Sustainability in purchasing: interview with Thomas Vierhaus (VTH).

The occasion.

The VTH represents around 220 technical traders in the DACH region: wholesale for industrial supplies, from bearings to seals, with about €5bn in industry revenue. Felix Kogler spoke with managing director Thomas Vierhaus in a video interview about what sustainable supply chain management concretely means for purchasing. The conversation took place in 2021, shortly before the German Supply Chain Act came into force, and is thus a look at the preparation Vierhaus recommended to the industry at the time.

The conversation.

Because the industry sits in the middle of the supply chain: as a partner of purchasing on the customer side and of sales on the industry side. Vierhaus names three fields of action: improvements along the supply chain, measures in your own purchasing and sustainable products. Added to that is the operational level, from the solar roof to the vehicle fleet.

To the objection that you have no influence at all, Vierhaus answers clearly: "You have to do it anyway. And that starts with anchoring it in my procurement strategy." Concretely that means: survey the as-is state of the most important suppliers, use supplier conversations and questionnaires, and bring the smaller suppliers along gently instead of scaring them off.

Recognised ISO certifications as a first grid: 9001 for quality, 45001 for occupational safety, 31000 for risk management, 14001 for the environment, 50001 for energy. Plus questions about policy statements on human rights and about concrete action plans for the carbon footprint. The more answers a supplier can provide, the better they can be classified.

Following the Pareto principle with the strategic core suppliers: 20 percent of suppliers stand for 80 percent of the business, and that's where the influence is greatest. Vierhaus reckons with at least two to three years until sustainable supply chain management is in place. And he leaves no doubt about the pivot: purchasing is the key. If it doesn't know the importance and the risks of the topic, it doesn't take part.

His "It depends" with a clear tendency: large customers are already actively asking and will write sustainability into their award criteria. Any trader who doesn't meet them won't supply there in future. The costs flatten over time, as with quality management, also because software tools automate a lot.

What remains.

Vierhaus's closing words in the interview: get going now and "don't wait like the rabbit in front of the snake", tackle the topic in sequences and bring purchasing, staff and suppliers on board. And sustainability in purchasing is measurable: less excess stock, less scrapping, fewer express shipments. How to quantify your excess stock is shown by the article on stock types. Two years after the conversation, Felix Kogler stood on the VTH stage himself: read the report from the 2023 annual conference.