Products · Industry Insights · 9min read
Invoice Financing for the Food Industry
How foodcircle Payments is helping F&B players harness their full potential.
Table of Contents
In a Nutshell
We knew that there was no food industry-specific financing long before we founded foodcircle. However, over the years, our own participation in the industry on numerous fronts, as well as the multitude of user journeys we conducted, showed just how complex and tiresome these processes were. Especially for smaller manufacturers and start-ups, the interest and insurance rates are often extremely high, and the steps leading up to securing financing are tedious and time-consuming.
Improve your working capital with financing specifically for the food industry
Having experienced these struggles first hand, we spent the past two years developing a highly efficient service industry that is tailored to F&B. From small to large enterprises, we finance your orders at some of the industry’s best payment terms and lowest interest rates.
What’s more, thanks to our simplified digital processes, it is possible to obtain worry-free financing from €500 to €500,000. In addition, we offer 30/60/90-day payment terms. This allows you to improve your working capital and maintain a positive cash flow while still ensuring that your suppliers are paid on time. In turn, you can then invest this money in higher stocks or use it to expand your product portfolio or acquire new clients.
Save resources with consolidated information
By choosing foodcircle Payments, your team will also be able to save resources in other areas of work. From hereon in, whether you are working with your own suppliers or suppliers that come from our network, you can consolidate all your invoices in one digital dashboard! This saves heaps of time and paperwork, both in the short-term and long run.
Here are the simple steps that foodcircle Payments guides you through in your financing journey:
Easy Credit Checks and Financing
To finance your invoices up to €500 K, we work with European financing partners who run a credit check on your company. We can grant you a credit line depending on your credit score. If you decide that this credit line should be higher because you want to increase your stock or face a surge in demand within a specific season, foodcircle works with its close network of partners to increase it. Our partners may require some further documentation from your company to assess whether this is possible for you.
Save heaps of time and money
At foodcircle, these processes are digitally integrated with numerous established insurance and financing providers in different countries, which is why they are significantly faster and cheaper than many other solutions out there. With the help of our services, you no longer have to endure time-consuming processes with banks or handle heaps of paperwork.
Get the support you need
Assuming you receive a good credit score, we can immediately proceed with swiftly securing your financing, thanks to our streamlined digital processes and tools. There are, however, reasons why some companies occasionally receive a low credit score — perhaps you still have unpaid invoices that need to be settled? While this is not something we have experienced often, we did see that some companies struggled with liquidity during the pandemic. As a result, they fell behind on some of their bills and then received a lower credit score, which made it more challenging to secure loans in the future.
Our team is highly experienced in this field and will be happy to offer guidance on what measures you need to take and what information you need to provide in order to improve your score.
Unbeatable Payment Terms
The payment terms that suppliers offer differ greatly between country and company. Having spent years in the industry ourselves, we can confidently say that it is difficult to make generalisations about what terms you would expect through your direct suppliers. However, we have noticed certain tendencies.
Suppliers in Southern European countries, such as Italy and France, tend to have significantly shorter payment terms (15 days max.) than foodcircle’s 60-day average. This is likely because the suppliers intend to maintain their own liquidity and are thus more likely to press for faster payments than credit institutes.
In Germany, on the other hand, it is not uncommon to be offered so-called Skonto payments. In this scenario, you are given a discount (usually 1-2%) if you pay within a shorter timeframe — usually net 14 days. While this can be very appealing, it also means that you may find it more difficult to maintain a positive cash flow because of the financial incentive to pay invoices as quickly as possible.
Secure financing that suits your specific needs
At foodcicle, years of experience have shown us that every business has different needs. Perhaps you prefer to pay everything in advance because you don’t have cash flow issues or your finance department simply wants to close your books for the month? You’ll still benefit from our cheaper insurance and faster communication. Or maybe you could really use those longer payment terms because your customers only pay you after 60 days, meaning you would struggle to maintain a positive cash flow if you funnelled money to your suppliers and then had to wait two months for the money to flow back into your business? Regardless, knowing when you have to pay your suppliers makes it much easier for you to manage your business’s resources down the line.
Enjoy fast & easy processes
These are all scenarios that foodcircle is here for! We tailor solutions based on the individual needs of every customer and order. By coming to foodcircle, all you have to do is fill out an enquiry form, and we take care of running a credit check on your business and helping you get the financing you are looking for. Overall, this entire process only takes 1 to 2 days, rather than going directly to a bank, where the average process might go into the double digits.
Interested in testing our financing solutions for your business? Learn more about foodcircle Payments and book an enquiry call with our Sales Team today!