Who’s Next show to offer factoring services to exhibitors

By

Anaïs Lerévérend

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Dec 18, 2018

Parisian show Who’s Next wants to be more than a trade event, and is shaping up to become a global service platform for the fashion industry. With this in mind, it recently signed a partnership deal with Belgian easy-access finance start-up Koalaboox. From the show’s next edition, scheduled on Jan. 18-21, 2019, exhibitors will have access to a service enabling them to receive in advance the value of the orders placed with them, so as to be able both to immediately initiate production and offer extended payment terms to their retailers.

 
Koalaboox provides a streamlined factoring service that makes use of digital technology and operates via an app, and it sparked Who's Next’s interest as a way to facilitate order placement to small and medium-sized exhibitor brands.
 
All of the January show’s French and Belgian exhibitors will be offered access to an automatic credit line from €25,000 to €1 million, and a 30% discount on the factoring service’s monthly subscription fee, which starts from €30, and which can then be used by exhibitors after the show. “We wanted to offer this opportunity to exhibitors because we think it could unlock negotiations, stopping brands from having to ask for advance payments from retailers and hence facilitating business,” said Frédéric Maus, the show’s general manager.

Specifically, the exhibitors that wish to use this factoring service will have an immediate credit line, with no time wasted on assessing the company’s circumstances. Once the exhibitor issues an invoice, it must be validated by the buyer, and this will release a payment for the invoice amount to the exhibitor the following day. Buyers will have a maximum of 90 days to settle with Koalaboox, which advances the sums.
 
Should buyers fail to pay, the exhibitor will be accountable for 30% of the amount, and Koalaboox pledges to cover the remaining 70%. This is a crucial issue, one on which Who's Next is keen to work further, hoping to be able to offer a complementary debt-collection service at future shows.

The Koalaboox service will be part of WSN.Community, the service platform for the future that Who's Next will present in January. The platform is set to include, besides financing opportunities, a series of training modules derived from the show’s programme of conferences and workshops, as well as the first matchmaking app launched in September 2018 with Swapcard, enabling exhibitors and visitors to build up their own business network during and after the shows.