Complex supplier negotiations
Senior-led negotiation of strategic, monopolistic or politically loaded supplier relationships. Fact base, leverage map, scenarios — and the conversation at the table.
Operational performance · Mid-cap companies in LBO
Senior operators
Senior operators
alongside
management teams
Operational performance advisory for mid-cap companies under LBO. We turn procurement, supply chain and operational performance into measurable EBITDA — alongside the management team.
100+
Transformation projects led
25+ yrs
Senior consultant experience
x3–x10
ROI delivered on engagements
Mid-cap
PE-backed focus
A senior-led firm
Management focused, PE fluent
UBAC Partners is a senior-led operational advisory firm whose aim is to work alongside management teams of PE-backed mid-cap companies — CEOs, CFOs, COOs and CPOs who need to create, and convert a value creation plan into measurable EBITDA, fast.
We speak the language of operating partners, deal teams and boards: we understand hold cycles, value creation plans and equity stories. We embed ourselves in management teams.
Senior operators, deep data foundations, AI-native delivery and apps that stay behind to secure the value capture — with compensation tied to the value embedded. Like the ubac we are named after, we are drawn to the north face of the problem.
01
Senior on the ground
Partners and senior operators with 25+ years of procurement and transformation experience — in the room, with the management team.
02
Built around management
We work with the CEO, CFO, COO and CPO. We brief sponsors and boards with the management. We operate as one team.
03
PE-fluent
We understand value creation plans, operating partner expectations, hold-cycle timing and exit readiness — and we deliver against them.
04
Data foundation
Benchmarks, supplier intelligence, commodity trends and spend data combined into one decision-grade fact base — in days, not months.
05
AI-native delivery
We use, build and deploy AI agents along projects. The analytical grind compresses. Senior judgement stays in the driver’s seat.
06
Paid on the value embedded
Our fees are tied to value creation impact on the EBITDA.
What we do
Operational transformation where EBITDA, resilience and execution matter
Identify value rapidly and certainly. Build the plan, mobilise the management and the organisation, steer the project and co-lead realisation until impact is fully embedded.
Global — Regional — Local sourcing
Off-shoring, near-shoring and on-shoring decisions backed by total landed cost, geopolitical risk and supply continuity. Country shortlists, qualification and migration plans.
Value engineering
Redesign products, specs and BoMs to take cost out without losing function. Teardowns, should-cost, supplier co-design and value-analysis workshops with engineering and operations.
Demand process optimisation
Rethink what gets bought, by whom, when and why. Demand challenge, specification rework, internal catalogues and policy-driven channelling.
G&A rapid-fit programmes
Short, sharp resets on general expenses — fleet, travel, professional services, facilities, telecom, IT. Quick-win packs with clear ownership and a tracker that survives the project.
Post-merger integration synergies
Procurement, indirect cost base and supplier portfolio integrated on a sponsor timeline. TSA exit, contract novation, run-rate baseline, harmonised T&Cs, synergy capture documented with the CFO.
Order-to-policy & invoice-to-contract compliance
Plug the leaks. Systematic compliance checks of orders against policy and invoices against contracts — surface unauthorised spend, missed rebates and pricing drift.
Consulting is a refined practice. We believe firmly in thought-provoking insights, in the hidden triggers of change, in the power of data & AI analytics. Every project is a unique journey that deserves perfection. Strategy and execution go hand-in-hand. An idea is only as good as the value it effectively generates. Value can only be claimed when it is fully captured.
Our approach
A different shade of consulting
Lean, senior, sharp
Partners in the room on every project, supported by a thin layer of project managers and Data & AI engineers. Lightweight by design, rapid to mobilise, sharp on the facts. You get the people who decide, doing the work.
Data & tech foundation
We know exactly where to pull the right data from — ERP exports, supplier files, scanned contracts, market feeds, the long messy tail. Terabytes of data stored securely, classified and characterised. Benchmarks, supplier intelligence, commodity trends and contract patterns ready on day one rather than rebuilt from scratch per engagement.
AI-native
We use, build and deploy agents along projects. Spend classification, supplier scans, contract review, scenario generation — compressed from weeks to hours. Senior judgement stays in the driver’s seat.
