What is Indirect Sourcing in ASDA?

Indirect Sourcing brings together the purchase of all goods and services that are not for re-sale, in other words anything that we don't sell to customers in our shops.
We spend a massive £1.7bn a year in this area, across more than 10,000 products and 3,500 suppliers. In itself - this is a business bigger than many UK PLCs.
Indirect Sourcing effectively brings together the three teams in ASDA House who buy for these areas.

The three teams are as follows:

Central Buying

This team is commercially responsible for buying all goods and services for ASDA House, stores and depots. This includes store consumables, marketing, HR, waste management, loss prevention and depot spend. As a supplier of goods or services into these areas, you are likely to have a primary contact who does not sit in Central Buying, e.g. if you are a marketing supplier, your primary contact will be in the marketing team. The Central Buying team work with each of the teams in ASDA House, stores and depots, and are responsible for ensuring that the specification, price negotiated and contract where appropriate are commercially sound and represent the best deal for ASDA and our customers.

ISD

The buying and contracting for all equipment and services associated with our information systems are managed by the ISD team.

Retail Development

This is the team that looks after major capital expenditure - store build, extensions and remodel, ASDA House works, the store maintenance and cleaning contract with City FM, and fixturisation and fit out of store equipment.
There is a web page for each team to give you further detail on how each team operates and key contacts.

Our Mission, Purpose and Values

Our Mission is:
"To provide best value to our internal customers - always!"

What do we mean by best value?
Right specification at the right price

Who are our internal customers?
These are the teams in ASDA House for whom the Indirect Sourcing teams provide commercial and negotiation expertise and support.

Ultimately, in providing best value for our internal customers, we - most importantly - provide best value to all of our customers in our shops by reducing our cost base and making our supply chains more effective, which in turn allows us to meet our corporate mission:

"To be Britain's best value retailer exceeding customers' needs .... Always"

And our purpose?

"To make goods and services more affordable and accessible for everyone"

As a supplier to ASDA, you have a critical role to play in this, and the Indirect Sourcing team will work with you constantly to ensure that everything you do works towards the achievement of this mission.

"Being First For Customers"

Everything we do at ASDA is focused on putting our customers first. If the customer does not benefit from an action, we will not do it. The role that the Indirect Sourcing team play in making sure that we are first for customers is described by the "Agenda for Indirect Sourcing":

Agenda for Indirect Sourcing

If you are working on something that does not fit in this framework, you are working on the wrong things. Have a chat with your buyer to help you understand how you can build a business plan around the Agenda for Indirect Sourcing

Being World Class

ASDA is a business which aspires to be world class and Indirect Sourcing is no exception. Having the most efficient and effective supply chains - both externally and internally - and keeping a keen eye on the future are critically important to the work that we do. We have built a vision to be world class, and will be challenging ourselves - and you - to ensure that everything we do works towards the achievement of this vision:

Our Vision to be World Class:

•  We are the nation’s favourite shop
•  We are a sustainable growth business
•  We are a customer led, local and responsible retailer
•  We save every penny we can to help reduce the cost of living for our customers through delivering low prices permanently
•  We are a supermarket with an environmentally responsible and sustainable sourcing model
•  We believe that “less is more”
•  We will passionately work to one best way
•  We strive for open, honest, responsible and effective relationships with our suppliers