In food manufacturing, indirect suppliers often enjoy long tenures.

👉 “We’ve always used them.”
👉 “They know the sites.”
👉 “It’s not worth the disruption.”

Over time:

❌ Rates drift upward
❌ Service levels flatten
❌ Additional charges creep in
❌ Contract terms quietly favour the supplier

Inertia has set in.

A structured spend audit doesn’t mean switching up all of your suppliers.

It means:

✅Knowing what’s being spent where
✅Benchmarking
✅Understanding status of contracts
✅Ensuring contracts are fit for purpose
✅Challenging pricing mechanics
✅Renegotiating from actual data (cutting out the guesswork)
✅Feeling in control

Once an incumbent supplier realises you’re actually looking at the numbers, things can change pretty quickly:

👉 Prices get sharpened.
👉Terms become more flexible.
👉Service issues suddenly get addressed.

Not necessarily because you want to change supplier, but because, for the first time in a while, the incumbent knows they have to earn your business.