Hands-on execution & interim management
Strategy turns into execution. We sit inside the management team, drive the workstreams, and stay until the value lands in the P&L. Where it makes sense, we even staff fractional or interim managers as a long-term operating solution.
Human-centric
Every project succeeds or fails based on individuals. We have a deeply rooted coaching approach — to discover the unspoken truth, remove the real blockers beyond appearances, and align the interests and motives of all parties: management, sponsors, boards and operational teams.
Bespoke apps left behind
We ship custom software to secure value capture: savings trackers, supplier risk cockpits, negotiation rooms, category intelligence tools, analytical engines, internal catalogues — left in place after the project, so the value keeps compounding.
Compensation tied to value embedded
Part of our fee is tied to the value actually captured in the management team’s P&L. Same alignment as the people we work with. Same definition of success.
We help management teams convert operational levers into EBITDA run-rate — and EBITDA run-rate into enterprise value.
Client cases
Evidence over narrative
A selection of recent engagements. Each one was delivered with a management team — fact base built together, decisions taken together, savings tracked together, and an EBITDA outcome documented with the CFO.
01 Mid-cap industrial group, PE-backed First 100 days +7.2% EBITDA uplift identified
Procurement diagnostic and value creation plan launched within ten weeks of closing.
- Addressable spend
- €420M
- EBITDA uplift identified
- 7.2%
- Run-rate captured · year 1
- 61%
Rebuilt the spend cube, segmented 1,400 suppliers, reset governance with the CFO and CPO, and launched 18 sourcing waves with a dedicated PMO. Savings tracker handed over to finance on day 90.
02 Industrial components manufacturer Mid-hold transformation -9.4% direct cost in 18 months
Direct material cost reset and supplier resilience program across three European plants.
- Direct spend
- €180M
- Cost reduction · 18 months
- 9.4%
- Critical suppliers re-qualified
- 42
Renegotiated long-term agreements, introduced should-cost models on key components and stood up a dual-source programme for tier-one exposures.
03 Carve-out from a CAC 40 group Carve-out €11M standalone over-run avoided
Procurement, IT infrastructure and indirect cost base separated and re-platformed for a sponsor buyer.
- TSA exit
- Day 1 + 9 months
- Standalone cost over-run avoided
- €11M
- Contracts novated
- 320+
Designed the target operating model, re-tendered IT infrastructure (cloud, datacentre, network) and built the post-close run-rate cost baseline.
04 B2B services platform, sponsor-backed Pre-exit €8.6M run-rate savings evidenced
EBITDA run-rate evidence and operational equity story prepared ahead of a competitive sale process.
- Run-rate savings evidenced
- €8.6M
- EBITDA bridge accepted by buy-side
- 100%
- VDD questions cleared
- 140+
Re-baselined the savings tracker, cleaned the run-rate definition with audit, and produced an operational equity story with management.
05 Specialty chemicals platform Pre-deal diligence €14M operational upside underwritten
Commercial & operational due diligence on a primary buyout, with a bottom-up procurement and footprint thesis.
- Spend reviewed
- €210M
- Underwritten upside
- €14M
- Days from MNDA to IC
- 21
Built a 100-day plan stapled to the IC paper, with confidence intervals on raw material and energy exposure across three sites.
06 European healthcare services group PMI synergies €6.2M synergies captured year 1
Post-merger integration of three regional acquisitions: procurement consolidation, contract harmonisation and shared services design.
- Combined spend
- €95M
- Synergies captured · year 1
- €6.2M
- Contracts harmonised
- 180+
Single supplier panel, single rate card, single approval workflow across the three entities — with a synergy tracker reviewed monthly at the board.
07 Consumer goods manufacturer Value engineering -11% BoM cost on hero SKUs
Teardown-led value engineering programme on the top SKUs driving 70% of revenue.
- SKUs in scope
- 32
- BoM cost reduction
- 11%
- Time to first wave
- 14 weeks
Should-cost rebuild, supplier co-design workshops with R&D and operations, packaging spec rationalisation, dual-source qualification on critical components.
