Supporting long-term planning with confidential invoice discounting
Industry: Manufacturing
Product: IDeal and GGS top-up
Facility size: £1.75M
The client
Founded in 1994, this UK-based contract electronics manufacturer employs over 80 people and supports customers across multiple sectors, including oil and gas, motorsport and aerospace.
The business specialises in complex printed circuit board (PCB) assembly, providing both surface mount and through‑hole solutions. This work depends on experienced teams and the ability to scale production quickly to meet demands.
The challenge
After a challenging period in 2024, including external disruption and the loss of a major customer, the company saw a temporary dip in sales and profitability. However, management took a long-term view, choosing to retain key staff and protect operational capability rather than cut back. That meant they were well placed to respond as demand returned, with trading performance improving and forward orders strengthening into 2025.
As momentum rebuilt, the leadership team also started thinking more strategically about the company’s future. Alongside investment in equipment to increase capacity and automate key processes, they wanted to move away from relying on an overdraft for working capital and put in place a flexible funding structure aligned to trading.
Just as importantly, they wanted a solution that could help futureproof the business over the longer term, supporting succession planning and making any eventual ownership transition simpler and more manageable.
The solution
Close Brothers Invoice Finance provided a £1.75m facility combining IDeal™ invoice discounting with a Growth Guarantee Scheme (GGS) top-up, giving the firm a scalable alternative to overdraft borrowing and additional headroom to support investment.
Invoice discounting releases funds from unpaid invoices as soon as they are raised. This helps bridge the gap between completing work and receiving payment, improving cash flow without disrupting day-to-day customer relationships. For this company, it was particularly important that they could continue managing their own sales ledger, credit control and collections, while keeping the facility confidential.
This is managed using IDeal™, Close Brothers Invoice Finance’s real-time platform, which integrates with over 250 accounting systems and reconciles activity automatically, reducing administration and improving visibility for the finance team.
Alongside this, the GGS top-up provided additional headroom, strengthening the overall funding package and providing greater flexibility as order flow improved and production capacity expanded.
Together, the facility replaced reliance on a traditional overdraft with a structure linked to their firm's performance, providing both immediate working capital support and a stronger platform for long term planning.
The result
With this funding in place, the business now has a more resilient and scalable working capital solution that supports current trading and future strategy.
By unlocking cash tied up in invoices, the facility has improved day-to-day liquidity and reduced reliance on overdraft borrowing. Integration through IDeal™ has also reduced manual administration and improved visibility over funding availability, and they have additional headroom to support the next phase of growth.
Most importantly, the new structure gives the leadership team greater confidence the firm is funded in a way that supports stability, flexibility and future succession planning. With a retained skilled workforce, expanded production capability and stronger trading momentum, the company is now well placed to respond to demand and plan ahead with greater certainty.
