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Steve Hoffman

PartnerChicago

Steve Hoffman

PartnerChicago

Specializes in driving performance for consumer clients with a focus on procurement, omnichannel fulfillment, and operations-strategy issues

Steve has a true global perspective, having served more than 50 retail and consumer clients across more than 15 countries on operational issues. Specifically, he has worked on indirect procurement transformations and private-label product design and sourcing across food, GM, and apparel and was a founding member of our design-to-value area of work in 2006. Steve leads our work in retail procurement and supply management globally and is an expert in the food and apparel product categories as well as the facilities and maintenance, packaging, logistics, marketing, and utilities indirect categories.

Examples of his recent client work include the following:

  • building a network of global sourcing offices for a global apparel specialty player to eliminate the need for agents and buy fabric and garments directly from manufacturers, reducing the total landed costs more than 25 percent
  • designing a predictive cost algorithm and tool for a global apparel wholesaler to be able to negotiate against individual bottom up cost components for fabric and garments
  • leading an end-to-end indirect cost transformation for a grocery retailer, resulting in more than $200 million cost savings, while building a new organizational model to sustain ongoing year-over-year improvements
  • creating a consumer insights back facilities and maintenance specification and process design with a major North American department store chain, improving customer satisfaction by 300 basis points and reduced cost by 15 percent
  • establishing a new real-estate and capital-productivity team at one of North America’s largest retail chains, resulting in 20 percent improved speed of store refresh roll outs, 30 percent reduction in utility cost, and 25 percent reduction in average cost per square foot on general construction
  • leading a sourcing and product-development effort for more than $1 billion in private label food that included incorporating consumer insights, competitive benchmarks, and clean sheet costing to improve the gross margin by more than 300 basis points

Published work

Retailers’ climate road map: Charting paths to decarbonized value chains,” McKinsey & Company, July 2024

Reimagine, reuse, recycle: How to reach sustainable packaging targets in retail,” McKinsey & Company, December 2023

Using sustainability to transform food systems in South Korea,” McKinsey & Company, March 2023

Climate sustainability in retail: Who will pay?,” McKinsey & Company, May 2022

Closing the loop: Increasing fashion circularity in California,” McKinsey & Company, March 2022

Beyond procurement: Transforming indirect spending in retail,” McKinsey & Company, August 2018

Turning indirect sourcing into a multimillion-dollar profit center,” McKinsey & Company, June 2017

Turning down the cost of utilities in retail,” McKinsey & Company, June 2015

Past experience

PRTM
Consultant

Education

University of Michigan
MSE, industrial and operations engineering

University of Michigan
BSE, industrial and operations engineering