08 European SaaS scale-up G&A rapid-fit -22% G&A run-rate
Indirect cost reset across SaaS tooling, cloud, professional services and facilities ahead of a refinancing.
- G&A baseline
- €42M
- Run-rate reduction
- 22%
- Vendors consolidated
- 110 → 38
Cloud commitment re-architected, SaaS portfolio rationalised, professional services T&Cs reset, leases renegotiated — ownership lodged with each function head.
09 Automotive supplier, Tier-1 Special situation +180bps gross margin restored
Margin recovery plan in a stressed situation — supplier renegotiation, customer pass-through, working capital reset.
- Gross margin recovery
- +180bps
- Working capital released
- €9M
- Indexation clauses introduced
- 28
Re-opened LTAs with strategic suppliers, indexed key commodities into customer contracts, and ran a fast inventory clear-out at three plants.
10 Food & beverage group, family-owned LBO Demand & sourcing €4.8M annualised savings
Global – regional – local sourcing reset and demand management programme on ingredients and packaging.
- Addressable spend
- €68M
- Annualised savings
- €4.8M
- Suppliers re-tiered
- 3 layers
Built a country-by-country sourcing strategy with total landed cost, qualified near-shore alternatives on two strategic categories and tightened demand on packaging specs.
11 Building products distributor Compliance & leakage €3.1M recovered from contract leakage
Order-to-policy and invoice-to-contract compliance audit across 60+ active framework agreements.
- Invoices reviewed
- 1.2M lines
- Recovered & re-credited
- €3.1M
- Pricing drift fixed
- 14 contracts
AI-powered line-item reconciliation against contract terms, rebate triggers and volume tiers — with a permanent compliance app left in place to keep the leaks shut.
12 Tech infrastructure provider Complex negotiation -18% on a strategic monopoly supplier
Senior-led negotiation on a single-source, politically loaded supplier relationship critical to operations.
- Annual exposure
- €22M
- Price reduction
- 18%
- Contract length secured
- 5 years
Built the fact base, the leverage map and the alternative scenarios with the management team — and sat at the table for the conversation.
Cases shown above are anonymised illustrations consistent with our engagements. Detailed references available under NDA — we protect client identity, sponsor identity and deal context as a matter of principle.
People
Experienced operators, senior by design
UBAC Partners is founder-led and senior by design. A team who has spent their careers in procurement and operational transformation, supported by a network of senior domain experts — CPOs, COOs and functional leaders — who join projects where their depth is needed and can be staffed as interim managers after the engagement to ensure the value holds.
Denis Di Vito
Founding partner
and all season mountain hiker
25+ years in procurement consulting — from specialised operational firms to top-tier strategy houses (Oliver Wyman, BCG). 100+ projects led, primarily procurement performance plans for PE-owned mid-caps: rapid-impact initiatives, complex supplier negotiations, and tech & analytics.
Certified professional coach with a deep interest in relationships, psychology, and behavioural change.
Sébastien Roz
Founding partner
and alpinist
15+ years of procurement consulting across Efficio, Accenture Strategy and BCG. Large transformation programmes on direct and indirect spend across automotive, oil & gas, chemicals, telecom and pharma — with experience in deploying value engineering and design-to-cost methodologies.
Delivered global scale projects in multicultural environments across Europe, North America and Japan. Arts et Métiers ParisTech and HEC Paris graduate.
Senior experts · on call
A pool of domain experts, mobilised where their depth is needed — and available for interim mandates.
Beyond the founders, UBAC Partners draws on a small group of senior experts who join projects on specific workstreams — and can step in as interim managers where a role needs to be held. Names and credentials disclosed under NDA.
Selected profiles
CPO
Procurement Transformation
Former CPO of a listed industrial group. Led procurement transformations across 12 countries — category strategies, supplier consolidation, savings delivery and team build-out.
COO
Operations Redesign
COO of a €400M consumer goods business. Redesigned end-to-end operations — manufacturing footprint, supply chain, S&OP and operational KPI frameworks.
CPO
Sourcing & Cost Reduction
15 years in indirect and direct procurement across automotive and aerospace. Deep expertise in should-cost modelling, make-or-buy decisions and supplier risk management.
