About UPEPO Consulting
Food, drink and farming businesses operate on tight margins in a market that keeps moving.
I work with primary producers, processors, wholesalers and exporters on the part of the business between buying an input and being paid for the output — cost of production, working capital, spoilage, freight, planning etc.
One consultant, fixed fees, and no engagement that starts before it has been scoped.
Fifteen engagements. Each one scoped and shaped before it starts.
Not sure what is actually wrong?
Start with the Supply Chain Diagnostic. Two to four weeks, fixed fee, ending in a ranked list of what to fix, what each item is worth, and who should own it.
Already know?
Go straight to it. Fourteen defined engagements — the ones I am asked for most — each scoped, fixed-fee, and available to commission directly.
Neither quite fits?
Say so. The fourteen are what clients ask for, not the limit of what I do, and scoping something closer to your situation is a conversation rather than a process.
Whichever route in:
One fee, agreed in writing before any work starts. Delivered personally, start to finish. No day rates, no retainers, no junior team.
Entry point · DIAG
2–4 weeks
Supply Chain Diagnostic
A structured, evidence-based view of where your food or agribusiness supply chain is actually costing you money — in weeks, not quarters.
You are probably here because:
"I want to understand my supply chain properly and I do not know where to start."
"I do not want to commission five specialist reviews to find out."
"I need something evidence-based before I spend money on fixing it."
What you get
A scorecard across the supply chain function, from inbound raw material to customer delivery. A prioritised set of findings with the financial exposure quantified against each one, and a ninety-day plan with a named owner against every action. A recommendation, not a prescription.
Who it is for
Anyone accountable for a food or agribusiness supply chain who wants a clear, evidenced view of it — whether you have just taken the seat, or you have been in it for years and never had the time to look properly.
Cost and working capital
When margin is going somewhere nobody can point to, or too much cash is standing still
OPS
Where the line actually loses time and money, as opposed to where the OEE report says it does.
"Cost per unit keeps drifting up and no single thing explains it."
WC
Find the cash that your working capital is quietly absorbing, and the sequence to release it.
"Stock is rising faster than sales."
PROC
A structured review of your top ten categories, and where margin has been sitting unexamined.
"Spend has grown but we have not revisited the supplier base in years."
FARM
Cost of production per unit, built from your own records rather than from industry averages.
“We know our cost of production is too high. We do not know which part of it is the problem.”
Planning and distribution
When what was forecast, what was made and what arrived are three different numbers.
COLD
"Spoilage gets written off as a cost of doing business."
DIST
"Freight cost per unit is rising faster than volume."
DEM
"The sales forecast and the production plan are two different documents."
Sourcing, origin and reporting
S3
Scope 3 Data
"A customer has asked for supply chain emissions data and the deadline is real."
AFR
Africa Origin
"Our supply passes through aggregators and the chain goes dark below them."
EUDR
EUDR Readiness
"A customer has asked for a due diligence statement and I am not certain we can produce one."
CSRD
CSRD and CSDDD
"Our customer is in scope and has started passing the requirement down to us."
When the chain goes dark below your first-tier supplier, and someone downstream has started asking.
Adapting to something new
When a launch, a deal or a new feedstock has arrived, and the operation has not caught up.
BIO
Bioeconomy First Supply Chain
Building a supply chain for a feedstock or a product that does not yet have one. The deepest and longest engagement in the portfolio.
"The process works at pilot scale and the feedstock question is still open."
INT
Post-Acquisition Integration
Two supply chains becoming one operation. Sequencing, the synergies that are real, and an honest account of the ones that are not.
"The deal has completed and the operational plan is a page in the investment paper."
NPD
New Product Launch
Sourcing, capacity, packaging and distribution readiness established before the launch date rather than discovered after it.
"We have won a listing and nobody has tested the supply chain against it."
These are the engagements we are asked for most often, not the limit of what we do. If yours does not map neatly onto one of them, start with the diagnostic. Working out what the work should be is the point of it.
Evidence, not adjectives.
Tell us what is not working.
A twenty-minute call costs you nothing and usually tells us both whether there is a piece of work here. If there is not, we will say so.
Email: hugo@upepoconsulting.com
Phone: +44 7834 55 8050
We reply to every enquiry within one working day.