LSQ announced a partnership with Indiana-based Rochester Iron & Metal to provide a supply chain finance (SCF) program to its metal processing and recycling suppliers.

Through the program, suppliers will have the ability to receive early payment for invoices to Rochester through LSQ FastTrack®, the best-in-class working capital finance and payments platform.

This partnership is not a totally new relationship for the metal processor; in addition to creating their own SCF program, Rochester has been a supplier in one of their customer’s LSQ SCF programs.

“We are also on the other side of the buyer/supplier relationship, so we understand the flexibility provided with the option for early payments from our consumers,” said Rochester COO Dan Zeiger. “For us - like any business - it’s crucial to have a healthy supply chain and you can’t do that with the longer payment terms that are becoming the norm in the steel industry.

“We have worked with LSQ for some time now and know what the experience is like for suppliers; we are very comfortable with how LSQ FastTrack works and the payment certainty it provides. There's a level of reliability within FastTrack that creates a comfortable feeling as far as our payment cycles and receivables go. With that knowledge and experience, we are excited to be able to offer an early-payment option to our suppliers.”

For LSQ Chief Revenue Officer Vikas Shah, seeing Rochester come full circle with LSQ SCF offerings is rewarding.

“Over the last few years, Dan and the team at Rochester have become huge proponents of LSQ FastTrack® and have worked closely with our team to make the most out of their participation in their customer’s program,” Shah said. “I know they will take what they have learned and work to make their program as successful as it can be for themselves and their suppliers.”

With the LSQ FastTrack platform, Rochester not only has access to funding for supplier early payments, but they also gain access to automation features that will improve the efficiency of their accounts payable processes. Among these is LSQ FastTrack total payments management that intelligently and timely routes payments to where they need to go (either to LSQ for early-paid invoices or directly to the supplier if paid at terms) without input from Rochester.

For suppliers enrolled in the Rochester SCF program, there is an opportunity to boost their working capital by taking advantage of early payments and utilize time-saving features like automated payments and setting their own payment terms (a feature that was extremely valuable to Zeiger as a supplier).

“I love that with LSQ FastTrack we can ‘set it and forget it,’” said Zeiger. It takes all the guesswork out of when payments will actually come in.”

Rochester and LSQ are now enrolling new suppliers to scale the program.