Case Study

Honeyglen Anodising - funding for expansion

When the directors of Honeyglen Anodising required funds to purchase plant and equipment for new premises in Birmingham, they turned to the organisation that helped them expand their business six years earlier - Close Invoice Finance.

Honeyglen Anodising, specialist, in polishing, brightening and anodising component products for shower screens, had been in business for just a year when their expansion plans were thwarted by the High Street banks who required impossible security for the funds they were prepared to advance. That was when the directors decided to factor their invoices with Close. Within days a cash injection was made that allowed them to expand and take the company's turnover past £1 million and give employment to 18 people.

Relocation Problems
A £150,000 move to larger 18,000 sq.ft. premises in the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham late in 1995 to continue the progress of Honeyglen brought the usual crop of problems associated with relocation, together with the requirement for new production plant, installation of heat exchangers, control panels, a 63mm water supply and 285kVa electricity supply. But the 'killer' was £37,000 worth of environmental protection equipment demanded by the brightening process. Although meticulous budgeting had been carried out before the move, they were over £30,000 short at the crucial time.

No strings attached
"We certainly weren't going to abandon the move, so we did what businessmen used to do 20 years ago - I picked up the telephone and asked for a loan. A few years ago that call would have gone to the bank, but I knew it would be a waste of time so I telephoned Close Invoice Finance and got a decision within 24 hours. "Because they had known Honeyglen Anodising over the years and appreciated the strength of management, stability of the organisation and its future potential, they advanced the funds we required without any strings attached, and we paid back the loan at a mutually agreed rate.

We would have been out of business
"Factoring has helped us expand twice - in fact we would have been out of business if we had not funded the company this way." Peter Harper, the Operations Director at Close Invoice Finance, commented: 'We were able to look at the particular requirements of the directors of Honeyglen Anodising, treat them as individuals, and give them the assistance they required - as a company, we can provide the funds for investment in plant and equipment - in the case of the directors, we are delighted to have helped them twice."


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