Recovering 14,200 PLN per Month in Margin for a Window Manufacturer
We analyzed the contract with the profile supplier. We found an error in the way quantity discounts were calculated. After two rounds of negotiations, the supplier corrected historical invoices and changed the price list.
A window manufacturer from Lodz was losing money on every PVC profile order. The problem lay in a complex contract with a foreign concern that no one had read for 3 years. We checked the documents and proved that discounts were being calculated incorrectly.
The challenge
Fenstra Sp. z o.o. employs 14 people and operates stably, but for 11 months, the owner noticed a strange drop in profitability. Even though production was in full swing, less remained in the account than appeared in the Excel sheet. The culprit turned out to be the bonus calculation system at the main component supplier. The contract was 38 pages long and written in specific language, which effectively discouraged its analysis. The owner, Mr. Marek, didn't have time to fight the corporate ticket system, and the amount of 14,200 PLN per month was simply leaking out of the company.
Our approach
Our work began with collecting the last 47 purchase invoices. For 3 days, we sat in the client's office on Piotrkowska Street, comparing invoice prices with entries in annexes from September 2022. We found an error: the supplier was not including the so-called logistics discount for orders over 12 pallets, which was written in black and white in the contract. Instead of writing aggressive emails, we prepared a precise tabular summary. We tell it like it is: errors in the systems of large companies happen more often than we think.
The solution
We organized a meeting with the supplier's sales representative. We sit at the table with you, so we personally conducted these talks on behalf of Fenstra. We showed concrete numbers and the missing 2.3% discount on invoices from the last half-year. We didn't play at unnecessary politeness, but held firmly to the contract provisions. The result of the negotiations was an admission of error by the supplier's headquarters and the signing of a new price card that secures the client's margin for the next 17 months.
Results
Thanks to the audit and negotiations, the company recovered the money owed and improved its financial result without looking for new clients or raising the prices of its products.
Timeline
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March 2024Review of 47 invoices and analysis of 38 pages of the main contract.
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April 2024Sending an official discrepancy report to the supplier's billing department.
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May 2024Final negotiations in Lodz and signing the corrective annex.
"Initially, I was afraid that an audit was just a waste of time and an extra cost. However, the Consilium Krasiński team found errors that I would never have caught myself in this jungle of paragraphs."