“One of the challenges that diverse-owned and operated businesses face is access to working capital,” said Ramon Catania, director, supplier initiatives at Dick’s Sporting Goods. “With C2FO, suppliers who work with us will have access to cash sooner to fund their day-to-day operations or expand their businesses. This can help unlock resources suppliers need to get products and services to our customers faster.”
C2FO allows suppliers to accelerate payment on chosen invoices for a minimal discount, with Dick’s self-funding the early payments, according to the release. Dick’s has committed to spending $300 million every year by 2025 with diverse-owned and operated businesses.
Diverse-owned businesses used the C2FO platform to secure 3.2 times more than other businesses in 2021, per the release. The company has accelerated more than $2 billion in early payments to diverse-owned businesses worldwide so far in 2022.
In May, Dick’s Sporting Goods said it doesn’t expect the struggles it reported in the first quarter of 2022 to get much better during the rest of the year, saying it sees comparable store sales struggling to ever break even year over year after an 8.4% drop in Q1.
Read more: Dick’s Digital Declines as Customers Return to Stores
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At the time, the retailer pointed to “evolving macroeconomic conditions” as the reason it foresees comparable store sales dropping between 2% and 8% for the full year. In its 2021 report, Dick’s reported a 9% drop in its eCommerce business as more shoppers returned to their local brick-and-mortar stores in the last three months of the year.
“Over the past two years, we have demonstrated our ability to adeptly manage through the pandemic and other challenges — and we are confident in our continued ability to adapt quickly and execute through uncertain macroeconomic conditions,” President and CEO Lauren Hobart said at the time.
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