Consolidating Supply at Lavender Hotels
The Context
Lavender Hotels is a family-owned hospitality group operating a portfolio of hotels and leisure facilities in the North West of England. Over six years, the group consolidated from seven properties to four as part of a broader strategy to reduce owned assets and expand into consultancy for independent hospitality businesses.
During this transition, the leadership team wanted a more proactive approach to procurement, seeking opportunities to improve pricing and gain greater visibility of costs while maintaining existing supplier relationships.
Our Approach
A review of the supply chain was conducted across all seven sites, covering food and beverage, laundry, utilities and contracted service categories. Existing terms and service level agreements were assessed, with pricing subsequently benchmarked against the wider market to uncover potential savings opportunities.
More than 40 suppliers were identified across the portfolio, many providing overlapping products and services. Where the same suppliers operated at multiple sites, commercial agreements and pricing structures often varied.
One Cost worked with the team to consolidate and standardise supply throughout the business, in some categories replacing multiple vendors with a single partner and aligning commercial agreements across sites. This helped strengthen the group's position when negotiating pricing and terms with suppliers going forward.
Handling Data was integrated alongside existing reporting processes to provide a clearer view of procurement activity. Supplier invoices were centralised within the system, with benchmarking conducted periodically to ensure pricing remained aligned with market conditions.
Contracts were recorded and monitored through a structured review process, supported by automated alerts to ensure renewals were captured and tenders undertaken when required. This forms part of a continuously evolving management framework designed to strengthen purchasing controls, enhance transparency and improve financial visibility across the group.
The Ongoing Impact
Management of contracted supply is now a structured process across all sites within the Lavender Hotels Group. Regular reviews with suppliers and key stakeholders inform menu planning, sourcing decisions and price management, helping to maintain cost control and product availability.
One Cost also continues to support specific projects as they arise, including the development of new banqueting menus and reviews of drinks offerings. These activities help each property progress against its own KPI targets and contribute to continuous improvement across the group.
Additional focus areas include energy management initiatives, providing greater visibility of expenditure and enabling more proactive management of utilities.
"One Cost has provided Lavender Hotels Collection with an exceptional breadth of procurement expertise that has added significant value to our business. Their extensive industry knowledge and experience mean that whenever we encounter a challenge, they either have the solution or can quickly connect us with the right experts to help.
The strong partnerships One Cost has established throughout the hospitality supply chain have enabled us to benefit from both cost-effective and reliable procurement solutions. Their network, professionalism and proactive approach have allowed us to focus our attention on driving commercial opportunities and, most importantly, delivering the highest levels of service to our customers.
We highly value our partnership with One Cost and would confidently recommend their services to any hospitality business seeking a knowledgeable, dependable and commercially minded procurement partner."
How Our Team Can Support Yours
We possess the systems, data and expertise needed to embed structured procurement processes within your business. Whether the focus is improving gross profit, enhancing operational efficiency, or ensuring consistency across spend, we work with you to achieve your KPIs.
