New supply chain advisory firm trace launches in Australia
Two senior professionals in the supply chain scene – Shanaka Jayasinghe and Mathew Tolley – have teamed up to launch trace, a boutique supply & service chain advisory firm.
Due to launch in January next year, trace aims to fill a gap in Australia’s supply chain consulting market created by a recent wave of consolidation in the segment.
One of the independent firms snapped up by a larger player was GRA, which in March last year was absorbed by Accenture. Two years down the line, former GRA consultants Jayasinghe and Tolley have now reunited to “bring back the boutique DNA” to a new supply chain consultancy.
“At a time when companies are trying to adjust to a post-pandemic new normal, we bring deep expertise, practical solutions and building true partnerships with clients,” said Jayasinghe, who formerly spent a decade at GRA and Accenture.
“Being a boutique consulting firm, we are fortunate in that we can ‘go to the next level’ for our clients – whether that involves being forensic in our data modelling or being surgical in the way that we purposefully design and execute strategies,” he added.
Fellow co-founder Tolley spent a decade at GRA, before most recently serving the Department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet as a director of its Office of Supply Chain Resilience.
Specialising in demand and supply balancing, data analysis and scenario modelling, trace plans to deploy its capabilities across several sectors, including retail and e-commerce, fast moving consumer goods, manufacturing, property, hospitality, healthcare and government.
Describing their consulting approach as “down to earth and back to the basics”, Jayasinghe and Tolley said trace will blend a “fact-based, hypothesis-driven and structured approach with a results-driven mindset.”
“When you think about the big challenges we face – climate change, an aging population, shifting global trade dynamics – supply and service chains are at the heart of these. We want to help our clients transform their operations, becoming more resilient and more sustainable, so they can continue to deliver for their customers and communities,” said Tolley.
Recognising the influential role supply chains have on ESG, trace will also support its clients with designing and rolling-out sustainability programs across operations and value chains.
“It is an exciting time ahead for trace – and we look forward to seeing the impact we can make in the Australian market,” concluded Jayasinghe and Tolley.
