How João Porto Helped a Food Sector Client Achieve 20%+ Savings

How João Porto Helped a Food Sector Client Achieve 20%+ Savings

Key highlights

• ~20–30% total savings achieved across logistics, packaging, and insurance categories
• Client originated via trusted referral, highlighting strong relationship-led growth
• Extended engagement evolved into ongoing purchasing support model over 2 years

João Porto has been part of ERA Group for five years, joining during the pandemic and building his practice from Porto, Portugal. From the beginning, he has focused on combining commercial execution with strong client relationships, working across data, negotiations, and project delivery.

What he enjoys most is the variety of the role—presenting solutions, managing projects, analysing data, and building relationships with clients. For João, the work sits at the intersection of numbers and people, where structured analysis meets real-world business needs.

One of his most notable client stories began through a referral from a trusted contact—a lawyer who introduced him to a food industry company that was highly focused on its core operations but lacked internal resources dedicated to cost optimisation. The company’s main concern was profitability, particularly across areas such as logistics, packaging, and insurance.

From the outset, João and his team applied a structured ERA Group approach designed to quickly identify and deliver value. The early results were strong, with overall savings in the range of 20–30%, confirming both the opportunity and the potential for a longer-term partnership.

As he explains, “we always try to be very fast in delivering value to the customer.”

Following this initial success, the relationship evolved. Over time, the client asked ERA Group to become more deeply involved in their procurement process, effectively supporting them on an ongoing basis whenever purchasing decisions were needed. What started as a targeted savings project developed into a continuous operational partnership.

This flexibility, João notes, is central to how ERA Group works. The ability to adapt solutions to different client needs—rather than applying a rigid consulting model—allows engagements to evolve naturally based on value and trust.

For him, the most important distinction in the ERA Group approach is client centricity. Rather than imposing predefined solutions, the focus is always on adapting to the client’s reality and building long-term outcomes rather than short-term fixes.

As he puts it, “we are never consultants who impose our will—we always adapt to the client and think long term.”

His story reflects how strong relationships, flexible delivery, and fast, measurable impact can turn a single introduction into a long-term strategic partnership.

‍