Testimonials

Energy Management

CASE STUDIES —

Strategic Energy Plan
During 2006, in anticipation of escalating energy prices, we collaborated to develop a Strategic Energy Plan in response to the needs of a major financial services client. The resulting Strategic Energy Plan provides a comprehensive approach in developing a clear policy to reduce energy consumption, costs, and environmental impact, while also providing optimal comfort for employee productivity. The plan targeted annualized reductions of $3.6 million (17%) within the company’s $21.2 million annual energy expenditure. The Strategic Energy Plan continues to be executed via a multi-step approach targeting four core areas: Bill Administration, Commodity Procurement, Demand Side Management, and Training & Education.

Savings Initiatives
Total savings from inception of the Strategic Energy Plan (mid 2006 through September 2009) total $6.253MM from platform analysis, commodity procurement, and demand side management initiatives. Platform Analysis: Through development of a web-based Utility Platform, an information repository of over 167,947 bill images consisting of over 6.358MM billing data points have been created. To help control utility costs, spend and usage anomalies are identified through site level comparisons resulting in approx $675,724 savings (through September 2009). The process has enabled daily invoice and usage flow to be proactively reviewed and managed on a per invoice basis. The process provides for the realization of added savings and cost containment opportunities. Commodity Procurement: The client’s large multi-site national footprint lent itself to save on existing gas and electric purchases, as well as take measures to mitigate the financial impact of future price increases. Total commodity savings associated with 11 active Gas and Electric contracts have totaled $950,000 through May 2009 ($644K for electric, $306K for gas).

Demand Side Management Projects
Completed and current capital improvement projects will reduce energy consumption significantly by improving facility energy efficiencies, and therefore reducing energy costs. Implementing this initiative in Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgina, Indiana and Michigan sites produced actual savings of $2.14MM for 2008 and anticipated savings of $4.475MM in 2009 and each year thereafter.

Key Financial Data Include

• Number of sites targeted: Approx 1,200 sites scheduled
• Number of sites Completed: 1,100 sites completed
• Time to complete: April 08 thru December 09
• Total Estimated Capital Expense: $10MM total
• Expected Rebate: Approx $260,000 during 2008 and $175,000 for 2009
• Total Savings to Date: $3.922MM (thru October 2009)
• Estimated Annual 2009 Savings: $4.475MM
• IRR: Averaging 43% across the portfolio
• kWh Reduction: 33MM kWh annually
• CO2 Reduction: 22,016 metric tons annually – equivalent to 115 railroad cars full of coal

Sales and Use Tax

SUCCESS STORIES —

Manufacturing

“CANDID’s tax experts maximized benefits from Alabama’s tax incentives package when our manufacturing facility was built in Mobile County. Subsequently, they responded to an Alabama sales and use tax audit by working with us and in doing so reversed the audit assessment from a net payable to a net receivable to the Company. At the same time, they developed a systematic sales and use tax approach that the Alabama Department of Revenue has accepted. This systematic approach will reduce our sales and use tax cost by more than 50%, a savings of $600,000 per year.”

“CANDID’s tax experts have been a premier business partner to us providing state, local, property, fuel and excise tax advisory, and compliance and recovery services. In addition to the substantial tax savings achieved (in the $millions), they have developed and installed direct pay sales and use tax systems that have produced sales tax savings compared to the prior reporting methods.”

 “CANDID’s tax experts reduced the property tax liability for our largest plant by more than $1,000,000 per year, each year since 2000. Your team’s skill in audits and board hearings is almost legendary. The results of a 2008, hearing speak volumes. For 2006, the assessor had a fair market value of $474,000,000. As a result of your team’s efforts the Appeals Board found a value of $321,000,000 — a $151,000,000 reduction. You also developed a Georgia tax incentives program that we have used continuously. Your sales and use tax team found overpayments and obtained refunds in California, Alabama, and Georgia.”

Property Tax

TESTIMONIALS —

Manufacturing
“CANDID’s tax experts have reduced the property tax liability for our largest plant by more than $1,000,000 per year, each year since 2000. Your team’s skill in audits and board hearings is almost legendary. The results of a 2008, hearing speak volumes. For 2006, the assessor had a fair market value of $474,000,000. As a result of your team’s efforts the Appeals Board found a value of $321,000,000 — a $151,000,000 reduction. You also developed a Georgia tax incentives program that we have used continuously. Your sales and use tax team found overpayments and obtained refunds in California, Alabama, and Georgia.”

Machinery
“CANDID’s experts have provided us with quality and professional property tax consulting for the past two years. In Dallas County (Texas), you worked with the personal property division and reduced the assessed value by 27% which in turn reduced our tax bill. I highly recommend your services to prospective clients.”

