Customer Stories
Britvic: Making procurement and supplier management simpler and more transparent
Explore Britvic’s journey with SAP
For Britvic plc, the largest supplier of branded soft drinks in Great Britain, procurement and supply chain are critical components of its operations. To strengthen its overall approach and make buying and invoicing simpler and more accurate, Britvic turned to SAP Ariba solutions.
in pipeline value generated, plus £26 million in working capital.
in indirect spend (38%) now under catalog.
of PO requisitioning now self-serve.
Over the past 18 months, I have seen a step change in the capability of our procurement team, delivering a range of tangible results. Our decision to invest in people, core processes, and technology means procurement is now perceived as an indispensable business partner.
Joanne Wilson
CFO, Britvic plc
Unifying and standardizing procurement processes and data
As the largest soft drink manufacturer in Great Britain, as well as the country’s exclusive producer for PepsiCo, Britvic plc depends procurement to keep global operations running smoothly.
But outdated systems, processes, and data were slowing down procurement, and employees often did not know the correct process and supplier to use. Procurement category managers were frustrated by a lack of data insight, accounts payable regularly rejected inaccurate invoices from suppliers, and finance teams had so many systems to pull from that getting a consolidated view of performance was difficult.
To streamline processes and strategically align procurement with its overall business strategy, Britvic needed a unified source-to-pay solution.
Many of our employees were frustrated with outdated procurement processes and a lack of data availability. Users often did not know which supplier to contact, and overall sourcing governance and pipeline management was difficult.
Simon Mays
Procurement Transformation Director, Britvic plc
Transforming the source-to-pay process
To address its procurement challenges, Britvic embarked on a complete source-to-pay transformation using SAP Ariba solutions.
The project focused on Great Britain and Ireland, covering 2,100 employees, 1,700 suppliers, and £650 million in spend. The implementation followed the SAP Activate methodology and was completed in three phases over 18 months: starting with source to contract, then procure to pay, and finally supply chain collaboration. The SAP Analytics Cloud solution was used to report on the new source-to-pay process and measure overall project benefits.
Change management across Britvic was paramount to the project’s success and included stakeholders from IT, legal, finance, the factories, and requisitioning, as well as procurement and external suppliers. Procurement roles were added for sustainability and commodity risk management, and a new sourcing governance process was introduced. Shared services for buying and procurement as well as a center of excellence were also established.
We have employees who have been with Britvic for more than 30 years and who have experienced many system changes and processes. SAP Ariba solutions have been one of the easiest for them to learn and use.
Leena Hopley
Business Process Lead, Britvic plc
Making procurement easier and more transparent
With SAP solutions, Britvic has streamlined and simplified its procurement process.
The new sourcing module has helped generate more than £15 million in pipeline value, plus an additional £33 million in working capital. And a new clause library is improving contract compliance and enabling preapproval that speeds the process and reduces reliance on the legal department.
Guided buying with catalogs now accounts for 38% of Britvic’s indirect spend, driving better spend categorization and routing buyers to preferred suppliers – all with a simple, consumer-grade experience. PO requisitioning is also faster, with 86% of POs now handled using self-service and all indirect POs now issued and invoiced through SAP Business Network instead of e-mail – allowing procurement to focus on more value-adding tasks.
Equally, suppliers are benefiting, with the average invoice processing time targeted to be reduced from 11 days to 5 days, allowing them to access their money earlier and improving their cash flow.
We are transforming procurement through our people, better processes, and technology to deliver value across a broad range of metrics and build credibility as we lead in contributing to Britvic’s goals and objectives. By investing in our team, we help them grow, become more effective, and build engagement and recognition.
Matt Swindall
CPO, Britvic plc
Looking ahead to enhanced governance and automated analytics
With 88% of its suppliers now onboarded, Britvic is looking ahead to the next phase of its digital procurement transformation.
In addition to managing supplier contracts using standardized workflows and digital document management, a pilot to move all supply chain collaboration scheduling agreements and PO collaboration onto SAP Business Network is in progress. The expectation is that this will further improve transparency by moving away from e-mail and enabling Britvic to work with suppliers in one system. This includes sharing prices through scheduling agreements and POs, adjusting PO values, and using advanced shipping notes to confirm dispatch quantities and goods receipts. For 100 or so high-volume suppliers, Britvic expects that SAP Business Network will be integrated with their own back-end systems, eliminating the need to perform a PO flip.