Hoopiz › Sectors › Food & beverage
Sector · Food & beverage & fresh produce
Credit management software for the food industry: industrialise collections without making them one-size-fits-all
Supermarket chains, wholesalers, food service, manufacturers, export: each channel has its own payment terms, contacts and disputes. Hoopiz tailors collections to each customer type, handles deductions and disputes with sales administration and sales reps, and gives finance leadership a consolidated view across all Business Units.
* Typical example based on our food industry projects, anonymised.
Illustration · fictitious data
Sector challenges
Food industry accounts receivable: as many rules as there are distribution channels
You don’t chase a central buying office the way you chase a restaurant owner or an importer. Six realities that make generic dunning tools ineffective.
Very different customer channels
Supermarket chains, wholesalers, food service, manufacturers, specialist retailers, export: contacts, payment terms and payment practices have nothing in common.
Cascading deductions and penalties
Logistics penalties, promotional price variances, rebates, trade marketing fees: retail chains deduct, and every deduction must be justified or disputed.
Regulated payment terms
Perishable food products have payment terms capped by law: a late payment shows up fast, but it still has to be dealt with fast.
Multiple Business Units
Each BU has its own customers and habits; yet finance leadership must apply a common credit policy and consolidate risk.
Quality and logistics disputes
Damaged goods, stock-outs, short shelf life, returns, quantity variances: disputes involve sales administration, logistics, quality and sales.
Export and seasonality
International customers, export credit insurance cover, seasonal peaks: risk varies sharply over the year.
The foundation
Collections and customer risk: the foundation of your credit policy
Whatever the sector, two pillars come first: organised collections and customer risk under constant watch. Here is how Hoopiz adapts them to the food and beverage industry.
Organise collections
Collections that speak to each channel, and deductions that no longer go unanswered.
- Scenarios by channel: retail chains, food service, wholesalers, manufacturers, export: adapted timing, contacts and tone
- Every channel: email, text message, letter, guided call, fully automated, semi-automated or manual depending on what is at stake, with a complete history of every exchange
- Deductions and disputes: categorised by reason and assigned to supply chain, quality or sales
- Connected debt recovery: cases handed over to Agir Recouvrement or Cabinet ARC with no re-keying
Control customer risk
Between fragile food service customers, new distributors and export, risk varies widely from one channel to another.
- Creditsafe, Ellisphere, Infolegale: your own contracts connected: scores and legal information directly in Hoopiz, without going through their portals
- Watch on fragile customers: food service is among the sectors most exposed to business failures: alerts as soon as a warning sign appears
- Credit limits: by business unit and consolidated for the group
- Export customers: credit insurance cover matched against exposure before shipment
And depending on your organisation: PILOT for steering and consolidation, COVER for credit insurance, CONNECT for APIs, FACTOR for factoring. See the 6 modules ↓
Example
One retailer, €42,000 of deductions to justify
A retail chain’s central buying office pays its monthly invoices… minus €42,000 of deductions.
In Hoopiz, each deduction is matched to its invoice and categorised by reason. Logistics penalties go to the supply chain for checking, promotional price variances to the account’s sales rep, breakages to quality. What is justified is cleared; the rest is disputed with supporting evidence, and everything is tracked.
In practice
What Hoopiz changes for a food group
Disputes & deductions
Food industry dispute reasons, configured in Hoopiz
At last you know what deductions really cost you, by retailer, by reason and by BU.
How a multi-BU food group industrialised its collections
- SectorFood & beverage
- OrganisationGroup of 4 Business Units
- CustomersRetail chains, wholesalers, food service, manufacturers, export
- ModulesCOLLECT, PILOT, COVER
The context
Very different customer bases across BUs, retail chain deductions handled by email, quality and logistics disputes circulating without follow-up, and finance leadership with no consolidated view.
What was put in place
Customer segmentation by channel, dedicated dunning workflows, categorisation of deductions and disputes by reason, handling workflows between finance, sales administration, logistics, quality and sales, and consolidated dashboards by BU.
Typical example based on projects supported by Hoopiz, anonymised · results observed after 12 months, varying with the starting situation.
Connected to your ecosystem
Hoopiz connects to your tools
ERP, credit insurers, data providers: data flows without re-keying.
The platform
The 6 Hoopiz modules, applied to food and beverage
Collections and risk first, then the modules that fit your organisation. They all share the same data.
Why use credit management software in the food industry?
Because distribution channels (retail chains, wholesalers, food service, export) have very different payment practices and generate many deductions and disputes. Credit management software tailors collections to each channel and organises dispute handling across departments.
How do I manage retail chain deductions?
Hoopiz matches each deduction to its invoice, categorises it by reason (logistics penalty, promotional price variance, trade marketing fees…) and assigns it to the relevant department for justification or dispute, with a complete history.
Can I have different dunning workflows for different customers?
Yes, as many as you need: by channel, by BU, by country or by payment behaviour. Collections are industrialised without being one-size-fits-all.
How do I consolidate several Business Units?
Hoopiz is multi-entity and multi-BU: finance leadership gets a consolidated view, and each BU sees its own scope, with the same indicators.
How do I secure export customers?
By matching export credit insurance cover against outstanding balances and monitoring customers without sufficient cover, with alerts before shipment.
Collections tailored to each of your channels
In a demo, we show you Hoopiz on a food industry portfolio: workflows by channel, deductions and disputes.