From 2011 to December 2024, our dedicated efforts helped advance the strategic sourcing for the Church of England by creating an innovative procurement solution, Parish Buying.
Parish Buying was tailored to address diverse indirect expenditures of local parish churches across England and Wales, most notably in Power and Gas. 2buy2 was, (and still is for active contracts taken out before 31/12/2024), the official Energy Ombudsman regulated broker that supported and managed the Energy Basket & Fixed Term contract solutions for Parish Buying customers. By consolidating their collective energy expenditures, we consistently achieved substantial cost savings for the organisation.
The Church of England and Church of Wales sought to leverage the power of bulk purchasing to secure competitive pricing across a diverse array of contracts. Their objective was to engage vetted suppliers known for their reliability, while also ensuring dedicated support for the churches involved in the contract establishment process. This strategic approach aimed to optimise procurement efficiency and foster a trustworthy network of suppliers.
Innovative energy purchasing solutions were required; to take the complexity out of purchasing energy, provide different purchasing options and take advantage of the bulk buying power of local parish churches across England and Wales. In addition a requirement of finding green energy to help the Church of England and local parishes meet their Net Zero Carbon aims.
Churches often do not have a dedicated procurement expert to help them through their contracts and tenders. It was our job to ensure someone finding Parish Buying would be able to understand and be guided through each step of the procurement process.
We needed to account for a supplier’s reliability and ensured they uphold a standard high enough for the Church of England and Church of Wales. We also needed to make sure potential suppliers could focus on solutions that positively impacted the environment.
Due to the nature of the contract on offer, it required constant attention from our procurement experts in order to make sure contracts were delivered in a timely manner.
The energy market and purchasing energy can be a complex process and daunting for many parish churches. Along with providing quotes for fixed term contracts and options for Parish Buying Customers, 2buy2 innovated and created, supported and managed one of the UK's biggest energy baskets. This innovative solution of an energy basket helped to take the volatility out of the energy market by hedging the purchasing of the energy and taking advantage of bulk buying, resulting in a significant number of parish churches saving money on their energy bills which could then be put back into their missions. All of this while also lowering the environmental impact through green solutions.
2buy2 created and managed Parish Buying’s website up to June 2024, which had an easy to use registration and on-boarding process. The site was easy to navigate and guided a user through to the solution(s) they needed. We also provided an online chat experience for customer support and created online guides and an FAQ section to alleviate any problems someone may have upon entering the site or finding solutions. After June 2024, a new website was created and managed by the Central Church team.
Our procurement experts made sure to analyse a supplier’s capability and efficiency before allowing them to become part of the many solutions that Parish Buying offered.
2buy2 provided support for Parish Buying customers via telephone, email and live chat, making it easy for customers to get in contact and resolved their issues as quick as possible. By making sure we had a team of procurement experts on hand to work through any manner of contract requirements or tenders, the parish churches did not need to stress over the complexities or deadlines. Our energy and support teams worked hard to support customers with their requests for energy quotes and entrance into the Energy Basket.
From its inception 12 years ago, we have grown Parish Buying to now include over 6,000 energy sites and achieved savings of approximately £5m whilst generating a consistent revenue stream for the Central Church of England.
This led to new opportunities being appointed to develop and operate a whole strategic sourcing plan for energy and net carbon zero across the Church of England.
As part of our then agreement with the Church of England, we provided surge capacity support to their internal procurement team. This has included providing specialist procurement support in complex areas of procurement including FM, energy, professional services and safeguarding.
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