SUCCESS STORIES —

Hospitality
CANDID’s experts successfully reduced base year assessment $65.0 million for a resort hotel due to classification of intangibles/going concern. This resulted in annual tax savings of $650,000!

In one case, we reduced the taxable value of an assisted living community 30% due to the recognition of intangibles/going concern — saved our client $360,000 annually!

Our unique approach for valuing and deducting nontaxable components has saved our hospitality and healthcare clients in excess of $4.0 million in reduced property tax liability annually!

Retail 
A client came to us regarding restructuring of a legal entity that involved buying a controlling interest. The transaction would have triggered a reappraisal of the entire property. Our experts designed a restructuring plan that prevented the reappraisal and therefore saved the taxpayer and tenants $500,000 in additional liability annually!

Office/Industrial 
CANDID’s experts reduced the taxable value of an office building by more than 50% in San Francisco. Method of approach was projected income versus actual/historical performance — saved our client $125,000 annually!

Another case involved the purchase of vacant industrial buildings, which were reappraised significantly above the consideration paid. Assessor’s position was that purchase price did not reflect a stabilized value for assessment purposes. We effectively presented statutory basis in support of purchase price presumption. Total tax savings — $100,000 annually!

Multi-Family
Critical evaluation identified bonds, which revealed flaw in Assessor’s valuation. You company supports alternative method resulting in additional savings to client — total tax savings — $34,000 annually!

Possessory Interest Valuation 
In practice, assessors apply an average term for specific classifications of property leased from municipalities/counties. Our experts successfully argued that the actual remaining term must be applied resulting in the lessee’s interest (possessory interest) being valued considerably less than the Assessor’s approach — saved our client $150,000 annually.

Shipping & Freight

“CANDID’s logistics process from beginning to end was seamless and un-invasive to our staff; very little of my time was required for the project. Their negotiating acumen in addition to their industry expertise continues to deliver substantial profits to our organization.”

CASE STUDIES —

Consumer Electronics Company

One of our experts' clients has built its reputation by manufacturing and shipping the highest quality, state-of-the-art consumer electronics equipment and accessories from international manufacturing plants to retail centers throughout the world. With a global supply chain logistical network, the challenges of coordinating inbound and outbound shipping, meeting production plans and retail replenishment requirements, and keeping transportation costs as low as possible required additional resources not readily available. At the time, they had been using an outsourced customs broker to handle the clearing of their international shipments. In order to eliminate documentation hand-offs and the occasional delays caused by this, we assisted in streamlining the process by having their transportation provider handle customs clearance directly.

They asked for help initially to reduce transportation costs throughout their supply chain. However, they also requested our expertise to help create a routing guide that improved supply chain logistical efficiencies. Their goals were to streamline and better understand their shipping costs, reduce all service failures and eliminate overcharges. Additionally, the brokerage customs conversion was coordinated and facilitated by our logistics experts. New processes now exists that continue to reduce this company's lead times throughout their international transportation cycle.

With this sophisticated supply chain, they knew hiring additional people to do the work would be costly. We allowed them to reduce operational expenditures and, of course, maintain their focus on their core competencies, not the parcel and heavyweight freight audit business.

Last year alone, our Logistics experts saved them 29.1% off their annual freight shipping costs. With the amount of spend this particular client pays in transportation, the savings dollars were in the millions.

Apparel Company
We are all consumers of the apparel industry in one fashion or another. Manufacturing goods overseas and distributing to your favorite local retailer offers many opportunities for transportation cost reductions. The apparel industry is increasingly competitive and every cost savings opportunity, on both transportation and manufacturing, is crucial to their longevity. One of our apparel industry clients realized how critical it was to the success of their company to validate and improve their parcel and heavyweight freight expenditures.

They asked our logistics experts to analyze their parcel shipment and freight rates to validate if they were best in the market. We applied our no obligation process to the situation for this apparel company and determined there was definite opportunity to save them money.

Our experts reduced their rates by over 13% on parcel and by over 18% on freight!!! Additionally, we assisted with routing guide recommendations to assist the procurement and sales teams in making the most cost effective choices when deciding on shipment modes.

High Volume Parcel Company

A high volume parcel shipper knew that not all their parcel shipments were meeting the service level agreements for the shipment mode utilized. The problem was they didn’t have the internal resources to identify, much less submit, refund claims for service failures.

They contracted with our logistics experts to analyze and handle their late package recovery claims. With our cutting-edge technology and expertise in this area, an ongoing process now exists for the customer to ensure that all parcel shipments are meeting service level commitments.

In one monthly audit, our Logistics saved the Parcel Company over $3,500 in Late Package Recovery claims. Additionally, reports are available to assist this customer during their quarterly business reviews with their parcel carrier so they continually monitor service levels against their commitments.