Borrower spotlight: Planks Clothing
WHEN Planks Clothing wanted to purchase stock ahead of the next ski season, they felt that mainstream lenders were unable to provide the finance they needed for their fast-growing but seasonal business.
Instead, the ski clothing manufacturer and retailer turned to business lending platform Crowd2Fund, which provided them with a £100,000 loan through its new venture debt product.
The funding enabled Planks to procure stock for the next ski season in good time, with follow-on revenues from the new lines allowing the company to pay back the loan. This is helping the business achieve its long-term aim of expanding into new territories and product lines.
Planks was attracted to Crowd2Fund’s ease of use and flexibility, neither of which it felt was provided by traditional lenders.
“Crowd2Fund fills a gap in the market that the banking sector is currently unable to meet by providing debt, or short-term financing to small businesses,” said Planks founder Jim Adlington, a former professional skier.
“For businesses like Planks that have an annual working capital cycle this provides a great, flexible solution to short-term financing needs.”
Chris Hancock, chief executive and founder of Crowd2Fund, explained that he saw a gap in the market for providing debt finance to newer businesses that are growing so quickly that they re-invest all their revenues.
“By taking additional time to perform greater due diligence, we get a deeper understanding of how the business can afford to maintain a loan and repay our investors,” he said.
“For Planks, the flexibility of the loan was perfect because it enabled them to produce an extra £100,000 of product that was already pre-sold to wholesale clients.
“The risk of not being able to sell the product was relatively low, which enabled us to offer what we saw as a low-risk loan.”
Click here for more information on Crowd2Fund.