Case Studies

Transforming Bracket Pricing into a Strategic Advantage

3 minute read

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: A leading food ingredients and bakery manufacturer was implementing a bracket pricing program designed to drive margin consistency, but the effort was stalling. Without a central owner to connect departments, align processes, and prepare teams, the rollout risked failure. Catena Solutions brought in an experienced pricing leader to unite stakeholders under one vision. The result: reduced pricing discrepancies, stronger governance, and a sustainable foundation for strategic, data-driven pricing.

Project at a Glance

• Bracket Pricing Transformation: Operationalized a stalled pricing program and established clear ownership
• Pricing Governance: Standardized decision-making, documentation, reporting, and review processes
• Cross-Functional Alignment: Connected Sales, Customer Service, IT, Finance, and RGM around a common pricing strategy
• Training & Adoption: Prepared teams to consistently execute CPU, EDI, and combination order processes
• Sustainable Pricing Discipline: Built a repeatable framework to reduce discrepancies and support margin growth

The Challenge: Why Was the Bracket Pricing Program Stalling?

A food ingredients and bakery products manufacturer was rolling out a complex bracket pricing program but lacked a centralized owner to drive cross-functional coordination. There was no one ensuring operational readiness, process consistency, or alignment across departments while the technical implementation was in progress.

Key challenges included:

• No defined process for Customer Service and Sales to jointly resolve customer-level pricing issues
• Governance team lacked structured documentation to support timely, data-driven decisions
• Inconsistent routines for updating freight differentials and reporting bracket performance
• Gaps in training on Customer Pick-Up (CPU), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), and combination orders
• Sales often treated pricing as a negotiation tool rather than a strategic lever

The company needed more than a system implementer. They needed a leader with pricing and SAP expertise who could bridge strategy and execution, align Sales, Customer Service, IT, Finance, and RGM, and establish governance for a sustainable pricing discipline.

The Solution: Building a Sustainable Bracket Pricing Program

Catena Solutions assigned a Bracket Pricing Leader with 15+ years of financial leadership experience across food and beverage to operationalize the program and ensure adoption across teams. This included:

• Aligning Customer Service and Sales through joint weekly reviews of customer issues
• Standardizing documentation for Governance team decision-making
• Creating monthly bracket report cards and facilitating SAP differential reviews
• Training teams on CPU and combination order processes
• Supporting EDI testing coordination and accurate SAP field usage for line-level pricing components

Drawing on prior experience developing and implementing similar SAP-based pricing controls, the consultant quickly introduced structure, anticipated pitfalls, and addressed cultural challenges, including shifting Sales’ mindset from negotiation-driven pricing to strategic, process-led pricing.

By bringing structure and leadership to a complex pricing initiative, Catena helped turn bracket pricing from a system project into a strategic capability.

The Benefit: How Did Bracket Pricing Improve Governance & Margin Consistency?

The impact extended far beyond process efficiency. Catena’s embedded leader established the structure, governance, and collaboration model needed to make pricing discipline part of the company’s DNA. Key results included:

• Reduced pricing discrepancies and customer friction
• Improved cross-functional alignment and accountability
• Consistent governance routines and standards
• A repeatable framework for pricing performance tracking

The success was so immediate and transformative that the client retained the consultant long-term to continue leading the initiative, ensuring that bracket pricing remains a driver of margin growth, not complexity. Facing your own pricing challenges? Contact us to see how Catena Solutions can help.