Cost reduction consultants who review every third-party contract
What a spend review covers
Freight and logistics. Parcel, pallet, full-load and freight forwarding rates, checked against the current market and re-tendered where they have drifted.
Packaging. Specifications, unit prices and supplier numbers, so the business is not paying for over-specified materials or fragmented volume.
Facilities. Cleaning, security, maintenance, waste and property services, often bought site by site and rarely compared.
IT and telecoms. Licences, cloud commitments, hardware, connectivity and mobile contracts. See ourIT cost reduction service for detail.
Energy. Electricity and gas contracts, tariffs and consumption. Our guide tobusiness energy cost reductionexplains the options.
Professional services. Legal, audit, consulting, recruitment and agency fees, where rates and scope often go unchallenged. The long tail of small suppliers is handled throughtail spend management.
Where we find savings
Cost reduction is not a single lever. It is a stack of them, and the mix depends on where the leakage sits in your business. We work across:
- Supplier spend: renegotiation, consolidation, re-tender across indirect and direct categories
- Tail spend: the 20% of spend with 80% of suppliers, usually unmanaged. See tail spend management
- IT and technology: the fastest way to reduce IT costs is usually licence rationalisation, cloud commitment tuning and renegotiation with the top three vendors
- Operating model: role, process and structure redesign to remove duplicated or low-value activity
- Outsourcing and offshoring: moving suitable operational and back-office functions; in programmes the founder has led, this has reduced their cost by 30 to 50 percent[1]
- Automation and AI: practical, targeted automation with fast payback, not multi-year transformation
Cost reduction workstreams
Under the "business reduction services" banner sit the specific workstreams that take cost out and keep it out. Each has an agreed baseline, responsibilities and a record of realised savings:
- Contract renegotiation on the top 10-20 suppliers by spend
- Indirect category sourcing (marketing, professional services, facilities, MRO)
- Energy, utilities and telecoms review
- Logistics, freight and warehousing optimisation
- Back-office process redesign and shared-service consolidation
Cost management: keeping the base disciplined once savings land
Cost reduction is a one-off release of value. Cost management is the ongoing discipline that protects it, budgets, policy, approval workflow, category ownership and reporting, so the base does not silently re-inflate between programmes. Caventis delivers both, typically in sequence.
- Spend policy: what needs approval, at what threshold, by whom
- Approval workflow design and system configuration
- Category ownership model: who owns each cost line and their targets
- Management reporting: monthly cost pack, variance analysis, drift alerts
- Supplier governance: contract renewal calendar and negotiation triggers
- Finance and budget-holder training so the framework sticks
The work differs: reduction releases value from the existing cost base against a measurable baseline; cost management builds the discipline and prevention that stop cost creeping back. Both are scoped around what your business needs.
Cost optimisation companies: how to pick one
Search demand for "cost optimisation companies" (and the American spelling, cost optimization companies) covers a wide range of providers, from utility bill auditors to full-service consultancies. Choosing well comes down to four questions: does the firm work on your entire cost base or just one slice, does it implement or just recommend, is the scope aligned with your requirements, and does it leave governance behind so the base does not re-inflate?
Caventis sits in the full-service, implementation-led quadrant of that market. Read more about strategic procurement services for the transformation-led alternative.
How a cost reduction engagement is agreed
Every engagement starts with objectives, measurable goals and a strategy agreed with you, built around what your business needs. Scope and commercial terms are agreed with each client before work starts, and nothing is signed or switched without your approval. For wider work on how your business buys, see ourprocurement consultancy service.
Savings are verified against a baseline your finance team agrees, so results show up in the P&L, not just in a report. That discipline means we only pursue initiatives with genuine bottom-line impact, and we prioritise speed of implementation over billable hours.
Also known as
Clients come to us searching for cost saving consultants, cost cutting consultants, cost cutting solutions, cost reduction advisory, cost reduction advisors, business savings experts or a cost reduction specialist. It is the same work under different labels: releasing value from the existing cost base and protecting it with governance.
Sectors we work in
- Private equity portfolio companies pre- or post-acquisition
- Manufacturing and industrial businesses
- Professional services and technology firms
- Financial services back office
- Not-for-profit and higher education
Cost reduction consultancy vs traditional cost reduction companies
Many UK cost reduction companies focus on utility bill audits, telecoms rebates or expense reclaims. That work is valuable but narrow. As a full cost reduction consultancy, Caventis operates across your entire cost base, procurement, operations, technology and support functions, with senior category expertise on every engagement.
Read more about why clients choose Caventis or explore all services.
For a deeper walkthrough of the levers we pull, see our guide to procurement cost reduction strategies, the sector-specific breakdown of how to cut energy costs under Ofgem’s Targeted Charging Review, and how to release cash from underused marketing technology and opaque agency fees.
Before we challenge a price we work out what the item should cost. We break the price into materials, labour, overhead and margin so the negotiation is about cost drivers, not goodwill. See our guide to should-cost modelling.
