Angela Pryce

How did you come to work in procurement?

I started my career 22 years ago, when I joined Twinings as a Trainee Tea Buyer and Blender. The early days involved lots of tasting, sometimes 700 cups a day, sometimes blindfolded! The training programme was a lengthy 5 years. Valuing a tea is predominantly a sensory process of the tea's organoleptic profile (visual, taste, aroma). After 9 years I moved into a role with the Ovaltine Procurement team. The main objective was to recommend the global buying strategy for c.£90m ingredients spend across global manufacturing sites. I also headed up the European Packaging Procurement team for Twinings, managing a team of 6 buyers sourcing materials such as cartons, tin, laminate and teapaper.

Tell us about your current role

As an independent consultant, I work with a range of businesses and products around the world. I am passionate about global trade, and love bringing the product story to life, from field to retail shelf. Most recently I was working on a 3-year capacity-building project for the UN's International Trade Centre in East Africa (Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania) and Eastern Europe. The objective was to assist SMEs in developing countries achieve sustainable development through increased exports. I was brought onto the team to provide EU retail market insight, supply/demand analysis of the global tea markets and strategic direction. Mentoring individual businesses was highly rewarding. I'm also an external advisor to McKinsey as a member of their Culinary Excellence Centre, and I create and host tea-based corporate events.

What is the best procurement adventure you have had?

There's been a few! The scariest was a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Borneo to visit cocoa plantations. We hit terrible turbulence - the chap behind me began reciting his prayers and the lady beside me began counting her rosary beads for 45 minutes until we landed to much tears and applause. Then queuing for passport control only to find a tarantula on the wall just 30cms away... quite a day! But the best was my first overseas trip as a buyer, a 6-month training trip to Assam, north east India. The flight path follows the mighty Brahmaputra River, over the Kaziranga National Park - home to tigers, elephants, and the endangered white rhino. We were lucky enough to see one in the distance. Landing on the lush gardens of a tea bungalow, with a welcome cup of tea in hand - it's a memory I'll treasure.

What are the three most important skills for the procurement professional?

Being a great listener - important in gathering data, communicating effectively and building successful relationships. Influencing skills - being able to see things from another person's perspective is so important, especially when preparing for a negotiation or a difficult conversation. I've found the Myers Briggs personality type indicator helpful in many situations. Being a devil for the detail - an obvious but important one. Can come into good use during negotiations when it's helpful to consider benefits other than price that might not be immediately apparent.

How can Procurement reduce waste?

One of my favourite products is Dash Water - I love how they've championed waste (using wonky fruit and veg to create a delicious flavoured sparkling water). During my time at Fortnum and Mason, I set up a relationship with Bio Bean Coffee whereby they collected our waste coffee grounds to manufacture into coffee logs - recycling waste otherwise destined for landfill. I've also recently worked with a tea supplier in East Africa to find a buyer for their waste dry leaf grade (BMF - a fibrous material by-product from tea production). We established contact with potential customers in the natural paint industry as BMF makes a fabulous natural pigment (rich red/brown in colour).

Brexit, Trade Tensions, Covid and Climate Change have made securing supply tough. What are your top tips?

Difficult times most definitely highlight the importance of buyer-supplier relationships. Well executed Supplier Relationship Management comes into its own - lean hard into Strategic Relationships to get maximum benefit during times of critical supply. Of paramount importance is ensuring you've secured supply - even more important than price. Remember stakeholders within your own business too. Through appropriate and timely knowledge sharing, Procurement can really help a business navigate uncertain times. Communication done well can raise the profile and visibility of the Procurement team across the business. Transparency builds trust and can help solve problems before they become unmanageable.

What is your biggest procurement achievement?

I'm really proud of setting up and establishing the new role and ways of working for Ovaltine Ingredients. It was challenging - I was indirectly leading a team of buyers across global boundaries by influence alone, for commodities entirely new to me. Time, stakeholder management and much hard work paid off and the end result was a truly global buying team with local supply chain insight and global strategic knowledge. A new method of reporting financial data was developed and presented to senior leadership on a quarterly basis, detailing year to date performance and year-to-go risk or opportunity.

What procurement skill do you most like to use in your home life?

With 2 children, a husband, dog and 5 chickens life seems to be a constant negotiation... over the years I've found toddlers to be the toughest negotiators!

Rapid Fire

Darjeeling or Lapsang Souchong?

Both - Darjeeling in Spring, Lapsang Souchong in Autumn

Tea pot or tea bag?

Definitely a Tea Pot for flavour

Milk before or after pouring tea?

After, to determine amount needed