Supply Chain Awards 2022 celebrate coming of age for SCF

The SCF Community’s Supply Chain Awards for 2022 celebrate a turning point for the industry, with corporates, technology providers, and funders trailblazing a new generation of programmes.

While many of this year’s entries impressed, a handful stood out for offering examples of SCF at its best, and often for similar reasons. For example, award winners demonstrated dedication to supporting even the smallest suppliers and trading partners through economically and operationally challenging times. They showed a readiness to push boundaries with innovative structures that were new to their sector or geographical market. And perhaps most notably, they proved that sustainable SCF is heading into the mainstream, with several award winners launching or planning new or converted programmes that offered financial rewards to suppliers linked to improvements in their environmental, social, or governance (ESG) performance.

Henkel scores Gold for Fast Moving Consumer Goods with ESG-linked programme

Germany’s Henkel was a double-winner, receiving this year’s overall Gold award as well as topping the Fast Moving Consumer Goods category, both for converting an existing SCF programme into a sustainability-linked one – a first for Europe. The programme stood out for being proactive and dynamic, linking the discount margins suppliers pay for SCF to an individual ESG score provided by the sustainability rating agency EcoVadis. Judges also praised Henkel and its partner Deutsche Bank for their focus on communication and building trust with suppliers. That investment has clearly paid off, with nearly 100% of the company’s eligible suppliers in Europe having already accepted the new ESG-linked terms.

Portugal’s first sustainable SCF programme secures ESG and Retail awards for Sonae

Investments in sustainability also helped Portugal’s Sonae take home two awards. By integrating ESG elements in an existing SCF programme – and becoming the first retailer in Portugal to do so – it topped the Retail category and also won the overall ESG award. EcoVadis was once again central to the programme, with Sonae crediting the rating agency for enabling it to include even very small and less sophisticated suppliers. Judges were also impressed by the programme’s easy onboarding and commitment to engaging SME suppliers. To this end, a dedicated team from partner Santander works closely with suppliers to ensure they understand the ESG criteria on which they are rated and what actions might help them improve their scores – and their discount margins.

Tourvest wins the Technology & Telecom category for slashing small suppliers’ payment costs during the pandemic

Dedication to SME resilience was also a key factor behind South African travel management company Tourvest winning this year’s Technology award.  By replacing virtual credit cards (VCCs) – an expensive B2B legacy payment system that is widely used in Africa’s travel industry – with SCF, it created significant cost savings for itself and hundreds of small, medium-sized, and even micro suppliers. This helped them survive a devastating period for South Africa’s travel industry and allowed Tourvest to build more trust with its supplier base. Partner Addendum Financial Technologies also won praise for giving Tourvest the capability to switch seamlessly as needed between tapping bank lines to offer SCF and using its own funds to provide dynamic discounting.

Arçelik tops Manufacturing for supporting suppliers through hyperinflation with automated SCF

Supplier support – this time during a period of economic volatility and hyperinflation in Turkey – was also central to innovative early payment and SCF programmes that helped Arçelik win the Manufacturing award. The Turkish manufacturer of household appliances tapped C2FO technology for the fully automated programmes, which apply advanced analytics to give Arçelik more control over what percentage of receivables it pays for individual suppliers. The company also won praise for the programme’s digital onboarding capabilities which have helped it reach a larger-than-typical group of local and foreign suppliers, as well as ambitious future plans to embed ESG elements in the programmes.

Pran-RFL is Highly Commended for the innovative embedding of the SCF programme in its own platform

A similar kind of ambition and willingness to break new ground also helped Bangladesh’s Pran-RFL to be Highly Commended in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods category for an SCF programme that was embedded in the company’s own platform. This highly innovative structure enabled it to support both suppliers and distributors and to quickly integrate over 50 banks.

Category: Technology & Telecom

Winner: Tourvest Travel Services

Partner: Addendum Financial Technologies

Category: Manufacturing

Winner: Arçelik A.Ş.

Partner: C2FO

Category: Retail

Winner: Sonae

Partner: Banco Santander S.A.

Category: FMCG

Winner: Henkel AG & Co. KGaA

Partner: Deutsche Bank AG

Highly Commended: Pran – RFL Group

Partner: Veefin Solutions

ESG Award

Winner: Sonae

Partner: Banco Santander S.A.

Gold Award

Winner: Henkel AG & Co. KGaA

Partner: Deutsche Bank AG

You can watch the SCF Awards 2022 Ceremony here: