Industry
Specialty coffee import and distribution
Customer Success Story
How a $12M Coffee Importer Saved $180k Annually
Specialty coffee importer with £45M revenue slashed FX costs by 83% and eliminated demurrage with real-time treasury platform
Annual FX Volume: $12M · Annual Savings: $180k (83%) · Deployment: 3 weeks
Company Background
Annual Revenue
£45M
Annual FX Volume
$12M (BRL, ETB, VND to GBP)
Typical Transactions
$300k-$700k per shipment, 15-20 monthly container arrivals
The Challenge
Hidden FX Costs Destroying Margins
HSBC charged 2.5% FX spread + £40 per payment. On their 3-5% gross margins, FX costs were consuming 50-80% of profit on every shipment. On a typical $500k Brazil shipment, they paid $12,540 in hidden FX costs. Across $12M annual volume: $217k annually.
No FX Visibility
CFO could not see real-time FX exposure across 15-20 open supplier bills. When rates moved 2-3% during transit, losses piled up invisibly.
Slow Settlement
HSBC took 2-3 days to settle payments. Delayed container releases cost £15k in demurrage one quarter.
Demurrage Nightmares
No container tracking meant surprise demurrage charges wiping out shipment profits.
3-Week Deployment Timeline
From first contact to full migration in 21 days
Onboarding & Compliance
Full KYB/KYC review, bank setup, 2-hour platform training on FX tracking, rate locks, and container monitoring.
Outcome: Platform access granted
Parallel Testing
First $300k Brazil payment through Unicorn while keeping HSBC as backup. Tested AI bill upload, real-time P/L tracking, 15s rate lock, 2.3s settlement.
Outcome: Payment settled in 2.3s. Saved $5,985 vs HSBC.
Full Migration
Migrated all supplier payments. Integrated FREE container tracking for 15-20 monthly shipments. Set up multi-user access with approval workflows.
Outcome: 100% migration complete, HSBC closed
The Results
$180,000
Total Annual Savings (83% Cost Reduction)
$175k
FX Spread Savings — 0.5% vs 2.5% on $12M
$5k
Payment Fee Savings — £5 vs £40 × 180 payments
Zero
Demurrage Costs — Was £15k/quarter
Real-Time Treasury Visibility
CFO now sees live FX P/L across all 15-20 open bills. When BRL/USD moved 3%, locked rates immediately, saving $18k.
100% FX exposure visibility
Settlement Speed
2.3s wallet-to-wallet settlement. Suppliers receive instant confirmation, releasing containers immediately.
50x faster (2.3s vs 2-3 days)
Zero Demurrage
FREE container tracking with 48-72h alerts. Eliminated all demurrage charges.
£60k annual demurrage savings
3% Margin Improvement
$180k savings went to bottom line. On £45M revenue with 3% margin, improved to 3.4%, a 13% profit increase.
Net margin: 3.0% → 3.4%
Frequently asked questions
The coffee importer faced significant FX volatility on GBP/USD transactions, unpredictable landed costs due to exchange rate fluctuations during shipping, and costly demurrage fees from delayed container releases caused by slow bank settlements.
$1M+ Annual FX? Calculate Your Savings
If you are an importer/exporter with $1M+ annual FX volume, you may be overpaying like this coffee importer was.
Minimum: $1M annual FX volume · 3-week deployment · No long-term contracts