Bill Kornegay, senior vice president, global supply chain at Godiva Chocolatier, credits his company's procurement team for putting in place a global procurement strategy that in the past three years has helped to save $24m. For 2010, the company expects to reduce costs by another $10m.  "Those savings, which we will either reinvest in the business or take to the bottom line, are important," Kornegay says.

Among other things, Godiva's purchasing professionals integrated the company's global procurement function with its businesses."

As leader of the business that sells chocolates directly to consumers on the internet, Kim Land, vice president Godiva direct, has seen the change in procurement.

"The business units worked less closely with purchasing three years ago than we do with procurement today," says Land who has been at Godiva for 11 years. 

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