Member Article

Reach celebrates fifth anniversary with milestones, expansion and big plans for the future of alternative finance

Reach Commercial Finance has just celebrated its fifth anniversary by meeting key commercial milestones, team expansion and planning for future growth.

The bespoke brokerage division of Leonard Curtis, Reach is now a 12-strong UK-wide team that works across all 18 Group offices, within an organisation of over 200 professional services advisers.

It delivers the most appropriate form of finance to SME clients – securing the most flexible deals at the most cost-effective rate - so that they can maintain and grow their businesses.

Reach now has over 500 live clients in its portfolio and expects to hit the 600-mark next year. Over the last three years alone it has completed over 500 transactions and raised more than £250 million in commercial finance.

Gary Gain, Director of Reach, said: “The growing demand for products that fall outside of traditional bank lending has certainly supported our success over the last five years and alternative finance has become increasingly popular and more deeply integrated within the UK SME lending infrastruc-ture.

“But let’s be clear, none of it has happened by luck. I believe our achievements are intrinsically linked to our approach. We always thoroughly analyse client requirements to make a trusted con-nection between borrowers and lenders. “The fact that we’re part of a much wider professional services group also means that we’re able to take a collaborative view of SME challenges, which is hugely valuable to business owners, their stakeholders and professional advisers.

“So, by partnering with a specialist, like us, we can ensure that the best finance option is secured, which saves time, hassle and potentially unwise deals. Finance is often supported as part of a wid-er solution, which could be debt advisory, legal, property solutions, private equity and rescue and recovery.”

Looking to the future and what the next five years will bring for Reach, Gary Cain continued: “Whilst mainstream banks continue to dominate in terms of the overall volume of small business lending, the amount of finance secured by SMEs from the alternative finance market is rapidly in-creasing. I expect this trend to continue, which will underpin sectoral, and therefore our, growth.

“The increasing prominence of Fintech will bring more lenders to the market, which will increase competition in our sector. A recent report states that London has overtaken New York in terms of fintech investment deals, smashing record levels in the UK. Figures are surpassing anything previ-ously seen and I think these numbers will continue to rise.

“What is clear is that the alternative finance market is moving fast, and we have to keep up by con-stantly evolving as a company. Not doing so would see us left behind. And quickly. We will continue to diversify our offering to meet much wider financing needs within an increasingly fast-paced and ever-changing environment. I truly believe this means that trust, strong interpersonal relationships and contacts are more important than ever.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sue Souter .