A blog by Martin Williams, external affairs spokesman of Graydon UK, focusing on business risks - from fraud to late payment. Martin has has spent the last 35 years in the credit information industry, and has been with Graydon UK, one of the top five commercial credit agencies in the UK, for the last 20. Apart from his PR duties, he teaches credit analysis to risk professionals and helps educate SMEs on the importance of maintaining a good credit rating. Martin is a Fellow of the Institute of Credit Management and is a sitting member of the Institute's Think Tank. He was also honoured by Credit Today, after being included on their Credit 100 list of people who have had the greatest impact in the credit industry during 2008, 2009 and 2010.
|
|
08 Sep 2009
At a time when companies are finding it extremely tough to obtain finance from banks, in some cases, just to keep things ticking over while the recession winds down, the last thing they need is for customers to put even more pressure on their fragile cash flow positions. The Forum of Private Business, a lobby group working for the best interests of small UK businesses, has been producing a "Hall of Shame" of poor trade payers and has recently added the name of Carlsberg to its ever growing list of trade "pip squeezers".
Is Carlsberg "probably the slowest brewer in the world"? I don't know for sure, but they have informed all their suppliers that their new payment terms are 95 days from the end of the month in which an invoice is sent out. Some suppliers will therefore have to wait nearly 4 months to get their money.
I am sure Carlsberg has invested a lot of time and money into producing its own glossy Corporate Social Responsibility brochure, but its funny how some of these documents produced by our largest corporations bear little resemblance to the reality on the ground.
Good advertising will only get you so far......
Visitor comments
Quite surprising to find out a firm as successful as that are taking advantage of smaller companies.
Good on the Forum of Private Business for pointing this out. I found some more offenders listed on their site too - http://www.fpb.org/page/531/Late_payment__Hall_of_Shame_.htm
Posted by: Ben Holloway , 10 Sep 2009
Good work on your site here. I too am trying to build a site for my small home construction business. Its a long story, but I'm not very good at this nerdy stuff. I like the site theme you have used here and was wondering what it was called? I bought Brian Gardner's theme but after about 2 weeks...I just gave up. It was way too complex for my simple mind. I want to supplement my income in the winter time and thought I could do it by blogging. Its going to be a long road ahead. Anyway, I just stumbled across your post here and am happy to have met you. virtually of course :-).
Posted by: business , 18 Dec 2009
Frances Coppola on Sort out the credit sloths
TaxTeddy on EU ding dong over accounts filing Exemption
martin williams on Insolvency stats are head-scratchingly strange
Robert MMoore on Insolvency stats are head-scratchingly strange
slightly optimistic on PIGS Keep Europe in an Economic Trough
Search thousands of financial jobs:
Search thousands of financial jobs:
Adding your comment