Member Article

Chester firm nourishes British farms after securing new contracts

A Cheshire-based waste recycling company is set to continue its rapid growth thanks to a £100k invoice factoring facility from Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance

S & J Williams Contracting, of Tarporley, near Chester, has quadrupled in size over the past 12 months and expects to increase turnover to £1.4 million in 2014.

The firm recently secured a five year deal with 4Recycling in March and will now provide a sub-contracting collection service for the company, which specialises in the cost-effective and innovative recycling of industry by-products.

Serving the new contract could have caused S & J Williams Contracting cashflow problems, but the new £100k invoice factoring facility will enable it to pay its staff weekly and purchase fuel without waiting on payment from clients, which can take up to 45 days.

Invoice factoring enables the contractor to raise an invoice and sell it to a ledger which buys the debt owed to them by the customer, bridging a gap when waiting on payments.

The company works for some of the largest utility companies across the UK and collects safe waste to use as fertiliser, providing farms with free nutrition for their crops.

Owner of S & J Williams Contracting, Simon Williams, co-founded the firm in 2007 and approached Lloyds Bank to continue growth after previously using a commercial overdraft with Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking.

After initially asking for an increase on his overdraft limit, Simon’s relationship manager, Carl Hall, introduced him to the idea of invoice factoring offered through his colleagues at Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance.

Simon said: “I believe that major UK companies and brands are beginning to look at their carbon footprint and recycling targets are encouraged to make an environmental difference. By providing us with the correct waste, we are able to help the agricultural sector in Britain and provide high quality fertiliser for British farms.

“To support our company operations, we previously used a commercial overdraft facility with Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking. After approaching Carl, our relationship manager at the bank, we realised that invoice factoring was more suitable for our aims of continued growth and put a facility in place that would support the new contracts we have secured.”

Angela Hilton, regional manager at Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance, said: “Invoice finance options such as factoring can be a useful financial tool for a firm and enables businesses to move on to new projects by freeing-up cashflow. Alternatively there are similar options such as invoice discounting which allows a firm to draw a percentage of invoices raised to free-up a cashflow situation. At Lloyds bank, we are able to tailor a product to suit the needs of a business.”

Carl Hall, relationship manager at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “S & J Williams Contracting had experienced a high level of growth and a commercial overdraft just wouldn’t have given the support needed to continue its expansion.

“I worked closely with Angela to provide a tailored facility that would suit Simon’s aims.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Vincent .