Sellar, an ordering platform for craft drinks, has launched a ‘buy now, pay later’ solution for UK drinks buyers that also guarantees payment for suppliers.
Sellar Credit gives eligible trade customers generous end-of-month plus-30-day credit terms to use across all participating suppliers on Sellar. Each order they place using their Sellar Credit tab is then billed in one monthly invoice at the end of the following month, with no fees.
“Is there a world where the supplier gets paid in full, upfront, and the buyer gets as long as possible to pay?” asked chief operating officer Matt Pritchard, chief operating officer at Sellar, in the company’s podcast. “We’ve now made this possible.
“The exciting thing about Sellar Credit is that, with the collective volume of breweries together, we have made it possible to bridge that gap.”
Sellar’s buyer research showed that accessing credit terms for buyers is an extremely important factor in making their buying decisions and managing cashflow. Eighty-four per cent of trade buyers who use Sellar said they would be more likely to order from a supplier that offers at least 30-day credit terms.
Julian Bourne, chief executive of Sellar, said: “Since we started Sellar, back in 2020, breweries have always told us about the pain point of getting paid on time, sometimes if at all. Payments in the craft drinks industry were already broken, then when Covid hit, hospitality experienced a cash-crisis. A challenge our industry is still facing.”
Help with cashflow
Sellar is a ‘marketspace’ rather than a wholesale distributor and do not take a cut out of every order, like a traditional e-commerce marketplace would.
This means that buyers benefit from direct relationships with suppliers, and purchasing at their usual, agreed prices. However, they have historically received an invoice for each individual order. Sellar Credit transforms this with all their
orders now consolidated into one monthly invoice.
Sean Longe, owner of AutoBrew, in Birmingham, said: “I can really see Sellar Credit helping with cashflow and saving time by having all invoices combined into one, instead of dealing with each one separately.”
The problem of delayed payments is not new nor unique to any one brewery. When speaking to Good Beer Hunting in 2019, Andy Parker, founder of Elusive Brewing, said: “When I look at what we’re owed, it’s usually about a month’s revenue that’s overdue.
“Often it’s an oversight, but that does wear pretty thin on the second or third time of chasing — it becomes obvious they either don’t have the money or they’re stalling.”
