Logistics & Procurement Advisory

Where Your Gross Margin Went

46% rise in logistics costs since 2020.
The structural pressure on Alberta energy and logistics margins isn’t temporary. It’s data.

Most oil & gas, energy, logistics, and manufacturing companies are losing 3–8% of gross margin to procurement decisions they cannot see. AJM finds the root cause in eight weeks — with your data, not a workshop.

3–8%
Gross Margin Typically Recoverable
8 Weeks
First Data Export to Findings Report
$2M–$15M
Revenue Range We Typically Serve
Fixed Fee
Scoped and Agreed Before We Start

The Problem

The Savings Are There. They Just Are Not Visible.

Operations businesses make hundreds of procurement decisions every quarter. Most are made on instinct, relationship, and inertia — not data. The result is margin leakage that compounds quietly across categories, vendors, and freight lines until it shows up as a profitability problem with no obvious cause.

Your Cost Per Unit Does Not Match Your Landed Cost

Vendor invoices, freight, duties, handling, and returns are tracked in different systems. No one is adding it all up. Margin leakage is invisible at the line-item level until it shows up in the P&L.

Your Top Suppliers Are Not Your Best Suppliers

Volume, loyalty, and long relationships override data. You are paying above-market rates on contracts that have not been benchmarked in years — and you do not have the data to prove it or the leverage to change it.

Procurement Decisions Get Made by Feel

No system ties purchase decisions to inventory performance, margin outcome, or working capital impact. Every buyer is operating on instinct. That is expensive, and it compounds with every order placed.

How We Work

Eight Weeks. One Team. No Workshops.

The Health Check is a fixed-scope engagement. We tell you exactly what data to pull, you provide the exports, and we do the analysis. No site visits in week one. No discovery workshops billed at $400 an hour. Just a clear picture of where your procurement costs are going.

1–2

Data Extraction & Baseline

We define the data pull — purchase orders, vendor master, freight invoices, inventory records. You provide the exports. We build the baseline model and establish your current cost structure.

3–4

Vendor & Category Analysis

We map every category by spend, volume, and margin contribution. We benchmark your vendor rates against market comparables and flag the outliers — with numbers, not opinions.

5–6

Root Cause Identification

We trace margin leakage to its source — freight consolidation, vendor pricing, specification drift, or buying behaviour. We quantify the impact in dollar terms, not percentages.

7–8

Findings Report & Roadmap

You receive a written findings report, a vendor benchmark summary, and a 90-day procurement roadmap prioritized by savings potential and ease of implementation.

What You Walk Away With

Five Deliverables. All Written. All Yours.

The Health Check closes with five documents — immediately usable, written in plain language, tied to your specific numbers. Not a slide deck. Actual findings.

01
Vendor benchmark report — your rates vs. market comparables by category
02
Category-level margin analysis — where you are leaking and by how much
03
Root cause assessment — why the leakage is happening and what is driving it
04
90-day procurement roadmap — what to fix first, in what order, and why
05
Working capital impact model — what the fixes are worth in annual cash flow

Recent Work

What a Health Check Actually Finds

Distribution · Alberta

4.2% Margin Leakage Found in Freight Consolidation

An $8M distribution business was pricing competitively but losing margin they could not explain. The Health Check traced it to unconsolidated LTL shipments across 34 vendor accounts. A freight consolidation plan recovered $310K annually with no vendor changes required.

Food Service · Western Canada

$180K Annual Savings Through Vendor Benchmarking

A $12M food service operator had 14-year relationships with three primary suppliers. Benchmarking showed pricing 18–22% above comparable contracts. AJM managed the renegotiation. Savings were in place within 90 days of the report being delivered.

Investment

Fixed Fee. Scoped Before We Start.

The Health Check is a fixed fee engagement. We scope the work on the discovery call, agree on the fee before we touch a file, and deliver against a defined set of outputs. No hourly billing. No scope creep invoices.

$20K – $50K
Fixed fee, scoped at first call based on business size and data complexity.
  • Full vendor and category analysis
  • Market benchmarking against comparable contracts
  • Root cause identification with dollar impact quantified
  • Written findings report and 90-day roadmap
  • Working capital impact model included
  • Presentation to ownership or board on request

The Team

Senior Practitioners. Not Junior Analysts.

Arthur Madden
Engagement Lead
Arthur leads every Health Check engagement directly. He has 20 years of experience in operational finance, supply chain advisory, and M&A preparation for mid-market energy, logistics, and manufacturing businesses across Alberta. He has sat on both sides of the procurement table and knows where the numbers hide.
Arthur can be reached at amadden@ajmsolutions.ca or +1 403 473 8547.
Michael Yeung
Deal Origination & Commercial
Michael brings buy-side M&A perspective to every Health Check. When findings point toward a transaction — supplier consolidation, strategic acquisition, or exit preparation — Michael leads the commercial analysis alongside Arthur.
AJM engagements are led by the named partner. No handoffs to junior staff.

Start Here

Your First Data Export Tells Us Everything

The Health Check begins with a 30-minute discovery call. We tell you what data to pull, you provide the exports, and we scope the engagement based on what we see. Fixed fee agreed before we start. No obligation on the call.