Ross Hyde
Spec
| Industry area | Loan amount | Turnaround |
| Construction | £100k | 2 weeks |
Situation
My client is a family-run scaffolding contractor and one of the southwest’s leading scaffolding suppliers. As the business has undergone rapid expansion, they have invested in forklifts and lorries for two new depots. The client had purchased six vehicles across the span of four months, costing £120k in total, which he had paid for outright. However, in order to free up his cashflow, he needed to refinance.
Strategy
Cashflow is important to any business, and having all available resources drained in order to purchase assets is not sustainable. I would advise any business to consider the option of a loan to consolidate payments, or as an alternative to using all their liquid cash to purchase assets.
Regular lenders wouldn’t favour this kind of multi-asset refinancing deal, neither at this point in the process, nor if the client had gone to them before purchasing. Many lenders do not like private purchases, and prefer their clients to buy from dealers. However, this can add significantly to the costs, for both my client and the person they’re buying from, and is not always a feasible option.
My client needed a solution that took a more flexible approach, as required by his business, wrap up the costs of the new vehicles into simple payments, and restore his cashflow.
Solution
I was able to approach my suite of lenders, requesting terms that were acceptable to my client. Just a day later, we had an offer, and the client was able to gather the information about the vehicles, together with proof that the business was financially sound, as required by the lender. I visited the client later that week, to obtain signatures on the paperwork, and photograph the new lorries and forklifts as proof.
The final package was for £100k, with an affordable payment plan across three years, avoiding disruption to the business. The whole process took two weeks, start to finish, and the client was very grateful to have it handled for him, reducing his stress considerably. He hadn’t been aware that this kind of deal was a possibility, and is grateful to know this, to factor into future expansion plans.
