Barbara Guignard

Accumulating 15 years’ experience in procurement and supply chain, Barbara joined Efficio in 2008 and has since been leading large-scale, international procurement transformation projects across a number of sectors, with a focus on the food, retail, and manufacturing industries.

Main areas of practice

Barbara’s principal strengths lie in Procurement Transformation and Strategic Sourcing, particularly in the context of international organisations and/or mergers and acquisitions.

Barbara founded and continues to lead the Efficio Women’s Network, which provides an inclusive forum to exchange topics impacting women’s performance and well-being in the workplace, network with women across the business, as well as to raise general awareness on gender challenges. She is also a certified coach in personal development, and is heavily involved in internal and external training.

Career 

Barbara has a master's in International Business Management from the University of Savoie in France, with various international experiences: she studied two semesters in the UK, two semesters in Austria, and carried out a six month internship in Italy.

She is fluent in French, English, Italian, Spanish and German, and can aslo read and write in Arabic.

Clients 

Generally, Barbara works with clients in medium-sized companies often with an international sales and/or supply chain footprint, in sectors ranging from Manufacturing to Distribution and Services.

Significant experience 

Italy – Chocolate Manufacturer – Led the Strategic Sourcing programme for key raw materials and ingredients: Cocoa, Flavours, Sugars, Oils. Day to day management of key stakeholders in various countries (CFO, HR director, COO).

France/Italy/Spain – Call Centre Operator – Led the engagement of an Opportunity Assessment and Strategic Sourcing programme across four main categories of spend: Real Estate, Facilities Management, Network & Telecoms, End User Computing.

Spain/ Greece/Cyprus – Global chain of hotels – Led the Opportunity Assessment and Strategic Sourcing programme of a global chain of hotels with focus on Spain, Greece, and Cyprus. Initiative covering Indirects (Security, Kitchenware, Laundry, Telecoms) and Directs (Meat, Milk, Fish). Savings achieved ranging from 6% to 45% (Security).

France/Italy/UK/US – Retail Industry – Clothing and Diving equipment – Strategic sourcing and procurement transformation programme for a multinational business across 16 entities. Identified opportunities for optimisation of sourcing, mainly for Goods for Resale (neoprene wetsuits, diving equipment and accessories). Supported the client in reviewing its GFR range in order to maximise profit margin. Review of work processes between business line managers and procurement as well as recruitment of new category managers.

France/Germany/UKI/Poland/Switzerland – Road and Sea Freight Logistics categories: Inbound and outbound logistics of frozen food products for a Food Solutions company. Review of current network across multiple countries and recommendations for redesign and competitive tendering of transport categories. Delivery of 10% savings across all road transport spend across Europe.

Other expertise

Barbara has category expertise in professional services, marketing, finished goods, logistics, engineering services, third-party labour and outsourced services.