Coca-Cola, AB InBev, Mondelēz and Reckitt named as ‘serial late payers’ for small firms

Coca-Cola, Reckitt, AB InBev and Mondelēz are among a list of “serial late payers” for small businesses in the UK, a new report has revealed.

Research by fair payment campaigning group Good Business Pays, looked at over 5000 companies to identity “rogue” firms consistently paying small firms late, reported The Times.

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners was accused of an average payment time of 110 days, while Reckitt, whose portfolio includes household brands such as Dettol, Air Wick, Calgon and Vanish, took an average time of 125 days to pay its small businesses.

Good Business Pays research was first published in 2017 and has since placed 90 companies on its late payment watchlist.

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Other slow players include beer giant AB InBev UK, which owns Becks and Budweiser, and paid small businesses after an average of 116 days. Cadbury-owner Mondelēz UK paid its invoices after an average of 102 days.

Federation of Small Businesses Craig Beaumont said: “These companies are the worst of British businesses and are forming a rogues’ gallery of people that pay their small businesses late, or they are serial late payers.”

Coca-Cola said that its relationship with its suppliers were “critically important” to the success of its business and that it works with them to ensure the FMCG had “appropriate payment terms” in place. Coca-Cola also added it had now reduced its payment terms for small firms.

A spokesperson for Coca-Cola said: “The majority of our suppliers are large companies conducting business with us on contracted terms which have been negotiated on an individual basis with our procurement team. Agreeing mutually beneficial terms in this way allows us to build long-term strategic partnerships with our suppliers, where both sides are collaborating for growth.

We keep our terms under constant review. Our smallest suppliers have always been on shorter payment terms, which in the past meant they were typically paid within 40 days. However, from the end of last year, we have been switching our SME suppliers in Great Britain to 30-day payment terms.”

AB InBev said: “We are especially focused on ensuring reasonable payment terms for SMEs, and 95% of our Small and Micro suppliers have payment terms at or below 60 days.”

The new research comes as the government plans to introduce new measures to tackle late payments, which include giving the small business commissioner greater powers to investigate such payments.

From April, new measures will see businesses bidding for government contracts worth more than £5m to show that they pay their invoices by an average of at least 55 days.

Grocery Gazette has contacted Reckitt, AB InBev and Mondelez for comment.