British American Tobacco

The Challenge: Managing freight spend and inefficiencies with a growing, global supply chain

BEFORE XENETA: BACKGROUND AND CHALLENGES

British American Tobacco (BAT) is a well-known shipper that, at 65,000 TEU per year and growing, was feeling the pain of inefficiency across its global operations. BAT’s procurement strategy had grown so decentralized that it was impossible to effectively manage its freight spend and standardize how it approached negotiations.  

Each team was entering discussions backed by internal knowledge and personal research, which was not scalable and drained their vital resources in each geography. Not only did this hurt their productivity and global alignment, but worst of all, it was not effective in helping them reach their goals.  

Left to manually oversee so many different prices, timelines, service levels, and carrier quotes, getting their cargo where it needed to be at the right price had become a huge challenge for the entire organization.  

Aware that this would have a severe financial impact down the line, BAT knew something had to change. Through their determination to achieve results and not waste any more time on sub-par data sources, they found Xeneta. 

THE SOLUTION: PATHWAY TO SUCCESS  

With Xeneta’s comprehensive yet hyper-relevant data and analytics integrated into their systems, BAT enhanced their market resilience and strategic approach. 

Both the air and ocean datasets available facilitated optimization throughout BAT’s entire global network — with ocean Carrier Spread and the Tender Benchmark Tool in particular being integrated directly into their pre-, during, and post-negotiation processes.  

No single BAT team now works in a silo and all look to Xeneta as vital source of unbiased market truth. The data and support from Xeneta’s wider team of market experts is seen as critical to their success and allows them to continuously reallocate budget, build lasting carrier relationships, and secure optimal schedule reliability across all geographies.  

“Xeneta is famous internally at BAT, not just because of the savings, but because it’s reformed our Global Marine Tender strategy on every level globally.” said Mauricio, as he discussed the shipper’s newfound strategic focus.  

As a shipper, they always wanted a proactive procurement strategy that focused on more than just price, and Xeneta has given them the market visibility and foresight to make that happen. 

AFTER XENETA: OUTCOMES AND WINS

After becoming a Xeneta customer in 2021, BAT have now considerably decreased freight spend (close to 40% on some critical high-volume lanes), and lowered time wasted in negotiations by over 30%.   

Quickly realizing the power that Xeneta gave them when talking to suppliers, BAT have been able to champion a more holistic strategy—prioritizing more than just the lowest rates (which they’d previously struggled to achieve). For this shipper, service levels are equally as important when moving their cargo, and with Xeneta, they finally had the breathing room and data-backed leverage to bring that metric to the negotiation table.  

“We were able to change our entire freight strategy and can now effectively manage the ocean freight spend every day. More importantly, with the use of Xeneta data, we’re confident we’re putting our budget into the right decisions.” shared Mauricio Cantisani, BAT’s Global Category Procurement Manager. “Instead of having a huge number of carriers and being cost-focused alone, we shifted practices to find the best carrier and cost.” 

With an increased agility in the market and lowered costs, BAT quantifies this success through regular, Xeneta-centric internal reports for key senior stakeholders. Currently in the process of building a Control Tower using Xeneta data, BAT aims to measure their performance continually and automatically against industry benchmarks. By aligning their global teams around Xeneta as a reliable source of market intelligence, BAT is confident in creating scalable outcomes and success. 

“Our team has become so much more efficient and productive now that we’re connected to the market through Xeneta. With trusted data at our fingertips, we have eliminated the stress of the unknown and there’s no more silent pressure internally on cost, budget, or negotiations.” continued Mauricio. 

THE FUTURE: RESILIENCE, STRATEGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GOALS 

BAT’s success has manifested itself into a three-year plan for strategic procurement, with Xeneta marked as a core component.  

In 2024, while they continue to focus on striking a fair balance between price and service levels, CO2 emissions and transit time are now also on their radar — and they’ve already seen some Xeneta-backed success. 

BAT have been using the Carbon Emissions Index (CEI), which gives them insight into the carbon intensity of carriers across 48 global corridors, to work solely work with eco-friendly suppliers. This inclusion of CO2 emissions within their key metrics underscores their commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility.  

 For BAT, Xeneta has become a vital partner in continuously strengthening the resilience and efficiency of their global supply chain. This partnership underscores the importance of data-driven decision-making in modern supply chain management, demonstrating how leveraging real-time market intelligence can lead to substantial operational improvements, risk avoidance, financial strength, and sustainability achievements.