Start-up Finance: Using the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme

Finding flexible start-up finance for a completely new venture isn’t easy, as many entrepreneurs will testify.

However, when David and Jonathan came to us with their plan for a new coffeeshop, we knew The Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme was the perfect fit. With start-up finance being hard to come by, the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme was designed for situations like this: start-up businesses needing flexible finance.

Both business partners are no strangers to the industry. Jon ran successful bars and restaurants for over 20 years, whilst David has 50 years business experience in bar and retail.

The Vision

They had dreamed of setting up their own project for a number of years. So when the opportunity arose to be a part of Blackpool’s regeneration, they jumped at the opportunity.

Set in a three-storey building in one of Blackpool’s busiest thoroughfares, ’The Hive’ is an independent, artisan coffeeshop and bakehouse. Set in a stylish high tech environment, it’s suitable for families and business people alike.

As a start-up, these two experienced entrepreneurs needed to preserve their savings to maintain a consistent cashflow. Not only this, they had to ensure their new venture would survive those first few difficult trading months. Therefore, the financing solution needed to be flexible and comprehensive. The likelihood of finding it through traditional bank funding sources was low.

In comes PMD

PMD were able to secure funding from Hitachi Capital (UK) for the complete fit-out of the coffeeshop. We did this by using an asset finance variant of the government-backed Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme.

We helped finance nearly all of the tangible assets required in creating The Hive. Items financed included bar/coffee equipment, kitchen equipment, EPOS systems and ancillary systems, extraction, heating and the interior furniture.

The Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme is a scheme designed to encourage additional lending to viable small and medium-sized enterprises. The government provides lenders with a guarantee for 75% of the value of the loan, but have no role in the decision making process. This facilitates lending that wouldn’t take place otherwise.

PMD are one of the very first brokers to use this option through our partnership with Hitachi.

Jon commented “PMD and Rob Greenhalgh in particular have been great to deal with and helped us source the equipment finance quickly and efficiently. They’re flexible and competitive and we’d definitely use them again and recommend them to anyone looking to open a similar business”.