Firms without procurement
expertise overpay by up to 40%.
The evidence is unambiguous.

Organisations without a procurement function overpay by 30–40% versus best-in-class buyers in equivalent categories.

The Hackett Group's annual procurement benchmarking consistently finds that the gap between median and world-class procurement performance represents 30–40% of addressable spend. For organisations with no procurement function at all — the majority of UK SMEs — the gap is at the higher end of this range.

This is not a theoretical saving. It is the measured difference between what organisations actually pay and what the same goods and services cost when procured with proper process, competitive tension, and benchmark awareness.

Maverick spend — purchasing outside any formal process — runs at 20–40% of total organisational spend in SMEs.

CIPS research defines maverick spend as purchasing that bypasses procurement controls, frameworks, or competitive process. In organisations without a dedicated procurement function, maverick spend is not the exception — it is the norm. Every maverick purchase is a missed opportunity for competitive pricing, verified suppliers, and payment protection.

Bundle IQ's own beta survey data corroborates this: 72% of respondents reported that less than 25% of their annual spend goes through any formal process.

SMEs on deemed rates (auto-renewal tariffs) pay 20–40% above rates available through competitive tender.

Ofgem has published repeatedly that businesses rolling over onto deemed or out-of-contract rates face significantly higher unit prices than equivalent businesses that actively go to market. The regulator's own analysis put the premium at 20–40% depending on consumption band and supplier.

For a 60-bed care home spending £28,000 annually on electricity, a 25% saving represents £7,000 per year. For a farm spending £18,000 on energy across all uses, the saving is £3,600–£7,200. These are not marginal efficiencies — they are structural overpayments that compound every year the contract auto-renews.

Loyal insurance customers pay on average 20–30% more than equivalent new customers. The FCA called this the "loyalty penalty."

The Financial Conduct Authority's 2020 market study found that insurers systematically charged existing customers more than new customers for equivalent cover. The premium varied by category and tenure but averaged 20–30% for customers who had not shopped around in three or more years.

The FCA introduced pricing reforms in 2022. But the structural incentive remains: auto-renewing without competitive tender means paying the loyalty premium. For farm insurance averaging £2,800 per year, a 25% saving through collective purchasing represents £700 annually — every year.

Feed price variation of 15–25% between individual buyers and cooperative purchasing arrangements for equivalent volumes.

AHDB's market intelligence shows significant price variation between farmers buying individually and those purchasing through cooperative or group arrangements — even for the same product from the same merchant. The differential reflects both negotiating leverage and the signal that group purchasing sends to suppliers about the seriousness of the buying process.

For a 340-cow dairy farm spending £186,000 annually on compound feed, a 15% saving is £27,900. An 18% saving — consistent with what the Bundle IQ compound feed pool has achieved in beta — is £33,480 per year.

SME contractors pay 15–30% more for materials than large contractors purchasing equivalent products in similar volumes.

Build UK and the Construction Leadership Council have both documented the purchasing power differential between large and small contractors. The gap is not primarily about volume — it is about procurement process, supplier relationships, and benchmark awareness. A 10-person groundworks contractor buying the same aggregate from the same supplier as a national housebuilder may pay 20–25% more, simply because they have never formally negotiated.

Collective procurement closes this gap by aggregating demand across multiple SME contractors, creating volume comparable to larger operators and removing the information asymmetry that allows suppliers to charge different prices to different buyers.

Public sector buying consortia consistently achieve 18–35% savings versus pre-framework prices in energy, FM, and professional services.

Crown Commercial Service is the largest collective purchasing operation in the UK. Its published savings data across frameworks consistently shows 18–35% savings versus the prices public bodies paid before joining frameworks — in categories directly comparable to Bundle IQ pools: energy, facilities management, IT, professional services, and consumables.

Bundle IQ applies the same model — aggregated demand, competitive tender, framework pricing — to private sector SMEs who have never had access to this approach. The CCS data is the closest available proof of concept for what collective procurement achieves at scale.