A Cheltenham firm which specialises in grass roofs for construction projects has received a timely boost with a loan of £20,000 from Fredericks Gloucestershire (previously GDLF - Gloucestershire Development Loan Fund).
Sky Gardens has grown rapidly in response to an increasing demand for its green roofing service, and the firm has found itself engaged in all sizes of projects from one-off garden sheds to roofing Europe’s largest green storage facility, the Adnams Brewery in Suffolk. Grass roofs have many benefits, from maintaining regular cool temperatures inside buildings to controlling the run-off from rain, thereby lessening the pressure on drainage. Energy bills can be cut dramatically as energy loss is minimised. .
Traditionally the business enjoyed a three-week closedown at Christmas, which hadn’t caused any problems previously, but 2009 started with weeks of freezing weather and late snow, putting back several weeks’ worth of orders and putting pressure on cashflow, despite there being £500,000 worth of business on the order book.
Fortunately a contact mentioned GDLF to Managing Director Steve Raftery as an alternative source of business funding, and while Sky Gardens didn’t seem to match their usual lending criteria, they decided to contact them for advice. Mike Lewis worked with his team to create a new type of short-term emergency lending, and the loan was agreed at £20,000 over four months just to cover the shortfall, with the rest eating into the bank’s agreed overdraft.
“The pre-application process was extremely thorough, which impressed us,” commented Steve. “Probably more in-depth than any bank we had approached, we were encouraged to consider from every angle our need for the money and the robustness of our whole business. It was a strangely satisfying process as we are usually too busy meeting orders to sit back and look at a wider picture, and it was useful to our future planning to take stock.
“We were more than fortunate to find a lender like GDLF, prepared to believe in us and to give us the breathing space we needed. This situation is happening to healthy businesses like ours all over the country right now, and I am prepared to say outright that without GDLF’s support, Sky Gardens would not be here today."