Our Customer
Part of the Barretts Groups of Companies, London Toughening is a specialist manufacturer of glass. The business has supplied a wide range of glass products to the commercial construction industry since 1995. Maria Demetriou joined the company as Financial Controller in 2006.
Challenge
London Toughening was faced with a number of challenges which contributed to cash flow struggles. Late invoice payments from clients meant that they were often concerned about meeting monthly commitments such as PAYE taxes and payments for machinery, which caused unnecessary pressure for Maria.
The business had historically been funded by an overdraft, along with contributions from the Company Director. In 2013 the Director decided to look for alternative forms of funding as a more viable, long-term solution that would be less restrictive.
Solution
After considering the day-to-day challenges the business faced, Maria sought guidance from their accountant, who suggested invoice finance as the most appropriate funding solution for them. Maria was hesitant at first as she had always believed this to be an expensive way to finance a business. However, further to meeting her local Close Brothers Invoice Finance expert, she was pleased to realise that the advantages of this type of funding far outweighed any initial price reservations. One of the main benefits was the understanding that the business would receive money from its invoices within 24 hours of them being raised.
Close Brothers Invoice Finance provided a £250,000 invoice discounting facility and although the team at London Toughening doesn’t always use the maximum available each month, they know additional funding support is there when required.
Result
Maria and the team at London Toughening have now been using invoice discounting for a number of years and are well and truly converted to this form of finance.
Maria said: “I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to any company looking for cashflow support. It has been instrumental in helping the business move forward and I don’t know how we managed before.”
Not only do they no longer have the constant stress of not knowing how they are going to meet their monthly commitments, but they are now able to invest in new machinery to make efficiencies within the business without having to find extra funding. Maria particularly values the support offered by Close Brothers, stating: “My Client Manager is always on hand to help with any issues. It’s not often you get such great, professional customer service.”
If, like Maria, you are having liquidity challenges in your business and would like to explore the possibility of invoice finance, why not discover how much cash you could unlock using our free calculator?