COO / Plant Director
Manufacturing & Lean
Former COO and multi-site plant director in process industries. Proven track record in lean transformation, OEE improvement and capacity restructuring.
CPO / Interim
Interim Executive
Seasoned interim executive with CPO mandates across PE-backed mid-caps. Rapid diagnostic-to-delivery cycles, with lasting procurement governance left in place.
Tech-native delivery
Tech is central. It is how the work gets done
Every deliverable we ship — data analysis, financial modelling, benchmarking, market insights, RFI/RFPs — runs on an engineered stack we own end-to-end: terabytes of secured storage, a curated data foundation, AI-powered analytical intelligence, and a growing fleet of in-house agents. Tech is central to how the work gets done.
Data foundation
Terabytes of storage on secured infrastructure. Every project plugs into the same fabric — no rebuild from scratch.
Documents at scale
- Contracts & framework agreements
- Invoices & purchase orders
- Spec sheets & SLAs
- Bills of materials
Spend & supplier data
- Spend cubes & P&L lines
- Line-item orders with prices
- Energy, telecom, fleet, parts SKUs
- Supplier masters & rate cards
Live external feeds
- Commodity prices
- Energy & logistics indices
- Supplier intelligence & credit
- Trade, customs & regulatory data
Analytical intelligence
Powered by the latest AI models, deployed against our own data foundation. Classify, characterise, benchmark, and reveal the insight — in hours, not weeks.
- Classify & characterisedata at scale across thousands of suppliers, SKUs and contracts.
- Run analytics & benchmarkline items, prices and clauses against our curated reference base.
- Reveal the insightconcentration, leakage, drift, anomalies, hidden levers — surfaced for senior judgement.
Agents
Developed by our own engineering team. Specialised, accountable, and left behind to keep the value compounding after we leave.
- Spend analysis & taxonomy
Auto-classification of millions of lines into a clean category tree.
- Contract & SLA analysis
Clause extraction, obligation tracking, rebate & tier monitoring.
- RFI / RFP creation
Tender packs, supplier shortlists, evaluation grids generated from the data foundation.
- Bids analysis
Apples-to-apples normalisation, scenario simulation, award optimisation.
- Savings modelling
Run-rate trackers, EBITDA bridges, value-capture forecasts.
- Bespoke app development
Custom cockpits, compliance checkers and category tools, left behind in production.
01
Speed & accuracy
Facts that used to take weeks to assemble are ready in hours — traceable to source, ready for senior debate.
02
Senior accountability
People remain accountable for judgement, decisions and implementation. The stack accelerates them; they stay in command.
03
Human focus where it matters
With grunt work compressed, senior attention goes where value is actually created: triggering change, managing change, and embedding it.
Contact
Let's discuss where operational value may be hidden
If you are evaluating an acquisition, launching a value creation plan, facing supplier pressure or preparing an exit, we would be pleased to open a confidential conversation. Engagements can be structured with a success-based component, aligned to the EBITDA actually captured.
- Direct
- contact@ubac-partners.com
- Office
- Paris · France
- Languages
- English · French
- Response
- Within two business days.
Join us
Talented operators find us — or we find them
UBAC Partners is a lean, senior firm by design. We grow selectively — when we meet someone whose depth, judgement and character belong in the room with management teams. If that sounds like you, we want to hear from you.
Who we are looking for
Senior operators and consultants with a real track record — not titles, but results. People who have sat inside management teams, navigated complexity, and left behind something that lasted. Procurement, supply chain, operational transformation, value engineering, M&A integration.
How we work together
Experts join specific project workstreams where their depth is directly needed — on a project basis, as senior associates, or as future partners. The engagement model is shaped around the person and the project, with no standard staffing template.
What we value
Intellectual rigour. The courage to tell a management team what it needs to hear. A genuine interest in the operational detail — not just the slide. Comfort with AI and data as everyday tools. And the kind of discretion that PE-backed engagements demand.
If this resonates, send us your CV. We are always keen to meet the right people and would genuinely like to hear from you.
Send your introductionTreated as strictly confidential.