A decision that stopped paying
King Rose Construction provides general contracting across New York City for clients including Columbia University, FedEx, GardaWorld and Converse. When the pandemic nearly halted work, leadership offshored back-office functions, including purchasing.
As business recovered and grew, that decision started to cost more than it saved. Purchasing was slowing operations in the field, and the company could no longer hold competitive material costs. Purchasing had drifted from an operational capability into an administrative one.
Simplify first, then negotiate
The work normalized what was being bought, from more than 2,000 SKUs to 350 and from 150 suppliers to 3, then ran competitive bid and negotiation against that consolidated volume. Common SKUs were inventoried so they were on hand rather than ordered under pressure, and dead stock and unused equipment were cleared out of the warehouse.
Material cost fell 10%. Purchasing labor fell 16%, as a simplified catalog and supplier base cut transactional work. Warehouse utilization improved 30%.
The change that mattered most was organizational
Communication between purchasing and field operations improved, so buying decisions reflected what jobs actually needed and when. That alignment is what reduced rush fulfillment requests, the most expensive way any contractor buys and the one that never appears as a line item.
The engagement started as a cost exercise and ended as an operating improvement: faster decisions, less firefighting, and a purchasing process the company runs itself. The full write-up is on the project page.