12,000-Pallet Cold Chain Warehouse in North Africa.

Challenge

The sponsor was paying escalating monthly rent across four third-party cold stores of differing quality, losing an estimated 4–6% of exportable volume to temperature excursions and handling damage. Insurers had signalled that continued reliance on the weakest site would not be renewable. The board approved investigation of a purpose-built facility co-located with the sponsor's grading line.

Strategy

The executive sponsor commissioned a written procurement strategy before any supplier was contacted. The strategy established a split-EPC delivery model — refrigeration and controls turnkey to a single specialist, civil and cladding as multi-contract under an owner's engineer — based on an internal capability audit that showed strong civil PMO experience but no in-house refrigeration engineering.

• Written procurement strategy signed by CEO and CFO before RFQ
• Split-EPC to match owner capability without paying full wrap premium
• Corridor of 3 qualifying European supplier countries chosen for ECA depth and warranty enforceability
• Board-approved DoA raised to accommodate a single-body contract award above USD 10M

Delivery-model rationale

A full turnkey EPC quote carried a 12% wrap premium; multi-contract across all disciplines would have exceeded the owner's PMO bandwidth. The split model was documented in a one-page memo signed by the CEO — see the framework underlying the decision in the Turnkey vs Multi-Contract guide.

Supplier selection

A longlist of 18 refrigeration integrators was reduced to 6 through documentary shortlisting, then to 3 after site visits to comparable installations. Every supplier passed the same five-dimension diligence (financial, technical, legal, ESG, geopolitical) — none were introduced via personal relationships. Global B2B Group remained supplier-neutral throughout; the sponsor's evaluation committee made the award.

• 18 → 6 → 3 → 1 funnel, each stage documented
• Reference installations physically visited by owner's engineer
• Beneficial ownership screened on every shortlisted entity
• Weighted scoring matrix (price 25%, quality 20%, delivery 15%, tech 15%, financial 10%, ESG 8%, risk 7%)

The scoring approach used mirrors the Supplier Scoring calculator and follows the Supplier Due Diligence framework.

Financing

The refrigeration package qualified for OECD-backed export credit from the winning supplier's country. The sponsor's advisor structured a two-tranche facility: an ECA-guaranteed commercial loan covering 85% of eligible equipment and services, plus a local-bank working-capital line for civil works and site utilities. The DSCR at base-case ran 1.72x, comfortably above the 1.35x threshold.

The financing readiness pack drew directly on the Project Financing Readiness checklist. See the DSCR calculator and Export Credit Agencies pillar for background.

Execution

The executive sponsor personally chaired the kick-off, then the monthly steering committee for the full 22 months. Factory Acceptance Testing was owner-witnessed with a third-party inspector; two compressor deficiencies were closed before shipment. Cold commissioning began 11 days late; hot commissioning recovered 6 days through parallel electrical and controls handovers. Provisional acceptance was signed 5 days after contractual date.

• CEO-chaired kick-off, monthly steering committee attendance >95%
• FAT closed 2 non-conformances at supplier cost before shipment
• Site erection completed with zero lost-time injuries
• Provisional acceptance signed 5 days late vs 22-month plan

Lessons learned

• The single largest saving came from freezing engineering scope at week 8 — long-lead POs went out clean.
• Split-EPC saved ~USD 2.6M vs full wrap, at the cost of one additional owner's engineer.
• ECA structuring conversations started in month 3 (before supplier selection) prevented the classic delay of matching a chosen supplier to an unwilling ECA.
• The retention held to warranty triggered one legitimate call — proving the mechanism was worth the negotiation effort.
• Lessons-learned session held 30 days post-handover fed straight into the sponsor's next facility, cutting FEED time by an estimated 6 weeks.

Executive takeaways

• Choose the delivery model before RFQ, based on owner capability — not preference.
• Engage lenders and ECAs before supplier selection to preserve financing optionality.
• Executive visibility at kick-off and steering committee changes supplier behaviour more than any single clause.
• Split-EPC is a defensible middle path when the wrap premium is high and owner PMO is credible.

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