Companies merge or make acquisitions because they expect to thus realize a better starting position in their competitive environment. In terms of M&A subjects, the purchasing department is particularly important: More than 50 percent of costs relate to the purchase of goods and services. And: No corporate area is able to show results as fast. Thus, already in the very first weeks after a merger, the purchasing department will increase a company's corporate value – and it secures its long-term success by raising comprehensive synergies. Christian Michalak, managing director at Kerkhoff Consulting, emphasizes in the current issue of the Venture Capital Magazine, what comanies have to do in order to hamonize purchasing in M&A processes. more

Düsseldorf, May 21, 2010 – Altogether 42 percent of German furniture manufacturers have no purchasing strategy defined in writing; 49 percent do not carry out any standardized supplier evaluation, 57 percent have no established risk management system, and 30 percent do not even offer continuing training for their employees. Purchasing in the furniture industry is thus more and more divided into two camps: there are the trailblazers and those lagging far behind. This is the result of a joint study by the Kerkhoff Competence Center of Supply Chain Management St. Gallen, of the Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach, and of the trade journal Möbelmarkt. more