By comparison, rival beverage giant Lion pays 95 per cent of all suppliers — not just small businesses — within 30 days.
Australian Financial Review, 21 September 2020
At the time many large FMCG companies were extending payment terms to their suppliers, as a result some corporations were attracting damaging public scrutiny for poor practices.
Lion saw an opportunity to not only innovate, but use technology to build sustainable partnerships and promote security and flexibility for its thousands of suppliers across Australia and New Zealand.
Lion partnered with Earlytrade to design and implement a custom solution to complement its mandatory 30-day minimum payment terms for all eligible suppliers, small and large, across Australia and New Zealand.
Earlytrade deployed its Marketplace solution to provide Lion suppliers a simple, voluntary and confidential option to further reduce payment terms when it suited their business needs.
Lion’s days payable outstanding (DPO) is measured and reported monthly across all our business units. For example, Lion’s Australian beer business has an average DPO of 24.9 days. Currently, 95 per cent of all our suppliers, not just small businesses, are paid within 30 days. The outstanding five per cent are suppliers whose payment terms are negotiated as part of their contracts with Lion.
Lion public submission to the Australian Small Business Ombudsman