Elders: credit management for the livestock sector

Aims

With a multimillion-dollar turnover, more than 200 outlets throughout Australia and a significant export business, credit management is a key part of Elders’ overall business strategy.

Credit Insurance forms part of that business policy, where Elders aims to add an extra layer of comfort as part of a wider and detailed risk mitigation strategy.

As Robert Maslin, General Manager of Credit at Elders, explained: “Our credit Insurance policies underpin our internal credit procedures.” These are managed by a team of 20 people and are applied to as many as 30,000 active customers in any one month.

Our role

We provide Elders with a Domestic and Global Credit Insurance policy. “We like the single policy approach of Atradius. Getting individual insurance for 100,000 clients every year is not economical or practical,” said Robert Maslin.

Elders has experts in every part of the production cycle from farm supplies, real estate and banking, to farm productivity. The business regularly analyses the latest information that could impact Australian and global agriculture, including weather and commodity data. Their own experts monitor changes in demand and support their customers by looking for new production techniques to improve productivity both in Australia and overseas.  

Our role is to support Elders’ own due diligence and working procedures. Our account managers work closely with Robert Maslin and his team to understand the business and provide speedy responses to queries on credit limits. This includes travelling with Elders to visit their clients to gain additional information to enhance and further inform credit limit decisions.

Outcomes

We provide Elders with an extra layer of comfort within their risk management strategy. This includes the provision of credit limits in areas where it may be harder for Elders to gain access to financial information.

In particular, we provide credit insurance for the higher end of Elders’ market, focusing on larger turnover clients and riskier areas.

“Atradius provides credit insurance for our livestock businesses domestically and Internationally”, said Robert Maslin. “The characteristics of these markets often have an element of higher risk and we use Atradius’ expertise to navigate through this. We have examples in recent history of companies failing, for instance, with none of the classic signs of a business in distress,” he added. 

“We export live animals into Japan and Indonesia. With their expertise and knowledge of the local market, Atradius were able to support our expansion into new customers in Indonesia.

“We like the commercial approach of Atradius. They recognise that commercial decisions are often not a simple yes-no answer. They thoroughly examine information and look at all of the grey areas. They also recognise that, in business, we need to make fast decisions and so are always prompt in responding to us.”

About Elders

Elders is Australia’s leading agribusiness. A rural services provider, the group provides finance, livestock and wool marketing, farm merchandise, agronomy, property and auction sales.

Founded in 1839 by Alexander Elder, Elders has been an integral part of Australia’s rural landscape for more than 175 years. A classic Australian brand established in an essential part of the Australian economy, their business was built around supporting primary producers and their needs throughout the production cycle. 

Although they have many different clients with different needs, these all have one thing in common: they are looking to maximise the performance of their farming enterprises.