The impact of the Prompt Payment Code has been questioned with the revelation that some major companies are still making their small suppliers wait around 250 days for payment.
The Prompt Payment Code may be a step in the right direction, but recognition of the problem is more overdue than many would perhaps imagine. Small suppliers have been waiting hundreds of years for fair treatment.
I was recently looking at a display of some Thomas Chippendale chairs, and was informed that although he was the leading furniture craftsman of his time, his credit control was a total mess.
Back in eighteenth Century Britain, exchange the big blue chip companies of today and in their place put the aristocracy, and you get the general picture. They had the money, the influence, and the buying power; and they used it to their full advantage.
The biggest order Chippendale’s firm fulfilled was to supply a vast amount of furniture for Edwin Lascelles at Harewood House. He then had to wait for over 10 years for payment. Such treatment of small traders and suppliers was not uncommon.
As a footnote, if you have a login client account with First Report don’t forget that as well as credit reports we also we offer free debt recovery letters which have very good results.
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