Frequently asked questions
What do cost reduction consultants do?
Cost reduction consultants review a business's third-party spend, then re-tender and renegotiate the contracts that cost too much. Each saving is evidenced and signed off by the client's finance team.
How is a cost reduction engagement agreed?
Objectives, measurable goals and a strategy are agreed with the client first, and scope and commercial terms are agreed before work starts. Nothing is signed or switched without the client's approval.
Which costs can a business reduce without cutting staff?
Third-party spend such as freight, packaging, facilities, IT, energy and professional services, because these are bought from suppliers and can be re-tendered.
How is procurement cost reduction different from cutting budgets?
Procurement cost reduction lowers the price paid for the same goods and services through tendering, renegotiation and consolidation, rather than reducing what the business uses.
How is Caventis different from other cost reduction consultants?
Most cost reduction consultants sell time or reports and leave implementation to you. Caventis works alongside your team to deliver the savings, not just recommend them, and every engagement is shaped around what you want to achieve, with scope and commercials agreed together before work starts.
What kind of savings do cost reduction consultants typically find?
Strategic sourcing has allowed companies to achieve savings of 10 to 20 percent. In programmes the founder has led, outsourcing and automation have reduced the cost of selected functions by 20 to 50 percent. Individual results vary.
Will cost reduction affect service or quality?
The point of good cost reduction is to remove waste, duplication and paid-for-but-unused capacity, not to cut what the business relies on. Governance, KPIs and supplier scorecards protect service levels through and after every change.
How long before we see savings?
A spend review takes 1-2 weeks. First contracted savings typically land 8-12 weeks after mobilisation, with the full annualised run rate in place within 6-9 months for most programmes.
Do you work on a no win no fee or contingency basis?
Some consultancies in the market charge only when savings are delivered, often called no win no fee or contingency. For Caventis, scope and commercial terms are agreed with each client before work starts.
How much does a cost reduction consultant cost?
Across the market, consultancies charge in several ways, including day rates, fixed project fees and savings-linked fees, and cost depends on scope. At Caventis, scope and commercial terms are agreed with each client before work starts.
What is gainshare or shared-savings consulting?
Gainshare (also called shared savings) is a commercial model where the consultant's fee is tied to measurable savings delivered against an agreed baseline. It is one of several models used across the consulting market. At Caventis, scope and commercial terms are agreed with each client before work starts.
How do cost management consultants differ from cost reduction consultants?
Cost management consultants tend to focus on the ongoing control of cost: budgets, policy, approval workflow and reporting. Cost reduction consultants focus on one-off release of value from the existing cost base. Caventis does both, scoped to what the business needs.
I'm a new CFO or new MD, where should I start on cost?
The first 90 days is the window where a cost review is politically welcomed rather than politically expensive. Start with a spend baseline and prize sizing in weeks 1-4, quick wins on the top 5-10 contracts in weeks 5-8, and finance-validated run-rate savings locked in by day 100. Full sequence in our new CFO 100 day cost review guide.
How do we reduce overheads quickly without hurting the business?
The fastest overhead reductions come from three places: cancelling unused or duplicate SaaS and licences, consolidating tail suppliers, and renegotiating the top 10 indirect contracts. A short diagnostic shows which of these apply and how much is removable without operational impact.
How should we respond to supplier price increases and supplier inflation?
Ask for the increase in writing with a cost breakdown, benchmark against category norms, and counter with volume, term or payment terms before accepting a headline number. Even a limited market test typically halves the ask. Formalise annual index-linked reviews so future increases follow a rule, not a request.
What does 'business reduction services' cover?
Business reduction services is an umbrella for the specific commercial workstreams that take cost out: contract renegotiation, tail spend cleanup, indirect category sourcing, energy and utilities review, logistics and freight optimisation, and back-office process redesign.
Related procurement topics
Specialist areas that complement this work.
Coordinated sourcing, negotiation and supplier management.
Attack the long tail of low-value, high-volume purchases.
Cost, consolidation and resilience across the supply chain.
Rebuild the function to make savings stick.
About Caventis
Caventis (Caventis Ltd, registered in England & Wales, company number 17158263) is a UK procurement, supply chain and cost reduction consultancy. It works with global businesses businesses to identify and deliver savings across procurement, operations and back-office spend, with every engagement shaped around what the client wants to achieve and results verified against the P&L.
The firm was founded by Matt Buckley, who leads every engagement personally, drawing on 16 years of procurement, supply chain and cost transformation experience at bp and General Motors. Matt holds an Executive MBA, two PG Diplomas in Senior Leadership and Finance, a Bachelor of Business in Supply Chain Management and MCIPS. Caventis is headquartered in the United Kingdom and serves clients internationally.
See what savings sit inside your business.
Start with a spend review, then a savings programme shaped around your goals.