Financial support to suppliers:Colmar has the validation of the ethical claim

Colmar obtained validation of the ethical claim by Bureau Veritas by joining FinDynamic's dynamic discounting initiative.

The definition of sustainability on the part of a company it's a bit like a Rubik's cube:many pieces which, when fitted together, form different faces, each of which must be coordinated and without interruptions.Needless to say, it's a long and complex journey, that one cannot think of escaping quickly, just as one cannot learn to close a Rubik's cube overnight. Colmar, a leading company in the ski clothing sector with a strong presence also in the fashion sector, one of its faces has completed it thanks to its commitment in terms of financial sustainability towards its suppliers by joining the first program dynamic discounting provided by fintech FinDynamic.

Here's how it works:a large company, in this case Colmar, can give a concrete financial support to its suppliers paying their invoices upfront in exchange for a discount:this is useful both to stimulate and reward the sustainability of the various components of the supply chain, and to give an economic boost to smaller suppliers who in this way have more liquidity to pay salaries and meet daily expenses.This fits, on Colmar's part, into a broader path that sees an important milestone in the year of its centenary “Obtaining the certification of ethical claim by Bureau Veritas it makes us proud, because we approached this project with great enthusiasm precisely to build loyalty in the production supply chain.Even though we have only joined the initiative for a year, many of our suppliers among small and medium-sized businesses have given positive feedback", he argues Carlo Colombo, managing director Mario Colombo Manufacture.

Obtaining validation of the ethical claim thanks to the help of small suppliers is part of the company's sustainability path.What other steps are you taking?
We have been insisting on CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) projects for a few years now ESG (environmental social governance), we have also begun to include product lines made with recycled yarns or biodegradable materials:from this point of view we are carrying out important research to put ourselves in a position to give our consumers a significant offer.

In addition to this, we have drawn up a code of ethics, a supplier code of conduct, a compliance specification and we obtained, in 2021, the Rds (Responsible down standards) certification for the feathers used in our garments.This makes us particularly proud because at the time there were only two of us in Italy who had it.

Another theme dear to us is the circularity:we are working very assiduously to obtain ISO 14001 certification (which defines and regulates all aspects relating to the management of the environmental impact of an organisation's activities) and ISO 45001 (which regulates health and safety management systems at work).

Sustainability for us also has a cultural aspect, which is why we started a collaboration with a young Dutch designer, Kees Dekkers, who created five chairs in recycled transparent plexiglass where he inserted our used products inside:they will be exhibited during Design Week in the Milan store, from 17 to 23 April.

As a textile and outdoor company, who are your main suppliers and where are they located?
We have always had a fairly widespread production throughout the world, we do not have a single production source.Ours is a selective delocalisation, i.e. we keep all the production know-how internally and outsource only the final part of the activity, the assembly.The collaboration with FinDynamic gave us the opportunity to exploit the financial partnership in the production chain:for example, recently there has been a reshoring in Italy of all those products with a low labor content in terms of minutes.This has allowed us to bring back here some productions that were previously outsourced, which not only makes us very happy, but aligns with the FinDynamic philosophy.

What difficulties have your suppliers encountered in these following the pandemic?
Like Colmar we have never interrupted our innovation and research activity, not even during the pandemic period, but we have always presented new collections and invested in research and development:our suppliers believed in us, followed us and we supported them in this operation.With objective difficulties, of course, but we also moved forward by exploiting the possibilities opened up by our international network.We have not been immune to the problems caused by the pandemic to international logistics, but fortunately things are now normalizing from this point of view.

And following the conflict in Ukraine?
The war had an impact on us more from a commercial point of view.Ukraine is not part of our supply chain, but is instead part of our sales network which, clearly, has suffered some setbacks.However, we found great responsiveness from the stores who did everything they could to still be able to receive the product and sell it:there is probably a very strong desire to continue to have a certain normality.In response to this, we have made a significant donation of clothing for displaced Ukrainians.

Which of your suppliers most requested advance payment of invoices?
Most of our suppliers in Italy are medium-small in size:many of them are not effectively structured to manage all the financial aspects that such an operation entails, so we are also carrying out a training operation and, also by virtue of this, we are receiving new access requests every day.In the last 12 months the majority of those who have signed up have been service providers.We would like to see more and more supply chain suppliers also become part of this initiative, to build loyalty in the supply chain, which fortunately is starting to happen.We are also trying to implement the logistical-IT aspects, especially at the level of internal procedures:we needed to make the invoices visible immediately, promptly and quickly, so as to be able to have a discount activity over a longer period of time.

What difficulty does this cause for you?
We had to revisit the technical process of recording and entering supplier invoices:if previously an invoice that expired in 90 days could also be registered in the following 10 days, with this wider discount time we must register it immediately, to make it available in the system.This was the activity that struck us the most because it changed our procedures.Having said that, the economic-financial situation of the company today allows us to pay invoices in advance in exchange for a price reduction:we are happy to pay with a discount and for our suppliers it has a positive economic-financial impact.

How does the company evaluate the collaboration with FinDynamic overall?
It is certainly positive, we are satisfied, even the suppliers who have joined the service today have declared their satisfaction to us, because they have the possibility of less onerous indirect debt.This is their main goal.From our point of view, we evaluate the economic return of using capital against a discount:it's a win-win operation, as they say.