Robinswood Primary School makes 12% savings on administration supplies and 19% on furniture

Schools spend a large proportion of their budget on administration supplies such as stationery, printer toner cartridges, pens/pencils and furniture. Primary schools, on average, spend £11,000 per year and secondary schools around £76,000 on such supplies.  Robinswood Primary School in Gloucestershire was spending a substantial sum on these products and so engaged the Schools' Buying Club to review this spend.

We were already running a national supplier review for administration supplies and we had started to categorise what products those suppliers sell to schools. Because we hold this type of in depth data we can quickly establish if schools can make savings. 

Robinswood had around seven regular suppliers and we explained to the school that 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 meant demand was being managed centrally, allowing further savings to be made - these people use an agreed, small number of suppliers. We also recommended that all stationery be located in one place so that staff had to make a conscious effort to retrieve supplies, making them more aware of the amount of stock they were using.  We also recommended that a core list of products be created.

These simple processes have seen a significant reduction in spend - 12% savings across the current spend on administration supplies and 19% saving on furniture spend. Interestingly Robinswood's procurement strategy was exceptionally well run - they had negotiated some fantastic deals. Despite their already smart approach to purchasing, we were still able to help them make savings!