Nestle has won the Gold Award for best supply chain finance programme in the 2020 Supply Chain Finance Awards.

Judges’ praised the company’s market-leading efforts to combine environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) financing with supply chain financing.

The food and beverage company’s programme involved expanding its existing collaboration with the receivables and payables trading platform CRX Markets to allow for ESG-compliant receivables to be uploaded and be given preferential financing terms from investors. Nestle hopes to encourage even greater ESG compliance among suppliers with the use of financial incentives.

The Nestle entry reflects a trend among this year’s entries to move beyond using supply chain finance solely to improve the financial position of the buyer. This year’s competition included entries from a retailer, a tyre manufacturer and a mining firm, all of which highlighted their efforts to use SCF to look after the interests of suppliers, the wider community, and the environment.

In a year that has seen supply chains disrupted and livelihoods lost due to Covid-19, the emphasis on the health of the wider supply chain seemed more pertinent than ever.

The awards presentation ceremony, sponsored by Rabobank, was the closing highlight of the SCF Europe Forum 2020 which this year took place online due to Covid-19 restrictions rather than in its usual location in Amsterdam.

Nestle was also the winner in the FMCG Food & Beverage category, where German chemicals and consumer goods company Henkel was highly commended.

South Africa’s Richards Bay Minerals was the winner in the Manufacturing and Industry category.

The Co-operative Group in the UK was the winner in the Retail and Apparel category, while India’s JK Tyre and Industries secured the top spot in the Transport and Logistics category.

The 2020 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 – Nestle
(Henkel was highly-commended)
Retail and apparel – The Co-operative Group (UK)
(Asian Paints was highly-commended)
Transport and logistics – JK Tyre and Industries (India)
(Knorr-Bremse and Knorr-Bremse & Roche were highly-commended)
Manufacturing and industrial – Richards Bay Minerals
(Volvo and Haier were highly-commended)
Innovation Award – Earnd – Greensill
SCF Leader of the Year – Pietro Solazzo, Knorr-Bremse
Gold Award – Nestle

The annual award for SCF Innovation was won by Earnd, an Australian tech company acquired by Greensill earlier this year that has created an app which allows employees to access their salary earlier, helping give them more control over their finances.

The SCF Leader of the Year was won by Pietro Solazzo, corporate treasurer at German rail and vehicle braking systems manufacturer Knorr-Bremse, where he has led efforts to expand the use of SCF beyond its traditional reverse factoring roots.

The awards were judged by an independent panel of experts:

• Michiel Steeman, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences (chair)
• Michael Henke, Fraunhofer Institute (vice chair)​
• Ronald Molenaar, manager business controlling, JUMBO Supermarkten
• Julie Sis, head of supply chain funding, Airbus
• Reinhold Zeiner, senior director finance and shared services international, Evoqua Water Technologies
• Lucas Verwey, group chief financial officer, Distell

The 2021 SCF Awards will open for entries in March 2021.