Recruiting the right banking partner

By Bridging Loan Directory 20th July 2012

Adrian Clements and Gaynor Cox decided to establish a recruitment consultancy, they recognised that the careful management of their cashflow was going to be of paramount importance from day one. Their first recruitment challenge, therefore, was to find a supportive bank which understood their business needs.

Adrian Clements explains: “Cashflow is critical to all recruitment businesses because staff need to be paid regularly, especially those on temporary contracts. However, there can sometimes be a timing mismatch between invoices being paid by our clients and us having to pay the staff we have placed in jobs. One very practical solution to this problem is the use of invoice finance.”

Urban Blue Management Ltd is a Midlands based recruitment firm specialising in the placement of temporary staff into the haulage, manufacturing and building sectors. Owners Adrian and Gaynor have extensive business experience and have been successfully running a company together, Platinum Commercial Services Ltd, for more than 8 years.

“We’ve had a working relationship with a large high street bank for many years,” continues Adrian “but to be honest, they’ve never shown much interest in what we do. It’s a sad indictment that I don’t even know the name of our relationship manager. I was therefore reluctant to approach them for specialist support with invoice finance.

“We spoke to our accountants who put us in touch with a firm of corporate finance advisers and they recommended we consider Aldermore. I have to admit that I had not heard of Aldermore, but was pleased to discover that they were not a typical large, faceless, corporate bank.

“When I met the team from Aldermore I was very impressed. They were easy to deal with and clearly understood the needs of recruitment businesses. They provided us with the quality of service that we aim to provide for our clients and I immediately felt comfortable with Aldermore from the start.

“The day-to-day running of our account has gone very smoothly; in a bizarre way it seems strange that everything has been so easy. In this day and age you expect banking relationships to be troublesome!”

James Cresswell, Regional Sales Manager for Aldermore, said: “Adrian and Gaynor had a very clear understanding of the type of financial support they needed to underpin their strategic ambitions for Urban Blue Management Ltd. The business may be small but they have big plans for the future and Aldermore is delighted to be providing them with financial support.”

Adrian Clements concluded: “Aldermore is very different to a traditional bank and its good to know that such banks do exist and that they’re a home-grown British company. Aldermore has taken a human approach to the development of a commercial solution for our business. I can thoroughly recommend any small or medium sized business to talk to them. I’m sure that, like me, you’ll be impressed with what you discover.”