Trade Department Structure & Procurement Setup — McKinsey

Context

McKinsey engaged P.A. Ltd as a specialist procurement advisor on a retail transformation project. The client — a major retail organisation in Eastern Europe — needed to redesign its Trade Department from the ground up: defining the right organisational structure, management layers, and role responsibilities to support a more professional and efficient commercial operation.

Our Role

P.A. Ltd provided deep procurement and retail category expertise that complemented McKinsey's broader transformation methodology. Our specific workstream focused on the structure and operating model for the Trade Department.

We assessed the existing department against best-practice benchmarks, mapped the full scope of commercial and procurement responsibilities across buying, category management, and supplier relations, and designed a tiered organisational model that could scale with the business.

Each role was defined with clear responsibilities, decision rights, and interfaces with adjacent functions — giving the client a practical blueprint rather than an abstract org chart.

Outcomes

• Trade Department structure designed with defined management levels
• Role and responsibility framework covering commercial, procurement, and category management functions
• Organisational blueprint adopted as the foundation for the client's department restructuring
• Engagement delivered on time and integrated seamlessly into the wider McKinsey programme