FoodByUs launches finance product to help hospitality businesses

Inside Small Business

13th Apr 2023

Online wholesale food and alcohol ordering marketplace platform FoodByUs has announced the launch of a new payment terms ‘trade financing’ product that guarantees suppliers instant payment while providing buyers (independent restaurants and cafes) the flexibility of up to 30-day payment terms, with no fees to be charged.

The solution is an industry-first and has been designed as a potential game changer for more than 80,000 independently owned and run restaurants and cafes across Australia. It makes use of new technology product that combines FoodByUs’s all-in-one online marketplace wholesale food ordering solution with instant trade financing across thousands of suppliers.

The product was developed over many months in partnership with trade financing platforms and is designed to help alleviate the cashflow concerns of hospitality business owners.

“Trade financing is a critical function in the hospitality industry typically done one on one between venue and supplier,” Ben Lipschitz, CEO and co-founder of FoodByUs, said. “This is incredibly cumbersome for venues who need to fill out and manage multiple credit applications and limits, while suppliers themselves are acting like ‘banks’ and are burdened with having to chase payments as well as being exposed to the possibility of not getting paid at all.”

Bill Moragiannis, chef and owner at HoneyDee Loukamades, said that it’s tough managing payment when you have to chase individual buyers for payment as a small-business owner, and that the reality is that sometimes they just don’t pay.

“I might sell thousands of dollars’ worth of product but with 30-day payment terms I won’t see that money for at least a month, or longer if they don’t pay on time,” Moragiannis said. “There’s no doubt that’s stressful as I still have bills to pay. It’s amazing to finally see a new product coming into the industry that will fix this process and help out not only me but my buyers, too, because I know some of them struggle with cashflow, too.”

This story was originally published on Inside Small Business.