Bibby Financial Services (BFS) has provided a £9.3m (€10.5m) funding line to Essex-based SBZ Corporation, a manufacturer of additives and chemicals for the oil industry.
The funding is composed of £7m of invoice finance, £1.5m of trade finance and £0.1m of foreign exchange (FX) facilities. Additionally, £0.7m has been provided to SBZ’s sister company in the USA.
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The new capital will be used by SBZ to expand its premises with a new blending plant, to be opened in January. Additionally, the trade finance and FX components will allow SBZ to order raw materials at more competitive prices from China while coping with longer delivery times.
Laurence Holder, chief executive at SBZ, said: “We’ve seen significant growth in recent years as a result of increasing demand for our products. With a new facility opening soon, we needed additional buying power in order to purchase the supplies we require to serve our customers. Bibby Financial Services was able to provide us with the funding we needed in a short space of time.
“As a result of the EU referendum and the fall in the pound, we have seen our costs go up as we import a large proportion of our raw materials. At the same time, we have tried our best to keep our prices the same for our customers. ”
Paul Fraser, director of specialist finance at BFS, said: “This is a great example of how we can work with businesses to structure deals that not only support their short-term goals but their long-term ambitions too. SBZ was initially only looking for additional buying power, but by discussing the business’s needs and developing a keen understanding of its ambitions, we were able to put together a suite of products to help it realise its growth.
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By GlobalData“As well as the funding in the UK, we were able to work with our operation in the U.S. to provide an additional funding line in this market where they were previously struggling to secure due to it predominantly being a UK business.
“SBZ is a successful business with ambitious plans for the future and we’re excited to be working alongside it to support its growth.”
