Brachers LLP

Eric Tiv of Utilitas Solutions first met Tim Robinson, head of Practice Management at Brachers, in 2007. 

Tim invited Eric and Steve to review Brachers' expenditure after hearing excellent word-of-mouth from a similarly-sized accountancy firm in Maidstone. In addition, the self-financing Utilitas process appealed to the financially trained Tim and his firm, who realised they had nothing to lose.

Brachers have historically watched their costs carefully, and maintained a tight rein on expenditure. However, the opportunity for an independent risk-free assessment by a proven local consultancy enabled them to free busy employees from these responsibilities, therefore increasing the productivity of their own team.

Utilitas first looked at energy. 

Gas was the only unencumbered supply, so Steve used his experience and contacts in the energy market to invite a number of suppliers to make competitive tenders. This had the net result of reducing Brachers' gas expenditure by 7%.

Steve turned his attention next to electricity and DX. He revealed that Brachers were already receiving good value for their DX service. Tim was happy with this result as there were therefore no fees due for the analysis on the DX service, and it showed that his internal team already had DX in hand. The analysis on electricity usage found savings which totaled £9,200 over the next 12 months.

The next project was to examine the waste at the four sites they occupied at the time. Brachers had a particularly delicate situation at one of the offices, located in a residential area, as some of the residents had previously complained about early morning bin collections. Steve took note of this detail, and it was included in the tender.

Tim was delighted; not only did Utilitas manage to reduce the waste expense by 66%, saving the firm £13,000pa, they also produced a result which put an end to the complaints, and dramatically decreased waste to landfill.

Tim had this to say about the work Utilitas has done for Brachers “I am very pleased with the savings Utilitas have produced for us. Like most companies we had thought we had our procurement strategy working well, the level of savings produced just goes to show we are best to focus on what we do best and let the experts find the savings”

With these previous successes in mind, in early 2010 Brachers invited Utilitas to investigate their stationery costs, and re-examine their energy spend, with further savings uncovered.