A couple of months ago rebuildingsociety.com funded a loan request from Elginns Ltd, which trades as The Windsor Castle, a successful pub in Weston-Super-Mare. We checked back with Dave Gough, a director of Elginns Ltd to see how the funds had made a difference to the business.
The situation
The Windsor Castle is a traditional local pub in Weston-Super-Mare. It caters for customers of all ages with a healthy trade, primarily consisting of local residents, but boosted in the summer by the tourist trade and seasonal workforce in the town.
£50,000 was required to help with the buyout of a shareholder. He had taken a back seat role in recent years but was still drawing a salary, which was preventing reinvestment of profit back into the business at the rate the current directors wanted.
Crucially, the loan would provide working capital for the business to further develop its food trade and expand its wine offering to match the new menu.
How rebuildingsociety.com helped Elginns Ltd
Dave approached renowned leisure finance broker Paul Thompson of Acorn Commercial Finance, who in turn recommended rebuildingsociety.com to his client.
After Paul submitted information on the company’s financial performance to the team at rebuildingsociety.com, the business was listed on rebuildingsociety.com’s marketplace. A director’s guarantee and a debenture over the business’ assets were offered as security and the application attracted bids from a number of lenders, who saw credibility in the business’ accounts and what it was trying to achieve.
The loan request was fully funded within a couple of weeks and the deal completed shortly after that. From start to finish, the loan was received within a month.
The results
Two months after receiving the £50,000 loan, the shareholder has been bought out, the business is making repayments on time and the new menu is going down well with customers. Former manager James Carter and Dave’s wife Edwina have come on board as directors and the pub is gearing up for a busy summer period. Dave said:
“This was my first experience of peer-to-business lending, but I would certainly recommend it to my business contacts. Finance was faster than the banks and there is no early repayment charge, so it makes our finance flexible and affordable. The summer period is just around the corner and we’re in a fantastic position to capitalise on the increased footfall thanks to this funding.”
Dan Rajkumar added: “The pub sector has suffered more than most in recent years, but this loan showed that the public wants to support successful businesses in the sector. It proves you can’t rule out an entire sector, which is what the banks have done.”
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