A group of large Dutch companies, including brewers Heineken, is to start paying suppliers quicker.

Heineken joined with supermarket chain Jumbo, staffing agency Randstad and dairy company FrieslandCampina on Wednesday to sign a manifesto in which the companies promise to pay the invoices of their small suppliers within 30 days.

The companies hope that other large companies will join the initiative so that 30 days becomes the standard period in which invoices are paid, the Financieele Dagblad reports.

‘A great initiative,’ Michael van Straalen, chairman of the small and medium-sized firms association MKB, told the paper. ‘Many smaller companies are fed up with large companies improving their own liquidity over the backs of small firms by late payment of suppliers.’

It is estimated that some €9bn in unpaid invoices is owed to small and medium-sized companies by large firms and the government.