How Dabur India simplified its Corporate Financing to fuel its growth story

By ICICI Bank Social Media Editorial Team

The environment in which corporates operate today is becoming increasingly dynamic and competitive with accelerated digital adoption transforming every business. ?

We got into a freewheeling discussion with Mr. Ashok Kumar Jain, Executive Vice President Finance and Company Secretary, Dabur India Ltd., one of India’s leading FMCG companies, who took us through how Dabur dove deep and identified multiple financial operations that it could digitise. In his words, Dabur, found an able partner in ICICI Bank, for achieving operational efficiencies across business functions with #CorporateEcosystemBanking and made them paperless, hassle-free, swift and seamless. ?Backed by extensive digital prowess, ICICI Bank’s ‘Corporate Stack’ offers multiple banking services that can be customised to meet the needs of different corporates within an industry vertical and provide frictionless embedded systems.

ICICI Bank is the one-stop shop for all our banking needs.

From bulk payments to trade documentation and servicing our export business, ICICI Bank has digitised them all for us. We now onboard a dealer in 30 minutes and pay our taxes in just a few clicks. The Bank also provides digital 360-degree financial solutions for our employees. ICICI Bank has truly transformed the way we bank.

Ashok Kumar Jain, Executive Vice President Finance, and Company Secretary Dabur India Ltd

Helping Vendors and Dealers with digital financing via CorpConnect

As a starting point, the FMCG major wanted to streamline its vendor-dealer financing processes.?Dabur is one of the 70 companies that is on-boarded to CorpConnect, a digital platform that enables corporates to undertake instant payments and collections to/from their channel partners.

Dabur has a portfolio with more than 400 products. To distribute its products, it has an extensive domestic network of dealers, which covers the entire country - a direct presence in more than 59,000 villages with 3,500+ dealers. Dabur directly integrated its ERP system with the Bank’s systems, embedded a customised banking solution to help dealers get digitally on-boarded, and sanctioned for financing facilities within a day. As on date, a significant number of their vendors are availing the benefits of this financing facility.

Mr. Jain added how during seasons of high activity like the festive season, when the demand is high and sometimes unpredictable --- this quick financing has been a game changer. For dealers having access to easy credit during high sale seasons means that they can focus on sales rather than on arranging financing. This helps to ensure that the consumer demand is met and can lead to marked improvement in profitability for both the dealers and the company.

Reducing Export-Import TAT – With Trade Online & Inward Remittances

Dabur digitised their export documentation through the ‘e-Docs’ feature on Trade Online, ICICI Bank’s digital platform for facilitating online trade transactions. With this, it did away with the erstwhile processes that were paper-intensive and therefore time-consuming. ?Trade Online has helped in same day issuance of Letter of Credit, Bank Guarantee vetting and issuance from the few days it took previously.

The Bank is also servicing Dabur’s export business to ensure efficient working capital management through instantaneous settlement of inward remittances. Mr. Jain shared the example of one of their international subsidiaries for which, this same day remittance has helped in reducing turnaround time (TAT). This has helped in improving cash flow substantially as there is no blockage of funds for a few days, as in the usual industry practise.

Delighting Employees

Additionally, an important pillar in Dabur’s journey towards digitisation were its employees. The company provided them with instant digital banking solutions, making personal banking simple and hassle-free through ICICI Bank’s state-of-the-art mobile and internet banking platforms. Employees could also avail a suite of other products, like home loans, personal loans etc. Today a majority of employee salaries are processed via ICICI Bank.

Corporate Ecosystem Banking by ICICI Bank

The ‘ICICI STACK for Corporates’, provides an array of digital banking services where a combination of technology, robust online channels, branch presence and powerful APIs give convenience to the customer at the click of button. Many of these digital solutions are first in the industry and can be customised to different corporates and industries.

If this story resonates with your goals of achieving operational efficiency, collaborate with us and begin your journey of transformation here. Write to us at [email protected] .

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