South Essex Stockholders

• Client Stories
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• South Essex Stockholders

Founded in 1975 and based in Shoeburyness, Southend-on-Sea, South Essex Stockholders (SES) processes and resells industrial metals and materials.  The company maintains 416,000 square feet of covered warehouses throughout Central and Eastern England, employs over 250 people, and manages a fleet of over 60 delivery vehicles.   This heritage, British, family-owned business still has small business attitude to customer service, in spite of its size. The team at SES takes pride in the company’s high standard of service: if a customer requires an obscure item, they do everything to secure it; if a customer requires something urgently, they make sure it arrives in good time.

In 2016, SES was looking to stimulate business growth, but found typical routes to finance unsatisfactory. Their existing invoice funding arrangement could not be extended, to achieve the expansion plans, they needed to access the finance tied up in of their considerable asset base. In search of an alternative, SES brought in Nucleus introducer, Breal Consulting, to advise them.

After exploring several more traditional routes, including the banks and other alternative lenders, looking for the right solution, Nucleus was recommended to Breal and they set up a meeting.

SES has a long standing history and proven track record but operates in the steel industry, which was perceived as high risk by a lot of lenders, across the board. They needed a solution that would listen to their story and understand that they were market leaders, had a strong business plan and knew how they were going to get back on top. Breal Consulting also advised that the business needed a full suite of services and a flexible solution, rather than an off-the-self single product loan. Nucleus’ multi-product offering was the ideal match and offered a hassle-free and unique opportunity, aside from the banks, to structure a bepoke facility for the business, using property, asset, and invoice finance, amongst others, from just one provider.

The team at Nucleus took the time to understand the business and saw SES, as they were, a successful and established. Great businesses are turned away by their bank every day due to a black-and-white checklist system or a lack of agility and expertise to take the time required to go beyond and really get to know a business.

After meeting the business face-to-face the Nucleus team used their experience to put together a workable and attractive solution for SES . After a brief period of negotiations the multi-product solution was agreed. The facility combined invoice finance, asset finance, and property finance package worth £14.5 million. Nucleus would refinance SES’ equipment using its asset funding offering; it would use property finance in the form of secured business loans to fund further growth; and it would have access to an invoice finance facility with a larger, more flexible limit. Once everything agreed, SES had access to all of the finance in under 2 weeks.

The solution devised by the team at Nucleus’ played an invaluable role in facilitating the next stage of SES’ growth. Enabling them to purchase and sell the stock required, and placing it in an excellent position for the future.