Phil Machin on how BridgePro helps clients boost procurement beyond cost-savings

Launched in 2013, BridgePro is a UK-based consultancy, centring on the belief that procurement should be more than a cost-saving function: it should be a strategic driver of growth, resilience, and innovation. Founder Phil Machin sits with Consultancy.uk to explain the methods the firm uses to help clients unlock value across their organisations.

Based on BridgePro’s experience in value creation for portfolio companies, what kind of benefit potential do you typically see in procurement?

Most portfolio companies significantly underestimate the value procurement can create. Procurement is often viewed as a sourcing function rather than a commercial performance lever. Across mid-market and private equity-backed businesses, we typically identify opportunities worth 5-15% of addressable third-party spend, depending on procurement maturity and previous investment.

The financial benefits extend well beyond negotiated savings and include improvements in: EBITDA through sustainable cost reduction; working capital via payment term optimisation; cash flow through contract restructuring and consumption management; supplier consolidation and reduced operational complexity; and improved governance and reduced commercial risk.

Increasingly, we also see procurement creating value by rationalising technology estates, optimising cloud expenditure, improving supplier performance and helping management teams make faster commercial decisions. The biggest opportunity isn’t simply negotiating lower prices; it’s ensuring every pound of external spend actively supports investment in growth and profitability.

Private equity firms are big fans of leveraging procurement optimisation to drive improvements in margins, working capital and cash flow. Can you briefly explain the reasons behind this?

Procurement is one of the few functions that can influence almost every line of the P&L and balance sheet without negatively impacting revenue growth. Unlike many transformation initiatives that require significant capital investment, procurement improvements can often generate returns within weeks while simultaneously improving operational resilience.

For private equity sponsors, procurement creates value in three areas: margin expansion through cost optimisation and supplier competition; working capital improvement through payment term optimisation, inventory reduction and contract restructuring; and cash generation, by eliminating unnecessary spend, avoiding renewals and improving commercial governance.

Importantly, these benefits are measurable, repeatable and sustainable when supported by the right operating model. The best procurement programmes don’t simply reduce cost, they improve commercial discipline across the organisation.

What approach does BridgePro use to identify and unlock procurement savings?

Our approach combines experienced procurement practitioners with AI-powered analytics and workflows. We start by establishing a complete picture of third-party spend, contracts, supplier performance and upcoming commercial events. We then benchmark pricing, identify duplicate suppliers, assess contractual risk and prioritise opportunities based on value and ease of implementation.

Unlike traditional consultancies, we don’t stop at producing recommendations. BridgePro embeds itself in management teams to execute negotiations, redesign sourcing strategies, implement governance and ensure savings are delivered into the P&L.

Execution is where most procurement programmes succeed or fail. We describe our model as procurement as a service because clients gain experienced commercial capability without needing to build large internal procurement teams.

A central element of the approach is to distinguish between rapid cost optimisation and more long-term improvements. How does this work?

Every value creation programme needs early wins alongside sustainable transformation. We therefore split opportunities into two distinct workstreams.

The first focuses on rapid value delivery over the first 90-180 days. This typically includes:

• contract renewals
• software licensing
• cloud optimisation
• supplier consolidation
• commercial renegotiations
• payment term improvements
• elimination of low-value spend

These initiatives generate immediate EBITDA and cash benefits.

The second workstream focuses on building long-term procurement capability by introducing governance, supplier performance management, category strategies, technology, operating models and better demand management. This creates a procurement function that continues generating value long after the initial investment period.

Can you share a few examples of projects delivered in the space?

We’ve supported organisations across technology, professional services and high-growth businesses where procurement has become a strategic value creation lever.

Examples include: realising $4.5 million of savings within12 months for one of our PE backed clients; helping an SME client improve cash flow through a deferred supplier payment programme; other SME clients seeing dramatic reduction in operating costs through supplier and payroll consolidation and optimisation; our procurement operating model redesign introducing improved contract governance, supplier performance management and spend visibility.

More broadly, we’ve helped organisations move from reactive procurement to proactive commercial management, creating recurring value rather than one-off savings.

A key caveat of procurement improvement is that while savings tend to be easier to identify, realising them is a lot harder. How does BridgePro’s approach address this?

Most organisations already know where many of the savings opportunities exist. The challenge is execution.

Negotiations require specialist expertise, stakeholders are busy, suppliers resist change, contracts renew automatically and internal priorities move on. BridgePro was built specifically to solve this execution gap.

Rather than producing reports, we take ownership of delivery. We manage sourcing events, negotiate directly with suppliers, coordinate stakeholders, monitor implementation and validate realised savings. Our clients measure us on realised financial outcomes, not the size of the opportunity pipeline. That delivery mindset is what differentiates procurement as a service from traditional advisory models.

What role does technology play in the procurement value creation cycle?

Technology is becoming a major accelerator of procurement value creation. Procurement tooling can now analyse thousands of supplier contracts, benchmark pricing, identify duplicate suppliers, assess commercial risk and prioritise opportunities in a fraction of the time previously required.

At BridgePro we’ve invested in our own AI-enabled platform, Bridge Buyer, which augments procurement teams rather than replacing them. The platform provides intelligent intake, supplier benchmarking, contract analysis, renewal management, risk assessment and spend intelligence while experienced procurement professionals continue to lead commercial strategy and the negotiations that our clients would rather we lead on.

We believe the future of procurement isn’t AI alone or people alone, it is experienced commercial professionals empowered by AI powered by procurement/governance guardrails and playbooks. That combination dramatically increases both speed and scale.

Finally, how does BridgePro ensure that its procurement work aligns with broader value creation plans drafted by sponsors?

Procurement should never operate independently of the investment thesis. Every programme begins by understanding the sponsor’s priorities; whether that’s EBITDA expansion, cash generation, carve-out readiness, technology modernisation, international growth or preparation for exit. We then prioritise procurement initiatives that directly support those objectives.

For example:

• if EBITDA expansion is the priority, we focus on recurring cost reduction and supplier optimisation;
• if growth is the priority, procurement ensures strategic suppliers can scale while maintaining commercial discipline;
• if an exit is planned, we strengthen governance, improve contract visibility and reduce supplier risk to enhance buyer confidence.

Ultimately, procurement becomes another value creation workstream alongside finance, technology and operations. Our objective isn’t simply to reduce spend; it’s to increase enterprise value in a measurable and sustainable way.