Every ship manager says they want the best price. Yet the harder they chase it, the less cost effective it becomes.
Across the maritime industry, procurement is fragmented. Multiple departments issue the same RFQs to multiple chandlers, each under pressure to deliver the cheapest possible quote. It sounds like smart buying. In practice, it often drives prices up.
Vagie Iliakis, CEO of World Chandlering International, explains why. “We often see RFQs for the same supplies for the same vessel coming in from several directions. One from the port agent here in Houston, one from the head office thousands of miles away, one from the owner, and sometimes even a direct request from the captain. Those same RFQs then hit five or seven chandlers in the same port, all chasing the same local vendors.”
That scramble creates a perfect storm. Vendors raise prices because they are inundated with duplicate requests for the same goods in the same time window. Chandlers then have to protect already thin margins, so the only way to win is to cut deeper. The end result is a fragile supply chain where nobody has enough margin left to deliver properly.
“The problem with that situation,” says Iliakis, “is that for a chandler, the smaller your margin, the less time you can afford to spend on fulfilment. That’s when quality drops and non conformances rise.”
Recent interviews with procurement teams around the world reveal how common the consequences are: mislabelled goods, missed slots, and last minute substitutions. One UK ship management company described a recent port call where the chandler simply failed to deliver, forcing the port agent to find another supplier at the eleventh hour. “That’s often how new relationships start for us,” Iliakis says. “We move mountains in an emergency, then earn a place on their RFQ list. But even then, we are still competing with everyone else for the same supplies.”
World Chandlering believes the model needs to change. The answer, Iliakis says, lies in scale and partnership rather than duplication. “Our loyalty program allows procurement teams to switch all their supplies to us for a year. That gives us predictable demand, lets us plan our quotation and fulfilment better, and builds vendor relationships where we can negotiate the absolute best deals. Because we know what we’ll be buying, we can ring fence inventory, reduce lead times, and pass genuine savings back to our customers.”
The program is already finding traction. During a recent commercial review, one long standing customer said what the industry really needs is exactly this, a loyalty scheme that rewards commitment rather than endless competition.
The new playbook for procurement is not about chasing the cheapest deal. It is about building trusted partnerships that make true cost efficiency possible. For the smartest buyers, “more for less” now means working with fewer partners. And working smarter with them.
