A Study of Unilever's Global Procurement: Tea Suppliers

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Unilever's tea supplier procurement practices. It begins with an introduction to procurement management and Unilever's position as a major tea supplier, including its brands and growth strategies. The methodology used includes a mixed-methods approach, combining secondary research with surveys and analysis of company documents. The report details Unilever's existing procurement management practices, covering planning, selection, administration, and contract closure, highlighting the company's focus on sustainable and ethical sourcing. It identifies areas needing improvement, such as stakeholder management and risk mitigation, and discusses critical success factors, including green procurement and transparency. The report concludes with recommendations for enhancing procurement processes and improving overall performance, emphasizing the importance of sustainability and stakeholder engagement. It also mentions the barriers, enablers, and impacts of performance.

Global Procurement : A study of
Unilever tea Suppliers

Intorduction
• Procurement management is an integral part of any manufacturing organisation
• Steps of Procurement Management:
 Sourcing
 Ordering
 Requisitioning
 Expediting
 Inspection
 Reconciliation
• Challenges are managing stakeholders , RFx process and risk mitigation

Methodology
• Mixed method: used both the secondary
and Primary Resources
• Qualitative analysis
• Surveys with the Procurement
department employees
• Data collected from company documents
and balance sheets

Organisation Overview
• Highest supplier of tea in the world.
• Owns the tea brands like Lipton, Pure
leaf, Scottish Blend, PG tips and Lyons
• Intensive growth strategy
• Generic strategies
• Invests in sustainable tea suppliers

Procurement strategy
• Transparent and customer oriented
• Have direct and indirect procurement
sections
• Uses sustainable means for tea procurement
(Christopher, Mena and van Hoek 2018)
• Highlights the ethical and community welfare
aspects of tea buying
• Procurement is divided in four step-
planning, selection, administration and
closureClosure
Administration
Selection
Planning

Supplier Countries
• India
• Sri-Lanka
• Kenya
• Switzerland
• Rwanda
• Vietnam
• Uganda
• Malawi
• Tanzania

Existing Practices in
Procurement Mangement
• Planning
Identifying the needs of customers
Forecasting
Selecting the items (Kakwezi and Nyeko 2019)
• Selection
Unilever Supplier Qualification System
Unilever Responsible Sourcing Policy

Existing Practices in Procurement Management
(continued)
• Administration
finalizing the contact
Monitoring the process
Judging the quality of product
Maintaining sustainability
• Closing Contract
finalizing the contact
success proceedings documentation
payment

Effectiveness of the process
• Assessment of customer needs
• Treating trends and demands of the markets
• Time and quality
• Transparency in dealing
• Sharing information with the stakeholders

Required changes
• Transparency
Mission- becoming the best company in the sustainability perspective
Details of the suppliers of the tea (Esfahbodi, Zhang and Watson
2016)
Explaining the process with the consumers and other stakeholders
• Recruitment and training
Mitigate the risks factors
Managing the challenges in the future

Required changes (continued)
• Managing Stakeholders
Stakeholders are need to be considered
Procurement could be smoother

Barriers
• Cost control of the deal.
• Managing the spend
• Contact compliance
• effective ways of using the sourcing
• Visibility of saving