Eggs, Euros and a smashing loan package!

Ross Hyde

Spec

Situation

My client processes eggs from poultry farms across the South West, selling to farm shops, supermarkets and every size of retailer in between. They’re a growing business, and wanted to expand their production facility, and upgrade their older equipment. They needed to invest in new egg grading equipment, to increase efficiency, and improve their quality control and capacity. They had sourced the machinery from a manufacturer in Holland, who required interval payments during the six-month build process, in Euros. My client had secured partial grant funding for this project via the Shared Prosperity Fund, but required a loan for the rest.

Strategy

This unique situation contained many elements that would cause regular high street lenders to close their doors on my client: payment in Euros, partial grant funding, and the need for several payments in advance of the equipment being delivered, and before any benefit can be obtained from the use of the equipment. And a further consideration was that the directors were approaching retirement age, and did not wish to be personally connected with the loan, but for it to be attached to the business.

These are the kind of circumstances where my suite of lenders, and my expertise in choosing and negotiating the right options, are hugely valuable to my clients.

Solution

I contacted a lender who used the government’s Growth Guarantee Scheme to draw up a loan agreement that contained stepped payments across the first six months, allowing my client to pay for the construction of their machinery. Full repayments will begin once the equipment is delivered and starts to pay for itself within the business.

The total cost of the machinery was just under £700k, of which the grant paid for £200k, with the remainder covered by the loan. The negotiations and paperwork took four weeks to complete, and the team are delighted with the opportunity to purchase this game-changing piece of machinery.