Saint-Gobain Building Distribution France reinvents its B2B pricing policy

Addressing the B2B market challenges with a new pricing policy and solution

SGBD France has experienced several significant changes in the market in recent years. These challenges included an evolving competitive landscape, the increasing power of the web, and changing buyer patterns. To address these trends and remain competitive, SGBD France needed to react swiftly. Pricing, a key lever, was core to the Group’s focus because of its impact on customer loyalty, profitability and the overall brand image.

Since 2015, working in collaboration with BearingPoint, the Group has launched a series of successful pricing projects, starting with the most impacted business units.

Transforming the pricing process, strategically and operationally

BearingPoint supported SGBD France with consulting services for specific business units in the Group: plumbing and heating (DSC) and selected regional construction materials branches (POINT.P). These units assessed their pricing practices fully, to address both strategic and operational challenges. This holistic approach allowed them to analyze all end-to-end issues, covering strategy and price calculations, organization and governance, processes, and IT tools.

In other SGBD France units, the newly deployed OPTIX software-as-a-service (SaaS) created a method for new B2B pricing.

The new B2B pricing policy enabled SGBD France to increase its operating margin and sales performance

These efforts have enabled SGBD France to increase the operating margin in its DSC business unit by more than 1.5 points, improve sales performance by generating 20% additional sales at list price, and increase pricing confidence from both the customer and internal sales team perspectives. Making the pricing process more efficient, effective and transparent, allowed the operational teams involved in pricing at SGBD France to redirect their efforts towards developing and servicing their customers instead of having to negotiate prices. The deployment of OPTIX also provided benefits to pricing managers, who can now focus on pricing strategy. This work has enabled SGBD France to maintain its market position as the leader in construction materials distribution in the country.

Client

Saint-Gobain Building Distribution France (SGBD France) is a subsidiary of Saint Gobain SA. It operates in 2000 locations with 23,000 employees, generating sales of €7.3 billion. The company’s main role is to distribute construction materials in the B2B2C market.