Smith’s Front of House is a family-owned business specialising in equipping hospitality and retail environments, with over 42 years’ experience in design, project management and procurement. The Northumberland-based company prides itself on delivering high quality service and support, keen pricing, and fast response to private and public clients, such as Northumberland County Council.
Working with the council and receiving faster payment has provided enormous benefit to Smith’s Front of House and the regional supply chain in Northumberland.
FreePay: Faster payment to local, micro suppliers
Operating in a highly competitive market, Smith’s Front of House has to balance high standards with attractive pricing to win and retain contracts. Working with the council offers many benefits including the ability to receive faster payments through FreePay.
Smith’s Front of House was automatically enrolled onto the FreePay scheme at the council, benefitting from faster payments: much quicker than the agreed terms.
FreePay enables local authorities to pay their local micro suppliers early without charge, accelerating cash to the businesses that need it most. For Smith’s, FreePay has not only delivered faster payments, but also certainty of payment – providing the confidence that payments with be received in a timely way.
Injecting liquidity into the regional economy, sustaining growth and local jobs
Supplying such a high-profile organisation and being paid early provides advantages to Smith’s Front of House as well as benefiting the regional supply chain; enabling the company to source suppliers locally and retain spend within the local economy.
The relationship between Northumberland County Council, Smiths Front of House and their regional supply chain, clearly demonstrates the positive impact local Council spend combined with timely payments has on suppliers and the effect on growth and job retention within the region.
“The business is proud to include Northumberland County Council as a client. It’s a huge accolade that such a large and important organisation should take the time to support a small, family-owned and local business such as ours.
“We’re incredibly proud that we’re able to help the council maintain their high standards through the service we provide, and that is primarily due to us being based within the region. The speed of our response means that if replacement or spare parts are required due to an equipment failure, we can ensure the downtime is low, minimising loss of revenue within the council’s food retail outlets.
“It’s a highly competitive market for the equipment with competition from overseas, so we must be very keen with pricing. Because the Council pays us quickly, we’re able to negotiate better prices, which enables us to sustain our business and win more work. Certainty of payment is essential. As the saying goes, turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king.
“It’s also made a huge difference to our supply chain. As a result of the Council contract, we’re able to order paper goods direct from the mill based locally here in Northumberland, rather than through a wholesaler based down in Bristol. It’s much more efficient, reduces transport and emissions, lower costs and provides local support back into the region.
“In addition, we’ve been able to retain our stainless-steel fabrication here in Northumberland, so the knock-on effect within the region is strong; helping to maintain local jobs and support other businesses in an otherwise challenging market.”
– Derek Smith, Owner, Smith’s Front of House
