The aircraft manufacturer’s programme has already improved supplier relations, seen enthusiastic supplier uptake and freed up working capital for the company, ensuring it stood out among the final five short-listed organisations – which included a chemicals producer, a grocery chain and a water and wastewater company.

Presentation of the awards – kindly sponsored by Rabobank – was the closing highlight of the SCF Europe Forum 2019 at the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam.

Michiel Steeman, chair of the Supply Chain Finance Community and chair of the judging panel said this year he was pleased to see many more “mature concepts” being developed and implemented.

Airbus was also the winner in the Transport and Logistics category, where Danish shipping company DFDS was highly commended.

Distell was the winner in the FMCG, food and beverage category. South Africa’s Sasol won the Manufacturing and Industrial category, while Jumbo won the retail and apparel prize. Evoqua Water Technologies Corp won in the Technology and Telecoms sector.

The 2019 Supply Chain Finance Awards

Category winners and short-listed for the Gold Award: Click on the winners’ names to read about their winning entries

FMCG, food and beverage – Distell (South Africa)
Manufacturing and industrial – Sasol (South Africa)
(Evoqua Water Technologies Corp was highly-commended)
Retail and apparel – Jumbo (Netherlands)
Technology and telecoms –  Evoqua Water Technologies Corp
(Scientist.com was highly-commended)
Transport and logistics – Airbus (Europe)
(DFDS was highly-commended)
Innovation Award – Agri-Wallet
(FCIreverse was highly-commended)
SCF Leader of the Year – Sunil Mascarenhas – IFC
Gold Award – Airbus

The annual award for SCF Innovation was won by Agri-Wallet, a mobile payment solution aimed to support supply chains in the agri-food sector in Africa, particularly for smaller producers and farmers.

The SCF Leader of the Year was won by Sunil Mascarenhas for his work at the IFC where he pioneered the use of supply chain finance across the Asian region, including Bangladesh and Mongolia. Mascarenhas has now moved to Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The Awards were judged by an independent panel of experts:

• Michiel Steeman, Windesheim University (chair)
• Dr. Michael Henke, Fraunhofer Institute (vice chair)​
• Alexandros Diamantopoulos, Procurement Finance Business Partner, Philips
• Roger Sutter, Head of Treasury and Working Capital, Kuehne + Nagel
• Matthew Sparkes, Deputy Director, Complex Transactions, Government Commercial Function (UK)
• Friedemann Kirchhof, Head of Receivables and Supply Chain Finance, Siemens
• Adam Marcus, Group Finance Controller, Dischem