Improving Cash Flow Through Working Capital Intelligence for a Seafood Trading Company

 Introduction

The client is a seafood trading and distribution company based in the Middle East, supplying seafood to hotels and food service companies across the UAE. The company sources seafood from India and Vietnam, stores inventory locally in the UAE, and distributes it across multiple customer segments. While revenues were stable, the business was increasingly constrained by working capital pressure.

Challenge

The company faced significant cash flow stress, with cash locked in receivables and slow-moving inventory. The overall Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) stood at 45 days, limiting liquidity and causing missed growth opportunities. The leadership team lacked visibility into which customers and SKUs were driving high DSO and DIO, making it difficult to take corrective action. Analysis was manual, time-consuming, and largely reactive, leading to delayed decisions and suboptimal credit and inventory management.

Nudje Intervention

Nudje analysed Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO) at a granular customer and SKU level, identifying distinct payment behaviours and inventory liquidation patterns. By factoring in cost to serve, opportunity cost, and margin, Nudje highlighted loss-making customers and SKUs contributing disproportionately to working capital blockage. Nudje recommended revised credit policies for high-risk customers and targeted liquidation strategies for slow-moving SKUs, enabling faster cash recovery. What previously required hours of analysis and reasoning was delivered in seconds, significantly reducing leadership effort and decision fatigue.

Outcome

As a result, the company reduced DSO from 33 days to 31 days and DIO from 44 days to 42.5 days, improving the overall Cash Conversion Cycle. This freed up approximately ₹19.8 lakhs in cash, which was redeployed into short-term investments and marketing initiatives. Beyond the immediate cash flow impact, the company adopted a data-backed, structured approach to working capital management, allowing leadership to proactively manage cash flow and focus on higher-value growth opportunities.