1. www.schoolsbuyingclub.com CASE STUDY
SPOTLIGHT ON
ADMINISTRATIVE
SUPPLIES
We’ve saved schools
money by helping them
Robinswood Primary School makes
to initiate smarter 12% savings on administration
procurement techniques. supplies and 19% on furniture
We’ve saved schools an average of 15% Schools spend a large proportion of their meant demand was being managed centrally,
on the procurement of their budget on administration supplies such as allowing further savings to be made - these
administrative supplies - money that is stationery, printer toner cartridges, pens, people use an agreed, small number of
being put to great use in other areas of pencils and furniture. Primary schools, on suppliers. We also recommended that all
those schools. You wouldn’t imagine that average, spend £11,000 per year and stationery be located in one place so that staff
as much money could be saved on secondary schools around £76,000 on such had to make a conscious effort to retrieve
photocopier paper and telephones… supplies. Robinswood Primary School in supplies, making them more aware of the
Gloucestershire was spending a substantial amount of stock they were using. We also
sum on these products and so engaged the recommended that a core list of products be
Schools’ Buying Club to review this spend. created.
We were already running a national supplier These simple processes have seen a significant
review for administration supplies and we had reduction in spend - 12% savings across the
started to categorise what products those current spend on administration supplies and
suppliers sell to schools. Because we hold this 19% saving on furniture spend. Interestingly
type of in depth data we can quickly establish Robinswood’s procurement strategy was
if schools can make savings. exceptionally well run - they had negotiated
some fantastic deals. Despite their already
Robinswood had around seven regular
smart approach to purchasing, we were still
suppliers and we explained to the school that
able to help them make savings!
managing this number of suppliers was not
the most efficient way of spending this part of
their budget. With as many suppliers,
bulk-buying discounts cannot be negotiated.
By aggregating their spend across a smaller
number of suppliers, greater economies of
scale are secured. Likewise, by centralising
their buying process, so only one or two
people internally can order these supplies
Contact us
Schools’ Buying Club
Lower Ground Floor, Eastgate,
3 Castle Street, Manchester M3 4LZ
Telephone: 0845 257 7050
Powered by Email: contact@schoolsbuyingclub.com