Case Study: Sonoco achieves 100% spend visibility and faster PO processing with Coupa Software

Sonoco Putting the POP into Popular Products with Coupa

Sonoco Products Company, the world’s largest producer of composite cans and tubes (you’ve likely encountered its work if you’ve popped open a tube of Pringles), faced limited procurement and AP visibility from a hybrid, partly on‑premises environment. In 2021 Elizabeth Mozley, Director of Global Category Management, set out to move procurement to the cloud after disparate systems across an international footprint made it slow and arduous to issue POs (taking a minimum of 30 minutes) and drove employees to use corporate cards and expense claims outside procurement.

By integrating Coupa with its Bank of America virtual payments process and moving from card on PO to card on invoice, Sonoco gained 100% visibility into committed spend and now routes over 90% of virtual card transaction volumes through Coupa. POs that once took at least 30 minutes now take five, more than 1,500 suppliers have adopted the approach across 250+ plants, several days of buyer work per plant have been eliminated, transaction costs and fraud risk have been reduced, and accounting and plant manager time has been freed for higher‑value work.

Sonoco

Elizabeth Mozley

Director of Global Category Management