Nestlé (Malaysia) Berhad, Malaysia’s leading food company has signed a Memorandum-of-Understanding (MOU) with Maybank and American Express to implement a unique end to end solution to improve the collection and credit management process through a Distribution Card programme.
The Distribution Card programme will reside on American Express Corporate Purchasing Card platform and will streamline and simplify Nestlé’s distributors payment chain from paper-based to electronic based. Once implemented, distributors enrolled in the programme will enjoy convenient and easy access anytime, anywhere in managing their account receivable and payments as well as improved operational efficiency and cost savings.
Maybank as the sole issuer of American Express cards and merchant acquiring businesses in Malaysia, will manage the Distribution Card programme to enable distributors to undertake electronic payments for their purchases.
At the signing of the MOU, Maybank was represented by Spencer Lee, Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Consumer Banking, while American Express was represented by Kula Kulendran, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Network Services – Japan, Asia Pacific & Australia. Nestlé Malaysia was represented by its Managing Director, Sullivan O’Carroll.
“This Distribution Card programme leverages on the expertise of our partner, American Express and Maybank’s strength in payment services to assist our valued customers to benefit from adopting a global electronic payment solution that offers a high value proposition to customers,” said Spencer Lee in his address.
“The conversion to online processing and payment will revolutionise the business-to-business (B2B) receivable management processes eliminating many of the issues associated with manual processing of invoices and payments. With online processing, those who enroll in the programme will gain operational efficiency as invoicing and payments are all electronically processed. Online access will also increase productivity and financial management for customers,” he said.
Lee added that with Maybank handling the receivables and payments, the Bank will also be providing financing to the distributors, “This programme gives our customer better cash flow over time. There is overall cost savings which will enable customers to have better management of their working capital for expansion or more profitable activities.”
Lee said that Maybank will continue to assist businesses to transform their business-to-business (B2B) processes particularly for receivables and payments. “Maybank will continue to collaborate with our partner American Express to offer innovative global B2B corporate solutions to promote cashless transactions particularly to the small-medium enterprises (SMEs). With more business adopting cashless payment solutions this will increase the volume of online payments,” he said.
Said Mr Kula Kulendran, “This pioneering partnership with Nestlé, Maybank and ourselves will result in unique customized expense management solutions using the American Express Corporate Purchasing Card as a platform for the Distribution Card programme, that has been developed for the first time in Malaysia. When implemented, this unique business to business deal means that distributors can pay Nestle for its products using the Distribution Cards, resulting in increased efficiency and superior financial management. This reaffirms Amex’s leadership and expertise in the B2B arena and our overall commitment to the Malaysian market.”
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of Nestlé (Malaysia) Berhad, Sullivan O’Carroll said: “The Nestlé Distribution Card programme – which is a cashless transaction system for our distributors - simplifies the entire collection process, and will increase productivity, as our personnel will now be able to concentrate on our core business of selling and distribution. It will also help us enhance operational efficiencies, as we will be able to simplify and automate several processes including collection and debt management, which will add value and efficiencies to our operations.”
“As the world’s leading food company, we have to constantly seek ways to innovate and renovate, and this is not just limited to our products. It is also about the way we conduct our business and interact with all our stakeholders. We believe we have a good innovation in this Distribution Card Programme, which will also be used as a benchmark by other companies," he said.
*********
Issued jointly by Nestlé (Malaysia) Berhad, American Express & Maybank.
For further information, please contact:
Nestlé (Malaysia) Berhad
Lashvinder Kaur
Westcoast Communications
Tel: 03-79544505
Email : lash@westcoast.com.my
American Express
Susanna Hui
Director, Public Affairs & Communication
Tel: +852-98830399
Email : susanna.s.hui@aexp.com
Maybank
Corporate Affairs & Communications
Andrew Lee / Irene Chua / Prakash Mukherjee
Tel: 03-20748478 / 20747785 / 20747783
Email: publicaffairs@maybank.com.my