Former Manufacturer of the Year Willerby Holiday Homes has agreed a £40m refinancing package from Royal Bank of Scotland’s asset and invoice finance divisions.
Pictured: Photo caption: Left to right: Andy Pickford Corporate Development Director at RBS Invoice Finance and Ian Burville, Chief Executive Officer at Willerby Holiday Homes.
The Hull based caravan manufacturer took the top honours at The Manufacturer of the Year Awards – the annual industry celebration event hosted by The Manufacturer – in 2008.
Today, it has announced a refinancing package from RBS – which, coincidentally, is sponsoring this year’s The Manufacturer of the Year Awards – which comprises £20m from the Invoice Finance department and a further £20m of asset based lending from the bank’s Lombard division.
The money is going to be used for growth within the business and the implementation of a credit facility for dealers to use in acquiring demonstration stock from Willerby.
Andy Pickford, corporate development director of RBS Invoice Finance worked with Willerby to secure the deal.
“Willerby Holiday Homes has a great track record, has significantly outperformed the rest of the market through the downturn and is well placed to capitalise on its strengths and grow its market share,” he said. “We are thrilled to have structured a flexible working capital package to help this UK manufacturer develop the business further.”
Ian Burville, Willerby Holiday Homes CEO, added: We are confident that, with the support of RBS and Lombard, we are in a good position to grow the business even further and utilise the benefits of the new dealer stocking facility to help build on holiday home sales.”
On Monday Vince Cable launched a consultation greenpaper looking at ways in which banks can be motivated to lend more money to small businesses. The paper says businesses may have to seek ‘outside-of-the-box’ finance packages like this one that Willerby has agreed.
This was also a point made by NatWest chairman of small businesses Peter Ibbertson at a Business Knowledge webinar earlier this month.
Click here to read more about Cable’s greenpaper and here for the webinar review.
