Skip to main content

Our customer

BLOCC Interiors is a highly regarded interior design house, specialising in residential projects for show homes, marketing suites, and communal areas. Established in 2009 in Birmingham, they offer a range of high-end designs and constructs for both commercial developers and private clients across the UK.

Business challenge

The business operates in a fast-moving environment, so it is vital to have working capital available to proceed with work and take on new contracts. While they found a small overdraft useful for day-to-day tasks, raising higher levels of funding on a timescale that matched their agility could be challenging.

In addition, the nature of the design house’s work means that they have a high concentration of debt within certain industries, such as construction. The directors were aware that any market issues could have a significant impact on their business and were keen to mitigate the risk.

The solution

To support ongoing trading, BLOCC Interiors needed a fast, simple funding package that would enable them to react to opportunities quickly. Close Brothers Invoice Finance worked with the business to understand its requirements and how they could support it over the long-term. 

We suggested an IDeal™ invoice discounting facility would help the business to thrive. The benefits include access to cash from customer invoices as soon as they are raised and a live view of funding 24/7 thanks to our real-time online platform IDeal™. The funding grows in line with turnover, so it can support the firm on a continuing basis without the need to apply for additional borrowing. 

The firm also opted to add-on bad debt protection to their facility. This means that they have additional peace of mind in the event that one of their pre-approved customers becomes insolvent because, under such circumstances, we will handle the entire insolvency process on their behalf. They also receive full credit management and access to our dedicated credit team.

Results

Philippa Simpson, Operations Director at BLOCC Interiors, says: “Our invoice discounting and bad debt protection facilities have helped us enormously. In design and construction industries, business can fluctuate quite significantly, and the market moves very quickly, so the speed of cash availability helps us with peaks in demand. 

“The way invoice finance works is very straight forward. We have built a very good working relationship with the Close Brothers team who are very flexible and understanding. They’ve been really helpful in all areas and we’re very pleased with the service we receive.”

Contact us

Close Brothers Invoice Finance
Ridgeland House
165 Dyke Road, Hove
East Sussex, BN3 1UY

T: 0127 305 9530 *

*Freephone from landlines

Keep in touch