Case Study
Accelerating Synlab’s growth through partnership
How Synlab UK Group grew 5x in revenue with TopSource embedded throughout
Rated 5/5 on Gartner Peer Insights
About Synlab
Synlab UK Group has grown from a business with revenue of £40 million to one with revenue of £300 million, expanding from two business units to more than ten at its peak. TopSource has supported the group’s finance operations throughout, across a period that included private equity ownership, public listing, acquisitions, and the largest NHS contracts of its kind in the UK.
Early Days, Building the Foundations
Chris Eden, Finance Director at Synlab UK Group, joined the business 11 years ago, by which point TopSource had already been supporting Synlab for a just over a year. The group was smaller then, privately equity owned, with ambitious growth plans, and the relationship with TopSource was in it’s infancy.
Complexity at Scale: The NHS Contract
In 2021, Synlab took on Synnovis, the largest contract of its type in the UK, based in Southeast London. It brought a step up in complexity, including complex lease reporting on an SAP platform that demanded precision at every level.
“Every dot has to be in the right place. TopSource stepped in and dealt with it.”
Chris Eden, Finance Director, Synlab Group
The scope has continued to grow since. TopSource now supports Synlab’s cash pooling facility, and works within its stock management system matching purchase orders, work that runs quietly in the background of the business.
Part of the Team: A Process that just runs
Communication was inconsistent in the early years, with queries going back and forth by email and no clear ownership. For a business running a high volume of transactions, that friction added up. TopSource addressed it with a dedicated query management system in place of the email trail, and monthly contract review meetings, now in their fourth or fifth year, that give both sides a regular forum for performance and forward planning.
Ad hoc requests are typically answered within 24 hours today, and issues are rare but proactively resolved.
“It runs very smoothly. Which is probably why I have not got too much to speak about. When things work, there is not much to say.” said Chris.
Customer-focused, efficient, knowledgeable, diligent. Those are the words Chris reaches for when asked how he would describe TopSource to a peer, adding one more: they want to resolve things, not just report on them.
The Result
Synlab UK increased revenue fivefold during the partnership and grew from a handful of business units to more than ten at peak. It absorbed a major NHS contract, changed accounting platforms, and is now mid-migration to SAP. TopSource has been the constant throughout.
For the finance team, that consistency has translated directly into capacity. The hours previously consumed by the purchase-to-pay cycle have been cut substantially.
“If I looked at the amount of time my team was spending on the purchase-to-pay cycle, it was significantly reduced. My time was too. And that is against a backdrop of the business growing fivefold. That improvement should not be underestimated.”
Chris Eden, Finance Director, Synlab Group
The account manager came over from India to meet me, which showed the customer centricity you hope to see.
Every dot has to be in the right place. TopSource stepped in and dealt with it.
TopSource are knee-deep in our stock management system, in matching purchase orders. It just goes on, in the background. Which is exactly how it should be.
TopSource feel like part of your company rather than a supplier providing services to it. That comes across. And it has got more pronounced over the years
“If I looked at the amount of time my team was spending on the purchase-to-pay cycle, it was significantly reduced. My time was too. And that is against a backdrop of the business growing fivefold. That improvement should not be underestimated
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