Albertsons Achieved ROI Within 3 Months with C2FO Early Payment

Albertsons Companies is one of the largest and most innovative food and drug retailers in the United States with 2,291 stores across 35 states, operating under 20 banners including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, United Supermarkets, Star Market, and Carrs, as well as meal kit company Plated.

The challenge

The company built an effective cash management strategy. However, their retail industry continually changes, and their finance strategy had to adjust to manage the industry’s associated challenges:

• Fierce price competition
• Shifting consumer expectations for products, services and experience
• Rising costs, policy changes and shifting economic profiles of consumers
• Industry volatility that affects their suppliers, who are critical for on-time delivery of quality product

As a result, Albertsons Companies’ shared services looked for a way to reduce the impact of volatility on their suppliers while adding value back to their bottom line. Their strategy focused on the untapped value in their A/P and leveraging supplier finance as their most risk-free opportunity to:

• Build more flexible cash management to address market volatility
• Improve EBITDA as a measure of program success
• Strengthen supplier relationships and reduce risk

The solution

The company determined that traditional options including supply chain finance, p-cards, and sliding scale dynamic discounting would not offer the flexibility and results they needed. Instead, Albertsons chose C2FO dynamic discounting for the following reasons:

• A proven track record of supplier adoption
• All supplier support is provided, which minimized demand on internal resources
• The program generates a substantial enough return to improve EBIDTA
• Peers provided strong recommendations for the program, in addition to specific requests for C2FO from their suppliers
• Quick program launch, without any process changes for AP team
• Financial flexibility to manage the volatility in their retail sector

The results

The C2FO program launched in 8 weeks and delivered immediate results, including 2.5 times the anticipated return as well as the following outcomes:

• 80% higher than targeted supplier adoption, with all onboarding and support provided by C2FO
• Overwhelmingly positive supplier feedback
• C2FO offered a fair and collaborative working capital solution that benefits both Albertsons Companies and their suppliers
• The program delivered better than anticipated results including EBITDA improvement