Arbuthnot Commercial ABL delivers £2.5m funding facility to Rapid Response Medical Services

By Bridging Loan Directory 8th June 2022

Arbuthnot Commercial Asset Based Lending (ACABL) is pleased to announce that it has provided a £2.5m facility for Rapid Response Medical Services Ltd (Rapid Response) to support the company’s working capital and growth post-pandemic, following substantial contract wins.

The new funding package, which comprises a receivables finance facility and an RLS term loan, will provide significant headroom for further business expansion, in addition to refinancing existing facilities.

Founded by Mitchell Johnson in 2017, Rapid Response has become an independent, market leading CQC registered ambulance service and medical training academy.

The business provides hundreds of thousands of hours of emergency and non-emergency ambulance services each year to a full range of clients, both in the private sector and the NHS.

The company employs 260 people across its head office in Cannock, Staffordshire, and three satellite locations in Stansted, Norwich, and Aylesbury.

The business intends to open an additional five locations in the coming year in Braintree, Rayleigh, Ipswich, Cambridge, and Portsmouth to service high demand.

To meet the demand that will be generated through its new contracts, the business has invested in hiring more staff, a state-of-the-art training centre based at its 30,000 sq. ft. headquarters and additional new ambulance vehicles.

Mitchell Johnson, Founder and joint Managing Director of Rapid Response Group, said:

“Having acquired £22m of NHS contracts, it quickly became apparent that we had outgrown our previous facility.

We were therefore very pleased to find a great partner in Arbuthnot Commercial ABL that we feel can grow with us.

Several things stood out to us – their flat structure, personable and open approach, the involvement of the directors and credit team at an early stage, all helped to turn around the deal so quickly.”

The new funding has provided working capital support that will enable us to invest in equipping the five ambulance stations around the country as well as an additional forty ambulances.

Arbuthnot Commercial ABL succeeded in creating a facility with the flexibility that will scale with us and help us to implement further new contracts.

We now want to continue rolling out the model into other NHS ambulance services, which will lead to further expansion.”

Andrew Rutherford, Commercial Director at Arbuthnot Commercial ABL, said:

“We look forward to supporting Mitchell and the team with a funding facility at a level that will enable them to grow the business with confidence.

The opportunities for the company are exciting; the market is highly regulated and Rapid Response is one of a small number of businesses in the UK who can provide emergency ambulance services, representing a significant barrier to entry and a substantial opportunity for continued growth.”