Hey Big Spenders!
Paul Smith, YPO: £500 million
Paul is Procurement and Supply Chain Director at YPO (based in Wakefield). Having joined YPO in 2010 Paul is responsible for all procurement and logistics functions. This includes over 300 staff and a procurement spend of £0.5 billion.
Paul has over 20 years experience within procurement having held senior roles at various private sector organisations. He started his career at Jaguar Cars before taking up roles in the outsourcing, print, financial services and IT industries. His last role was Head of Global Category Management at Aviva before finally making the leap into the public sector with YPO.
Paul is particularly interested in the impact of new technology on the procurement profession and also in the development of public sector procurement. When not at work, you will find Paul at home in York drinking great coffee!
YPO is the UK’s largest public sector buying organisation. Established in 1974, YPO is owned by 13 local authorities and buys goods and services on behalf of the public sector by aggregating buying power and generating savings. YPO is self-funding and non-profit making, any profit is returned to the public sector (over £6m in 2010). YPO have two warehouses in Wakefield and employs over 450 staff.
In 2011 the total level of procurement spend managed by YPO will be over £0.5 billion.
YPO buys anything that a school or local authority may need from pens and pencils to energy, temporary staff and vehicles.
YPO have been an integral part of public sector procurement in Yorkshire for over 37 years serving education and local government. We have always had strong links with local businesses and continue to wish to develop our ties within our home region. As we are owned by Yorkshire councils, engagement with local businesses is high on our owners’ agenda. This is why I was happy to take up the offer to sit on the panel
Paul Smith, Procurement and Supply Chain Director, YPO
YPO provides a professional procurement service that allows public sector customers to enjoy cost and efficiency savings through a substantial bulk buying power and the convenience of our ‘one stop shop’.
With an annual turnover of £400m YPO is the largest formally constituted local authority purchasing consortium in the UK.
With a customer base extends across more than 100 local authority areas encompassing schools, colleges and universities in addition to all major local government departments including Social Services, Catering, Transport, Highways, Building, Energy, Admin and Waste Management as well as the Emergency Services.
Based in Wakefield, in close proximity to the M1 and M62 motorways, YPO employs 400 staff in its headquarters and two warehouses.
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