A tailored funding package to support specialist manufacturer’s expansion

The client

Preformed Windings is a specialist manufacturer of high-voltage bars and coils used in critical generators and motors. With over 55 years’ experience, the business supports customers across power generation, nuclear, hydro and industrial markets worldwide.

Operating in a highly specialised area of advanced manufacturing, the company produces components where reliability, insulation performance and long asset life are essential, working with utilities and service providers to offer both technical expertise and manufacturing capability.

The challenge

The business had outgrown its existing footprint and needed more space and capacity to support expanding customer requirements.

Operating across separate sites was creating limitations. Bringing manufacturing, testing and development capability together in one location became increasingly important as the firm looked to improve efficiency, remove bottlenecks and undertake larger, more complex projects.

At the same time, they needed a funding structure that reflected both its day-to-day working capital needs and its longer-term investment plans.

The solution

Close Brothers Invoice Finance supported Preformed Windings with a tailored funding package designed to help the business move forward with confidence.

Invoice finance helps businesses release funds tied up in unpaid invoices, improving cash flow as they continue to trade, in this instance it provided additional working capital to support operations while the company invested in growth plans.

The facility also included the Growth Guarantee Scheme (GGS), a government-backed scheme designed to help businesses access capital. This gave the firm additional flexibility as it put the right foundations in place for expansion.

Alongside this, we worked closely with our Close Brothers Asset Finance colleagues on refinancing existing equipment through a sale and hire purchase back arrangement.

This is a commonly used funding option that allows firms to sell equipment they own outright (or are still financing) to a lender in exchange for a cash lump sum. The lender then hires or sells it back on a standard HP agreement, meaning a business can keep using the equipment while paying it off in manageable instalments.

For Preformed Windings, this was particularly important because much of its specialist machinery is essential to ongoing production and represented capital they had already invested in.

By bringing together invoice finance and asset finance, and taking the time to understand the company's market, operations and growth plans, Close Brothers was able to structure a complete funding package tailored to the business’s needs.

The result

With the new facility in place, the firm is moving ahead with plans to consolidate two existing sites into one larger advanced manufacturing facility at Ergo Park in Sheffield.

The new site will provide double the floor space and expand production capacity, including a new generator-bar production line, increased high-voltage coil production capacity, and dedicated research and testing facilities.

Bringing more of the company’s manufacturing, testing and development capability together in one place will help improve collaboration, increase efficiency and support future product development. It also creates the platform for Preformed Labs, a dedicated R&D and through-life insulation testing that will strengthen the business’s technical offering.

The investment leaves the team well placed to acquire more customers, pursue larger, complex projects, and continue building its position in a specialist global market.

James Stevens, CEO at Preformed Windings, said:

“This investment gives us the platform to scale a highly technical area of UK manufacturing at a time when global demand is increasing, and supply capacity is constrained. Close Brothers understood both the commercial opportunity and the operational complexity behind it and structured their support accordingly.”

Alan Horton, Regional Sales Director at Close Brothers, said:

“Preformed Windings is a highly specialised company with strong growth ambitions, and it was important to structure a solution that reflected the unique nature of the business.

“We worked closely with the management team to deliver a flexible and tailored funding package, and we’re pleased to support them with our expertise as they continue to expand their operations and capabilities.

“This deal continues our proud tradition of backing innovative businesses that are driving investment and expansion in UK manufacturing.”