Following a referral from Amrit Choda at the Local Enterprise Partnership in the Leeds City Region, BEF contacted Castlehouse Construction to see how we could help.
Having tried their bank, Castlehouse Construction had failed to receive a quick enough response. That's when Hilary Watson, BEF’s Investment Manager, stepped in to assist.
"It was incredibly important to process the application as quickly as we could to ensure that Castlehouse could keep their staff working on sites", said Hilary. "It was great to have the referral from the LEP."
This is a £20m turnover business who employ over 30 members of staff specialising in commercial construction for organisations like Lidl and Aldi. Castlehouse needed £150k as a bridging loan to tied them over until the lockdown had been lifted. Having no borrowings at all they approached their bank but heard nothing and were frustrated. Amrit Choda, from the LEP said, "We have a strong working relationship with BEF and they seemed to be the obvious choice to look to help".
The application was received on the Monday and by the following week the application was approved.
"This was a business that needed assistance quickly and BEF were able to step in and provide that assistance," said Amrit. "They are critical part of the survival solution for businesses in our region."
BEF is one of the accredited partners for the CBILS scheme through British Business Bank – they were amongst the first to deliver a CBILS loan in the country and have, in the last 3 weeks, provided over 100 loans under CBILS valued in excess of £5m.
"For a team of 21 its incredible to see what our team have done to support SMEs," said Steve Waud CEO of BEF. "We have done CBILS loans as far away as Oxfordshire and Orpington, such is the demand and there is currently no let-up. I am incredibly proud of the team. This is four times the level of deals we would have done ordinarily."
Looking for CBILS support for your business? Please visit our Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme page.
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