTL is a shipment that does not fill a truck. The less-than-truckload (LTL) industry provides transportation of partial-load shipments that go to one or more destinations or full trailer-load shipments going to multiple destinations. The LTL is a $39 billion industry and is comprised of two distinct segments, national LTL, and regional LTL. The national LTL participants operate a “hub-and-spoke” network with an average length of haul of 1,200 to 1,400 miles. Growth is dependent on accelerated economic activity and competitor failures. The estimated size of the national LTL segment is $12 billion. The regional LTL segment is characterized by numerous carriers, typically non-union, that operate a modified hub-and-spoke network, with an average length of haul of 200 to 600 miles for most freight. Growth in this segment is dependent on consolidation within the marketplace, the shift toward more regionalized freight patterns by shippers, and general economic growth. The regional LTL segment is highly fragmented, with the top 20 participants accounting for roughly 50% of the estimated $27B market. http://www.stephens.com/research/industries__companies/transportation/truckload__less-than-truckloa.aspx

SafeSourcing is an eprocurement company that operates across multiple industries. As such we have specific experience in almost any commodity, service or capital related spend including shipping and freight costs. Our SafeSourceIt™ Global Supplier Database is an often-used source for these freight suppliers. To learn more, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services associate.

 

 

Buyers Are not Fooled by These Price Increases

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2022

 

Dave Wenig is the Senior Vice President of Sales and Services at SafeSourcing Inc

SafeSourcing, as an organization, is 100% focused on getting our customers a great price for the goods and services they need. So, as we have watched our customers get price increase after price increase, we have been increasingly frustrated. We are constantly collaborating with our customers to help them use our eProcurement service to get fair pricing.

More recently, that has taken a turn. It is painfully obvious from our perspective that many vendors are increasing costs well beyond what is necessary based on the actual market conditions. Many vendors who have repeatedly increased pricing in the last year for a variety of products have also reported record profits for the same time period.

We have plenty of examples. One that comes to mind is a large provider of corrugate who notified our customer of a very large price increase. When we finished an RFQ event for those items, we found that they were about 22% higher than their closet competitors. Another example is hot dogs. We recently sourced hot dogs and found that the vendor had passed along price increases which would have put them 24% over where their competitors quoted in the RFQ.

Those are just a couple of examples, but it is happening in about every purchasing category right now. SafeSourcing will be focusing on a different example in upcoming blog posts and digging deeper into each.

Our customers are tired of these unjustified price increases and false excuses. If you are tired of it too, let us work together to push back against them. We are doing this now for many customers and can for any buyer.

For more information, please contact SafeSourcing.

 

 

 

Don’t lose your well-earned eRFX savings by delaying your Letter of Intent or Contract execution.

Monday, August 1st, 2022

 

Today’s post is from our SafeSourcing Archives

In today’s post, we will be reviewing some of the issues that could occur when a Letter of Intent (LOI) or a new Contract, doesn’t get executed efficiently after a successful eSourcing RFX.

LOI or a Contract is delayed

When an LOI or a Contract is delayed, the savings identified in the RFX will not start accumulating until the first invoice from the new supplier or the incumbent supplier arrives post contract.  If a Contract is delayed, the RFX Host Company will have to pay the current contracts negotiated terms for products or supplies until the LOI and/or Contract is executed.  Depending on the volume of the items, it could equate to a lot of lost savings.

When RFXs aren’t awarded efficiently

One of SafeSourcing’s many service offerings is identifying historical categories to take to market.  Our goal is to create an RFX calendar that outlines future projects extending at least one year out. We then populate the calendar with past eRFXs that should be reruns due to previously negotiated contract expirations. We then identify upcoming potential spot purchases that are a result of our deep dive with our spend analysis tool into all category spending.  When RFXs aren’t awarded efficiently these rerun dates will change and as a result may cause future issues with the strategic selection of targeted dates for new RFXs. If you slip 5 months which we see way to often, and prices are headed up over 41% of your savings may be lost.

For more information on how we can help your business reduce spending and maintain savings or on our “Risk Free” trial program, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.  We have an entire customer services team waiting to assist you today.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments