Meet The Scotland Team
Bibby Financial Services celebrates 10 years supporting Scottish business.
The Euro was introduced, Microsoft released Windows 98, and Bibby Financial Services, the UK’s leading independent invoice financier, set up home in Scotland to provide invoice finance solutions to the country’s businesses.
Since 1999, Bibby has supported over 600 businesses from its offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow, advancing over £100m to these businesses during this time. Now celebrating its 10 year anniversary, the business environment in which Bibby operates has changed dramatically and never more so than in the last two years.
Andy Tait, managing director at Bibby Financial Services Scotland explained: “Since opening our doors in 1999, client numbers have grown by more than seven-fold when compared to our first full year of trading in 2000. And back then we set up with a borrowed table, four garden chairs and just one mobile phone! A far cry from today’s office environment! Now we have 31 staff and, in the last year alone, we have seen a 48 per cent rise in new business.
“Indeed, during our 10 years we have helped our clients through a number of downturns. And, as Bibby itself has become more established in Scotland, the amount of money we typically advance to our clients has also increased – and we remain committed to assisting them through all stages of their development. This, alongside our strong relationships with our extensive network of intermediaries, is a true reflection of the need for alternative forms of finance for our country’s firms.
“Invoice finance is the perfect solution for many companies and can aid expansion and growth by releasing cash tied up in unpaid customer invoices. It can also help businesses fight the traps of late payment and bad debt.
Andy continued: “Through our experienced ‘on-the-ground’ teams, Bibby Financial Services is able to offer a local, fast and flexible service to its clients and is on-hand to create bespoke solutions for owners and managers from many different sectors.”
It is these attributes which have lead to a number of long and successful working relationships with SMEs in Scotland.
Celebrating long relationships
RL Engineering Services Ltd is also celebrating its 10th anniversary as one of the first clients of Bibby Financial Services Scotland and in that time, has seen its turnover increase five-fold explains managing director Gordon Hamilton: “After an initial meeting, gut feeling told me that Bibby’s helpfulness and attitude to team work would benefit my business. Since then, our working relationship has gone from strength to strength. Over the 10 years, we have seen a move to online processes which means streamlined and efficient reporting and in truth, the ease of use is something which allows me to get on with running my business.
“Bibby Financial Services deal with the whole process from funding my invoices, to chasing my debtors. This funding is just as important today as it has always been as we need to fund projects to grow, and through our partnership with Bibby, we are able to achieve this even in the current climate.”
Professor Russell Griggs OBE, owner of another company to enlist the expertise of Bibby Financial Services, R & E Resources, and current Chair of the CBI’s UK SME Council added: “Cash is the key driver of most businesses - especially small and medium sized ones - so businesses have to look at good ways of mitigating delays in customer payments which were always a challenge but, in today’s environment, are becoming even more so. Invoice finance is a key way of doing this and the services that Bibby offer in this area has helped my business and many others to keep cash flow sensible. With banks shrinking their risk profile, the need for facilities like this will become even greater with the banks themselves now encouraging their clients to look more earnestly at invoice finance as an option”.
Posted on 27 August 2009