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The Dunham Oil Syndicate has been going for 4 years and with 400 members each quarterly order is around 170 drops/130,000 litres. Typically I have saved 5-8p per litre over an individual ordering 500 litres on the same day. However, orders placed in June and September showed savings of only 3p and 2.5p. I feel that suppliers are trying to discourage syndicates- a lot of work for us but with scant reward for the members. In Norfolk there are a decreasing number of suppliers with several 'companies' actually all part of one larger one which further narrows negotiation.

I would be interested in hearing experiences of others on this matter.

Sheila

s.hussey55@btinternet.com

I agree with Sheila that discounts seem to be harder to achieve at the moment. I did notice some while ago that discounts seemed to get harder in a period of rapid oil price rises. I did wonder if the suppliers were already squeezing their margins at such a time.

I allowed my summer order to build to 270,000 litres. On balance I think the suppliers found it too big to swallow and I didn't feel we got a great discount. More recently I split a large order over four consecutive days. That worked reasonably. The four went to three different suppliers, I worked harder on the negotiation and we achieved a better discount than in the summer. I think the sweet spot for order size is about 50,000 to 100,000 litres.