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 coffee shop, we knew The Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme was the perfect fit.
Because 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.
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 a truly independent, artisan coffee shop 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 and make sure that their brand new venture would survive those first few difficult trading months. This meant that the financing solution would need to be flexible and comprehensive and was unlikely to be found through traditional bank funding sources.
PMD were able to secure funding from Hitachi Capital (UK) for the complete fit-out of the coffee shop using their 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”.