Grupo Bimbo joins the Better Than Cash Alliance to help small businesses in Mexico boost profits

Mexico City, July 7, 2015 – Grupo Bimbo, the world’s largest baking company, through its digital transaction platform Red Qiubo, announces its membership with the Better Than Cash Alliance, to strengthen its commitment to further develop small businesses like “mom and pop” stores in Mexico, a segment that has a significant and positive impact on the country’s economy. Integrating digital payments into these small businesses is expected to help the sector earn greater profits and stabilize jobs.

The UN-hosted Better Than Cash Alliance is a partnership of governments, companies, and international organizations that accelerates the transition from cash to digital payments in order to drive inclusive growth and reduce poverty by increasing efficiency, transparency and financial inclusion.

With a presence in over 2,000 municipalities across Mexico, Red Qiubo is a digital transaction platform developed by Grupo Bimbo, which simplifies modernization in traditional “mom and pop” stores. Red Qiubo provides small business owners with tailored technology tools that allow them to increase productivity in their everyday operations. Through this platform, small businesses across the country can accept electronic payments using credit cards, debit cards and food vouchers, as well as offer bill payments and purchases of mobile phone minutes. “The ‘mom and pop’ sector is an important partner which has historically accompanied our growth in the country.Today, there are more than 700,000 small stores that need access to advanced technology to obtain certain advantages against their competitors,” said Hortensia Contreras, Vice President of Electronic Services for Grupo Bimbo. By joining Better Than Cash Alliance, Grupo Bimbo commits to continue supporting the digitization of payments to the traditional distribution channels of “mom and pop” stores through Red Qiubo. It will also join a community of knowledge-sharing and peer-learning to further understand the costs and realize the benefits of shifting to digital payments. By enabling the use of digital payments in small businesses, the company helps improve operational efficiency while also expanding access to financial services for consumers in “mom and pop” stores. “We recognize Grupo Bimbo’s leadership in Mexico to drive the use of digital payments in the retail sector,” said Dr. Ruth Goodwin-Groen, Managing Director of the Better Than Cash Alliance. “By making digital payment services more widely available in small businesses, Grupo Bimbo is advancing the shared goals of Alliance members to increase efficiency and inclusive growth. We look forward to supporting the company’s efforts to enable digital payments throughout its network of retailers and sharing its good practices with other Alliance members.”

According to the World Bank Group, 2 billion people globally lack access to formal financial services[i]. The use of electronic systems allows small business owners in the country to meet their business goals, by letting them accept electronic payments with credit cards, debit cards and food vouchers in a fast, easy, transparent and safe manner.

This way, they are able to increase their flow of customers, offering them efficiency and security in their electronic operations, and increase revenue through the sale of value-added digital services. Today in Mexico, the use of these technological tools facilitates more than half a million of monthly transactions of credit cards, debit cards and food vouchers, increasing the average ticket in the ‘mom and pop’ sector. It also benefits over 5 million users of electronic food vouchers, allowing them to use these payments at small businesses.

“The country’s business structure has been transformed in the last few years. By joining the Better Than Cash Alliance, we reinforce our commitment with the traditional ‘mom and pop’ sector, providing them with a key differentiator that allows them to remain an option for clients and consumers,” Hortensia Contreras concluded.

View the Spanish Press Release.

About Grupo Bimbo

2015: Our 70th anniversary. Grupo Bimbo nourishing, delighting and serving our world. Grupo Bimbo is the leading baking company in the world. It has more than 128,000 associates and in 2014 generated US$14.064 million in sales. It has 167 production plants and nearly 1,700 sales centers located strategically in 22 countries over the world, throughout 3 continents. It produces over 10 thousand products under more than 100 household brands in categories as sliced bread, buns and toast. It also has an extensive distribution network in Mexico and one of the largest of the American continent. Grupo Bimbo’s shares have traded on the Mexican Stock Exchange since 1980 under the ticker symbol BIMBO. Grupo Bimbo reaffirms its commitment to the environment by bringing their environmental sustainability programs to all the countries where it operates.

For more information about Grupo Bimbo, visit:www.grupobimbo.com. On Facebook: www.facebook.com/GrupoBimboand Twitter: @Grupo_Bimbo.

For more information on Red Qiubo, visit: www.redqiubo.com

About the Better Than Cash Alliance

The Better Than Cash Alliance is a partnership of governments, companies, and international organizations that accelerates the transition from cash to digital payments in order to drive inclusive growth and help people lift themselves out of poverty. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Citi, Ford Foundation, MasterCard, Omidyar Network, USAID and Visa Inc. are funders and the U.N. Capital Development Fund serves as the secretariat.

To learn more, visit www.betterthancash.org, follow @BetterThan_Cash and subscribe for news.

Press Contacts

Mónica Bretón Grupo Bimbo + 52-55-5268-6585 monica.breton@grupobimbo.com

Angela Corbalan Better Than Cash Alliance (+1) 917-224-9109 angela.corbalan@uncdf.org

(i) THE GLOBAL FINDEX DATABASE 2014: Measuring Financial Inclusion around the World http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/globalfindex