South African Breweries targets global procurement

05 Nov 2010

Source  Supply Management
Developing a global procurement strategy while building sustainable relationships with local suppliers are the priorities for procurement at South African Breweries (SAB) over the coming year.

Ian Russell, who was appointed head of commercial in October, told SM he would work to globalise the supply chain where possible as part of its parent company SABMiller’s strategy. In November 2009, the international firm set out to save £180 million a year by 2014 by centralising the management of three departments – procurement, HR and finance.
However, Russell said this effort needed to be balanced with local priorities. “We can globalise procurement of glass and packaging but we want to make sure that we retain the local characteristics of the beer.

“It’s about co-operating and collaborating globally while making sure that locally you retain the flexibility that you need.”
The business would also look to adopt global standards for raw materials, even where these would continue to be sourced locally. “Procurement of hops and barley will be done locally but there are a number of things that you are able to standardise at a global level, whether it’s the yield from a crop or the quality,” said Russell. “There’s a lot of global benchmarking work that you can do on a supply chain.”

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