201509 CM September

AIMIA FOODS’ CONTINUED CICMQ SUCCESS
THE continued success of Aimia Foods’
credit team has been re-acknowledged
through their successful application for
third-time CICMQ accreditation – ensuring
they join an elite group of companies with
sustained success.
Its 304 employees ensure the
manufacturing, sales and marketing of
Aimia-owned and third-party licensed
beverage brands occurs throughout a
cross section of the UK market – retail,
foodservice, cash and carry, and vending –
and are based in the North West of England.
Having an established distributor
network means Aimia can export a
number of licensed brands to Europe, the
Middle East and Australasia. Furthermore,
specialist-outsourcing services are provided
to blue-chip clients, who choose to
outsource all, or part of, their manufacturing
activity, enabling a greater focus on their
core business.
Sharon Adams, Credit Manager at
Aimia Foods, has been an advocate of
CICMQ since its implementation in 2010,
and is delighted to join a core of three-time
accredited companies:
“We continually strive for improvement
and growth to provide the very best
results,” Sharon says, “and it is very
important to me that I can successfully
demonstrate how much the team has
evolved and developed since our first
accreditation.”
Explaining the depths of CICMQ’s
benefits, Sharon continues: “External
recognition that we are a best-practice
credit department provides a great boost
of confidence, we enjoy networking
opportunities with credit professionals
at the top of their game and CICMQ
Accreditation ensures that we have a goal
to continually strive for.”
OMNICOM MEDIA GROUP’S FINANCIAL DIVISION ACHIEVES ACCREDITATION
SHARED Financial Services (SFSC) within
Omnicom Media Group, a division of
Omnicom Group Inc., is first-time CICMQ
accredited after showing a positive reevaluation
of their processes.
Constructed in 2011 to fuel the growth
and success across a range of different
business stakeholders within Omnicom
Media Group, SFSC currently caters for
over 250 clients with 1400 employees,
making it a £1 billion business.
Rapid growth means the credit team,
a small unit within SFSC, has to support
these 14 businesses and a corporate HQ
within the Omnicom Media Group – itself
a $38 billion business operating in 72
countries and 132 cities.
As this rapid expansion was going
ahead, the CICMQ process was undertaken
to give SFSC a series of benchmarks to aim
for, says David Hughes, Director of SFSC:
“Having brought together staff and
procedures from different stakeholder
businesses, we found inconsistency in the
way people thought and operated,” David
explains, “and I knew we still had a way
to go before we could consider ourselves
great at what we did.”
“Since achieving accreditation, the
team has a much greater self-belief, forging
understanding and working relationships
with stakeholder businesses, and improving
our credibility to no end,”
TALON OUTDOOR ACCREDITED FOR THE FIRST TIME
A leading agency responsible for brands
including Sony Pictures, PepsiCo and
Google, has received CICMQ accreditation
for the first time.
Talon Outdoor, said to be the UK’s
only independently-owned out of home
media specialist agency, collaborates with
fellow media groups to ensure consistent
progress in both digital and more traditional
marketing channels.
Iain Webb, Revenue Accountant at
Talon Outdoor, has sought to cement the
firm’s reputation for financial best practice:
“The CICMQ accreditation seemed a
natural pathway to demonstrate to our own
colleagues, as well as external partners,
that we are reaching the same high
standards as the rest of our company.
“The whole team needs to get behind
the process and see it as an aid to continual
evaluation and improvement,” he says.
The recognised standard in credit management www.cicm.com September 2015 17