Argon & Co wins Procurement Consultancy of the Year award

European consultancy Argon & Co has picked up a prestigious prize at the Global Procurement & Supply Chain Awards. The advisory firm scooped the Procurement Consultancy Award at the 2024 ceremony, in London.

Launched in 2024, The Global Procurement & Supply Chain Awards 2024 debuted at the Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE event in London, at the end of September. Launched to celebrate the best companies, professionals and projects in procurement and supply chain, and offer free entry for charities and NGOs, the programme acknowledged companies, professionals and projects that have demonstrated exceptional performance, innovation and strategic thinking in a multitude of categories.

A core part of that programme was the Procurement Consultancy Award. Honouring consultant companies that have shown exceptional expertise and guidance to clients, driving procurement excellence and delivering measurable results, the prize’s initial shortlist was made up of Argon & Co; BearingPoint; GEP; Moglix; and Procurement Garage.

Procurement Garage and GEP were both highly commended, having demonstrated their expertise through successful projects with major corporations, and “showcasing their ability to drive procurement excellence and achieve substantial cost savings.” However, in the end, the outright win was picked up by Argon & Co, which the judges said had shown the value of strategic procurement consultancy in “driving efficiency, cost savings and sustainability in complex supply chain environments” during its work with CooperVision.

"I'm in shock. I was quite happy just to be nominated, to be honest. We're doing a lot of this type of work at the minute and it's a lot of companies that are looking for support with logistics and procurement. So hopefully we can keep doing a lot more of that sort of work," said Chris Powell, Associate Partner at Argon & Co.

Argon & Co and CooperVision

Argon & Co is a Paris and London headquartered consulting firm specialising in operations transformation services, while focusing on supply chain, procurement, finance and shared services work in particular. The firm has an international heritage, having been founded via a 2018 merger between French firm Argon Consulting and UK-based Crimson & Co.

Argon & Co’s team now comprises over 550 staff – having more than doubled in size since launching a growth strategy in 2020. Its procurement team was recently beefed up in particular, thanks to the 2021 acquisition of Ayming in the UK.

Argon & Co was selected by contact lens manufacturer CooperVision to transform its procurement function – in a project which aimed to address challenges arising from the company's rapid growth and the industry shift towards daily disposable lenses. The pivot increased demand and logistical complexities, for which Argon & Co prepared with a comprehensive 12-week operational review, analysing CooperVision's logistics procurement processes and costs.

After the initial phase – which involved consolidating data from 160 sources into an interactive dashboard – the transformation yielded impressive results. CooperVision realised 33% savings across 29 addressable lanes for global intercompany air shipments and 24% savings across six addressable lanes for road shipments. Meanwhile, in European outbound logistics, the company enjoyed 10% savings across three addressable lanes.

At the same time, Argon & Co supported CooperVision in centralising its logistics procurement function. The firm helped establish a carbon emissions baseline using the ISO14083:2023 Standard, and put down groundwork for future decarbonisation efforts.

Dr Richard Gibson of CooperVision praised Argon's role, concluding, "Argon has been a real extension to our team in delivering our procurement transformation. They have guided us every step of the way, from strategy to implementation, offering real expertise and guidance in optimising our procurement processes."