UC Procurement is seeing the impact of rigorous price file review as 2026 contracts go live. For this past calendar year-end period, 27 price files from 21 suppliers (covering more than 2.6 million SKUs) have been implemented, with average price increases held to a controlled 3.7%.
Detailed analysis delivers value
Behind the scenes, detailed analysis is delivering even greater value. Since December 2025, nine (9) price file updates were declined due to being out of compliance with contractual terms, with six (6) corrected price files being accepted after negotiations between the category manager and supplier.
Critically, the review process has already identified and mitigated these significant risks:
- Non-compliant and prohibited products flagged in multiple supplier submissions
- A 75.5% average price increase from one supplier stopped before implementation
- A 20%+ increase from a major lab supplier was prevented, which alone could have cost UC Berkeley nearly $400,000 annually.
This highlights that proactive, systemwide price file analysis is not just administrative—it’s a powerful cost-control tool that protects UC budgets and ensures contract compliance at scale.