Global expertise in risk management, quality of service and ongoing dialogue: all ingredients in the success and long-term relationship built up with Arkema, the international industrial group with faith in Coface for almost ten years and in the Coface Global Solutions credit insurance programme.
Arkema, formerly the chemicals branch (excluding oil) of the Total group, known as Atofina, was founded in 2004 following the spin-off from Total. A listed international group, Arkema is a world leader in specialty materials: adhesives, coatings solutions, advanced high-performance materials (polymers, additives).
Transportation, energy, water, healthcare, consumer goods... Arkema's materials are everywhere in our daily lives: we owe Arkema, among other things, the odorizing products for gas, which make it safer to use. Many top French athletes and major industry brands (Puma, The North Face, Mizuno) opt for soles made from Pebax®, the thermoplastic elastomer developed by Arkema, the best-performing material on the sports footwear market.
The Arkema group, which employs 21,100 people in nearly 55 countries (including the United States, China, France, Germany and Japan), generated sales of €9.5 billion in 2023.
Ensuring Arkema's international development
Trade Credit-insured (in part) with Coface since 1976 under the aegis of the Total group, Arkema started from scratch after its spin-off in 2004. In 2014, ten years after its creation, Arkema launched a request for proposals, via its broker partner AON.
Our priority was to outsource risk management in order to deal with the decentralised nature of our organisation and the management of trade receivables. Entrusting our portfolio of activities to Coface was a way for us to optimise our resources and ensure that all our entities benefit from Coface's solutions.
- Nathalie Vinchent, Arkema Group Credit Manager.
The Arkema group was also looking for a partner with global expertise in risk management, with the ability to underwrite risk closely to local realities in order to secure its international development. When Arkema was created, it operated mainly in Europe and the United States. Through innovation, targeted acquisitions and investment in emerging countries, the Group has strategically rebalanced its activities to focus on growth markets, with a stronger footprint in Asia. Between 2005 and 2023, Asia and the rest of the world accounted for 29% of Arkema's sales, up from 18%, North America for 37%, up from 25%, and Europe for 34% (down from 57% in 2005).
"Direct dialogue with risk experts and tailored risk assessment is invaluable"
Arkema therefore (logically) approached Coface, and more specifically its Global Solutions (CGS) offer, specifically designed for multinational companies. Coface's risk management experts and sales teams designed a comprehensive, robust and tailor-made programme to optimise the management of its large portfolio of policies spread across the four corners of the globe. As a result, Arkema now has a single contract model, with identical contractual conditions for all the Group's entities, which simplifies and harmonises the management of the 120 policies on behalf of its 26,000 customers, whatever their size or location. As a CGS client, Arkema benefits from an organisation and solutions entirely dedicated to multinational companies, with specific central and local contacts in each entity to effectively manage its global programme adapted to local needs.
"Knowing that our business development is secure gives us greater peace of mind when it comes to making decisions and shaping our strategy. Coface's solutions also facilitate my work as a Group credit manager: in addition to local support for each of our subsidiaries, I benefit from a centralised organisation, supervised by a leading programme and a referee, with whom I have direct dialogue to carry out personalised risk assessment: this is invaluable!", analyses Nathalie Vinchent.
"The more we partner with Coface, the more we improve the quality of our portfolio. It's a virtuous circle!
Over nearly a decade of collaboration, Arkema and Coface have built up a privileged partnership. "Proximity and a partnership approach are the foundation of our relationship with Coface's teams, who are responsive, flexible and ready to find solutions based on our expectations and the difficulties we face. Despite changes to the people we deal with, our relationship has never lost momentum. This shows that it doesn't depend on the people who run it, but that it's based on a shared culture between two companies", comments Nathalie Vinchent.
The long-term relationship is also a lever for creating value, which both organisations are leveraging. Arkema's renewed confidence in Coface has helped to optimise the CGS programme. "Our client is a high-quality technician, an expert in trade credit insurance, who - rightly! - expects a high level of service from Coface. Arkema is a pioneer in many areas, such as innovative API solutions. We challenge each other and, together, we succeed in making Arkema's portfolio evolve towards greater performance. The company is very dynamic and constantly growing, which requires perfect international monitoring and coordination to meet our client's expectations. It's extremely rewarding to see the relationship developing positively," says Julie Machon, CGS Account Manager.
"Apart the fact that Coface remains competitive, the level of service weighs heavily in the balance and we are always trying to improve our contract. Working with Coface allows us to be more reactive in case of an alert on one of our exposures, and to better prevent the risk of non-payment in the long term. It's a virtuous circle that continuously improves the quality of our portfolio over time. It is precisely for these reasons that we intend to write even more beautiful pages in our shared history," concludes Nathalie Vinchent.
