Air Culinaire Worldwide

BACKGROUND

Air Culinaire Worldwide specializes in catering and concierge services for private jets around the world. They currently own 23 kitchens that cover all major markets in the United States and Europe, and their strong network of partners enables them to provide services practically anywhere in the world.

Prior to coming onboard with Edenred Pay, Air Culinaire processed most vendor payments via plastic credit card. When an order was placed, the Guest Services Team would provide the credit card information to the vendor directly over the phone or via email. The accounting team would later attempt to reconcile all the credit card charges as they posted to their account.

Since the method in which credit cards were being provided to vendors was not secure, the information would often be compromised. Each month, at least 50% of cards were being cancelled because of fraudulent activity.

In addition, they occasionally dealt with duplicate charges. Some of their vendors would provide multiple services a day for the same customer, and Air Culinaire would get charged twice for the same order. This led to requesting refunds, and eventually following up to ensure the refunds were received. It was a very frustrating and time-consuming process.

With the reoccurring headache of both fraudulent and duplicate charges, it was time to implement an alternative payment solution to alleviate these major pain-points.

SOLUTION

Air Culinaire explored multiple payment solutions to find one that would fit with their business needs and get their vendors paid in a timely manner. They landed on Edenred Pay because of the control and fraud prevention capabilities they offered.

The training and implementation process was relatively quick and seamless, and the team now requires very minimal assistance in using Edenred Pay’s Payment Automation Platform on a day-to-day basis. The biggest obstacle in the transition was getting vendors to understand the new process and addressing their concerns.

RESULTS

Since integrating with Edenred Pay, Air Culinaire’s pain-points have been eliminated and the process has become more streamlined and efficient. Vendor invoices are submitted and processed through their current accounts payable system and at the end of each day, a smart list is pulled from their accounting system and uploaded into Edenred Pay’s Payment Automation Platform. A payment batch is generated, approved, and within 30 minutes, virtual cards have been generated and sent out to vendors for payment.

They have seen a significant reduction in reconciliation time, and all the tasks associated with a compromised credit card have been eliminated – calling banks, closing cards, waiting for newly issued cards, and getting caught up with payments for those waiting on new card information. Air Culinaire has been able to free up a fulltime employee to focus their efforts elsewhere.