OMNICOM MEDIA GROUP’S FINANCIAL DIVISION ACHIEVES ACCREDITATION

AIMIA FOODS’ CONTINUED CICMQ SUCCESS

SHARED Financial Services (SFSC) within Omnicom Media Group, a division of Omnicom Group Inc., is first-time CICMQ accredited after showing a positive re-evaluation 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.

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,

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

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.”

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,”

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.”

The recognised standard in credit management www.cicm.com September 2015

TALON OUTDOOR ACCREDITED FOR THE FIRST TIMEA 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.