Sazerac goes from greenfield to world-class eSourcing in under 12 months

About

Sazerac is one of the oldest and largest privately-owned spirits companies in the United States. Built on heritage and craftsmanship since 1850, Sazerac owns a portfolio of globally recognized brands including Buffalo Trace, Fireball, Eagle Rare, Weller, Svedka, and BuzzBallz.

Challenge

Sazerac has grown into one of the largest privately-owned spirits companies in the United States, but its sourcing was still a greenfield: no eSourcing platform, no standardized RFP structure, and bid analysis living in spreadsheets and inboxes. To keep pace with the company's fast growth, procurement needed to bring spend under structured management, increase competition across sourcing events, and give buyers modern tools for negotiation and award decisions.

Leading the change is Sazerac's Digital Procurement Transformation Leader Mitch Matt, who brings over 18 years of procurement experience and lessons from deploying 5 eSourcing solutions across different organizations. From that experience, one conviction stood out: technology only delivers value if people actually use it. The evaluation therefore focused on a best-of-breed and best-of-fit solution, with the sourcing team fully involved in the decision-making process.

Solution

After evaluating several best-of-breed solutions and running a proof of concept in 2025, Sazerac chose Archlet as its eSourcing platform. The decision came down to 3 things. First, Archlet's market-leading agentic AI, Spark, which automates workflows end to end. Second, its user-centric design, which removes entry barriers and lets buyers set up events in minutes - not hours, or not at all, as with clunkier systems. And third, its ease of roll-out, whether standalone or integrated, which accelerates time to value and ROI. Together, these made Archlet stand out from the rest.

The rollout moved at remarkable speed. After an in-person kick-off in Kentucky with Sazerac’s Chief Procurement Officer and a cohort of champions in the second half of 2025, Sazerac was live within days, launching its first RFP right after signing a partnership with Archlet. Adoption was carried by a deliberate change approach: executive-level sponsorship, a cohort of champions and change advocates, and consistently celebrating and communicating wins. Even self-declared skeptics were quickly won over.

Results

Within the first year, Sazerac scaled from zero to a world-class eSourcing operation. Standardized event templates by type and category and structured eLearnings in Archlet drove rapid capability building, and eAuction throughput grew exponentially.

• 500x return on investment with Archlet
• 100% category coverage across the organization
• +20% additional savings through eAuctions
• 50% of addressable spend digitally sourced in under 10 months
• 200+ RFx and eAuctions launched

Half of all addressable spend was eSourced in less than 10 months.

What’s next

Sazerac is also a member of Archlet's Product Advisory Board, helping shape the future of the platform in areas like Autonomous Sourcing and Rate Management. With the foundations in place, the team continues to expand its eSourcing maturity, turning procurement into a lasting driver of value for the business.