Video transcript: Interview with Richard Welland, Managing Director at Sovereign Rotating Machines Ltd.
I'm Richard Welland, I'm the Managing Director of Sovereign Rotating Machines Limited. We're manufacturers of alternators, starter motors, coil-on-plug and ignition leads for the UK automotive aftermarket.
My business need is to expand and grow as a company. We have an awful lot of business in the UK and there is a lot of growth that we can get out over the next five years. So, our need is to have funding to help us make that expansion.
So in a high-growth business like ours, an automotive industry is quite difficult to fund, so invoice discounting works very, very well for us because we can prove that we've got the customer base and as we need to grow, the funding is there with us, unlike traditional banking and overdrafts where it's a fixed amount which you have to renegotiate every year and it doesn't move with the growth of the business.
Sovereign Rotating Machines has chosen Close Invoice Finance for our facility. Over the years we have used traditional banks, but have found them really inflexible. Close have taken the time to understand our business, they've understood our model for growing the business in importing products from China and it has enabled us to grow our business at a rate of 25% year-on-year for the past three years. So, from that benefit, we've been able to do that together working as a team. That's why we've chosen Close.
Close Invoice Finance work as almost like an independent company. We're able to call them as and when required. My staff, my accounts manager works very closely with our own account manager at Close. We also have, I personally have, regular meetings with our Client Manager. That works very well for him to understand our business and if he understands our business, when I am then looking for additional funding, it makes the process a lot easier.
I've found in the past three years that each time I've gone with a new business proposal, Close, once they understand it, have supported us.
