HJS Packaging & Distribution Relies on Airwallex to Simplify Moving Money Across its Global Supply Chain

HJS is a supply chain management and distribution company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The company has eight warehouses in the U.S. and several internationally including one in The Netherlands and Hong Kong. It’s banking relationships are complex, requiring the company to pay and receive funds in U.S. dollars (USD), Canadian dollars (CAD), and Euros (EUR). Before switching to Airwallex the company had accounts with the Bank of Montreal, Rabobank (a Dutch multinational), and Johnson Bank in Racine, Wisconsin.

HJS handles the vendor relationships for large corporations with dealerships. The company fulfills orders routed from dealers to the parent firm and ensures timely deliver by using its global network of warehouses.

Dean Beck

Vice President, HJS Packaging and Distribution

Airwallex will save us $150,000 to $180,000 annually in hidden FX markups compared to traditional banking service providers.

A focus on continuous process improvement leads to Airwallex

Dean Beck joined HJS as the CFO. His first order of business was learning the company’s ERP system, with the goal of improving internal processes and boosting efficiency. That focus on continuous improvement led him to Airwallex. “We were looking to simplify payment processing and foreign currency exchanges as we grew our international business,” he explains. HJS first started doing business in Canada about four years ago, moving into Europe and Asia two years later. “We were following our main customer as it expanded globally,” continues Dean, “and we needed to develop foreign currency expertise to meet their needs. Those needs included foreign currency transactions within the HJS system and foreign currency translation, as well as moving money internationally between Euros, CAD, and USD.

Airwallex simplifies and reduces the cost of moving money

“We had to find banks in Canada, the U.S. and Europe,” notes Dean, “and people with foreign currency expertise.” HJS spent a lot of time searching for and partnering with third-party resources, which meant a growing portfolio of relationships that needed to be managed. Airwallex allowed the company to eliminate some of those relationships, simplifying operations. “With Airwallex,” he says, “we have one website where we can do everything it took three people to do before.”

The Airwallex solution

Unlike the complexity of working with multiple banks, with one phone call to Airwallex, HJS had Canadian and European bank accounts set up and ready to go. The Airwallex solution includes:

• Predictable pricing — CAD and EUR markups at a flat 0.40%

• Global Accounts — Local CAD, EUR, and USD bank accounts for receiving payments from customers while avoiding EUR negative interest rate penalties for holding a balance

• Wallet — the ability to take advantage of favorable CAD/USD, CAD/EUR, or USD/EURO exchange rates and hold balances for future payouts

• Cards — instantly create virtual and physical Visa-issued company and employee cards tied to Apple Pay/Google Pay to avoid 3% markups on exchange rates with credit cards

Dean Beck

Vice President, HJS Packaging and Distribution

Airwallex is an expert in foreign banking. They are banking and foreign currency simplified.