Best Solution in India Mondelēz India Foods Pvt Ltd Fast Moving Collections for a Fast Moving Business

HIGHLY COMMENDED WINNER Best Solution in India Mondelēz India Foods Pvt Ltd India Pratyush Mittal, Finance Director

Kaushik Shaparia, Deutsche Bank and Francois Gumy, Mondelēz India Foods Pvt Ltd

Fast moving collections for a fast moving business

Company profile Mondelēz India Foods Pvt Ltd (formerly Cadbury India Ltd) is part of Mondelēz International, a world leader in biscuits, chocolate, gum, candy and powdered beverages. The company in India operates in four categories – chocolate, beverages, biscuits and candy and is chocolate category leader. Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk, Cadbury Celebrations, Cadbury Bournville, Cadbury 5 Star, Cadbury Perk, Cadbury Fuse, Cadbury Gems are some of the company’s chocolate brands in India. The company’s beverage portfolio consists of Bournvita and Tang. Cadbury Oreo and Bournvita Biscuit is a part of its biscuit portfolio and Halls and Choclairs Gold make up its candy portfolio.

Headquartered in Mumbai, Mondelēz India Foods Pvt Ltd has sales Reconciliation is automated as each transaction is tracked by a offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai and unique reference number on an end-to-end basis. manufacturing facilities at Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. To conclude the process, an SMS notification is sent to each distributor capturing details of the amount to be debited and the date of ACH debit is sent to ensure that the accounts are adequately The challenge funded. In the last five months, more than 150 distributors have been As a corporate in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) segment, successfully migrated and nearly 150 distributors are in the process of Mondelēz is required to collect a large volume of payments from its being migrated. distributors, primarily in the form of pre-signed cheques. These cheques are held in inventory by the bank and then, on the due date, Best practice and innovation sent to the clearing house for presentation. This is a truly first-rate example of how paper-based forms of payment This method posed numerous challenges and process complications can be efficiently and effectively moved onto electronic platforms. As for both Mondelēz and the banks it worked with. a result, Mondelēz has met its objectives and achieved end-to-end visibility over its transactions and standardised many processes Mondelēz therefore decided that the best course of action was to driving further efficiency. move to an electronic mode of collection in a phased manner. Its main objective was to drive consistency in the collection process to The solution has also helped Mondelēz forge a better relationship ensure that file formats exchanged with the bank and MIS received with its distributors, as they now have visibility and do not have to be from the bank are standard across cheques and direct debit. chased to restock cheques.

An immediate notification of cancelled mandates also allows The solution Mondelēz to take immediate corrective action and reduce risks To meet its objectives, Mondelēz teamed up with Deutsche Bank to pertaining to outstanding stock with distributors versus realising develop electronic solutions for streamlining collections and cases of stopped cheques only when submitted for clearing. import payments.

On the collections side, Mondelēz leveraged a unique solution which allowed them to initiate the migration of collection from cheques (paper-based collection) to direct debit. To do this, Mondelēz generates a single collection file that it shares with the bank which Key benefits uses its application to separate the cheque and direct debit payments Straight through processing. before being sent to the clearing house. • • Efficiency gains. The application used by the bank stores the mapper which identifies the distributors who have given the direct debit mandate to • Cost savings. Mondelēz. Each mandate is assigned a unique reference number by • Paperless. the clearing house, which is relayed back to Mondelēz in a consolidated MIS with the complete details of the transactions.