We Love You Grows Its Sauce Business With On-Demand Capital From C2FO

The sister-run business shares Korean flavors and family recipes with a growing global audience.

The story of We Love You

Sisters Ann and Janet Chung are bringing the taste of Korean barbecue sauces and condiments to a global audience with their food brand, We Love You. Their gluten-free, GMO-free products are now carried in stores across the US, as well as Canada, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. 

“They’re based on our family recipes,” Janet Chung said. “My sister and I, we always knew that we wanted to work together. And at some point, we recognized that Korean barbecue and Korean food were kind of exploding on the scene. And we thought, ‘You know what? Maybe we can actually do something here.’”

Challenge

Over the past two years, supply chain issues have been a major challenge for the East Coast company. When the Chungs needed to buy more ingredients and supplies, sometimes they would have to order in bulk six or even 12 months in advance. They didn’t always have the necessary funds because their capital was tied up in outstanding invoices. 

Why We Love You chose C2FO

The Chungs were contacted by C2FO, which offers an on-demand platform for working capital. 

Suppliers can use the platform to request early payment from their larger customers, in exchange for a small discount on those customers’ invoices. 

Instead of waiting weeks or even months, suppliers can get paid in days.

“It was just like this lightbulb moment,” Ann Chung said. “We thought, ‘OK, this is a no-brainer. We should be working with C2FO.’”

Plus, as a Walmart supplier, We Love You was invited to a special C2FO program where diverse suppliers can qualify for early payment at preferred rates. 

How C2FO helped We Love You 

On-demand working capital

With C2FO, the Chungs have been able to access the funding they need to meet the growing demand for their products — and even launched a new budget line of sauces.  

“What C2FO does for us as a small business is to provide liquidity when we need it most,” Janet Chung said.

“And as a result, we’ve maintained all of our deliveries,” Ann Chung said. “We haven’t zero-stocked any customer. We have had a stellar order fulfillment history these past two years, even though it’s been possibly the most challenging time for supply chain management.”

Greater control over discounts 

In the C2FO platform, suppliers like We Love You can choose how much — or even if — they want to offer a discount. 

Here’s how it works. Enterprise customers will upload approved but outstanding invoices to the C2FO platform. We Love You can select which invoices it wants to speed up and, in exchange, will offer the customer a small discount for early payment. The power is in the Chungs’ hands. 

“We actually can say, ‘Hey, we would like an early payment, but only at this cost to us,’” Ann Chung said. 

Fast, headache-free process

Thanks to C2FO, payment can land in a company’s accounts in as little as two days. 

“I don’t have to sign all these documents with a loan officer,” Ann Chung said. “I don’t have to submit a crazy number of documents that take days to process. It’s literally, I’m on this platform, I punch in a number and, boom, I get my cash. It’s so easy.”

The results

We Love You has continued to win over retailers and customers and expand its business. And the Chung sisters did it without the stress of taking on additional debt.  

“I think one of the many reasons we appreciate working with C2FO is that it’s enabled us to remain 100% owned by us,” Janet Chung said. “I think obviously cash is queen in business, and you need to have it when you need it. 

“C2FO provides us the cash that we need so that we don’t have any problems. Mo’ money, less problems,” she said.

Get paid faster with C2FO

There’s a quicker, fairer way to access working capital. See if your customers already offer early payment through C2FO.