Meet the lender: Davenham Asset Finance
10 October 2015
Davenham Asset Finance is a privately-owned, independent asset-backed lender, operating in the SME sector. From their Manchester headquarters, they serve a national client base predominantly through broker intermediaries as well as direct.
What sort of business does Davenham love to lend to?
The team at Davenham work in partnership with businesses to provide asset finance and asset refinance for a variety of UK-based SME businesses, particularly small and start-up businesses that may find it difficult to obtain funding from traditional financers.
In addition, we work with those businesses that may have had some form of negative trading or credit history that has meant approaching a mainstream finance provider would be inappropriate at that point of their trading cycle. We can provide a funding solution to enable them to begin building a successful business again.
We offer a friendly, flexible and fast service for all types of business, and aim to help as many SMEs as possible in order to get them one step closer to success — we listen to what you have to say!
Tell us a bit about the history of Davenham and where it stands in the marketplace currently
Davenham Asset Finance launched in 2013 to help finance businesses who feared they had no alternative to the large mainstream funders, and couldn’t find anybody to listen and understand exactly what they wanted.
Since then, the business has gone from strength to strength, writing a multi-million-pound portfolio in a short time, expanding our office space in central Manchester, and we’re continuing to grow our national sales and operations teams — instigated by the appointment of finance entrepreneur and experienced business builder Richard Bamford to our Board.
Although we are a family-owned business, we know the importance of bringing in talent, expertise, knowledge, ideas and experience from outside the family to help drive the business forward - we’re always looking for people with similar aspirations as ours to join us. Here at Davenham, we’re aware that people are the life-blood of any business.
Tell us about some of the more interesting or strange businesses you've lent to
We provide alternative funding to a range of businesses, from the everyday taxi cab to the more bespoke companies such as aerosol lines and an archery target making business. We have also provided asset-backed finance for chauffeur cars, and although this may not seem like a niche business or asset, the people who have travelled in these cars include many celebrities which of course we cannot name, but we see this as Davenham’s claim to fame!
What should businesses know about refinancing their assets?
Refinancing can be used for a variety of purposes by using existing assets to raise additional capital. The assets can be free from finance or subject to an existing finance agreement (with Davenham or another finance company), with sufficient equity which we can refinance and release.
Davenham’s Refinancing service offers a variety of benefits, allowing businesses to:
- Release equity tied up in balance sheets to help working capital
- Pay off a bank overdraft or pending tax liability
- Consolidate outgoing payments to reduce commitments and improve cashflow
- Restructure existing finance agreements or reduce monthly repayments
- Fund the exit of a shareholder or to buy another business
- Finance the settlement of a balloon
- Raise funds to purchase assets, stock, or consumables typically difficult to finance
- Purchase soft assets, stock or consumables
- Use assets without restrictions
We accept assets for refinancing regardless of whether they are UK or foreign manufactured, and we accept assets of almost any age, as long as they have value which is retained over the life of the finance agreement.
What's coming up for Davenham for the rest of 2015?
Just two years since our launch, our team is set to expand further with sales and operations appointments, to tackle the increasing number of direct funding enquiries and those from brokers across the country. This has been helped with the continued support of our funders who have worked with us and encouraged us to build and develop the business.
We are also aware of the importance of retaining our existing clients, and always strive to ensure they have the best experience with Davenham as we work in partnership together, which results in a spread of word-of-mouth recommendation. Whilst working towards our many goals at Davenham, we want to ensure that the quality of our portfolio is maintained throughout, by ensuring the highest standards of lending are adopted by every member of staff.
We’re always looking to improve our levels of productivity and efficiency, and want to continue building effective relationships with our introducers. We’re also keen to use our initiative to find new routes to the market such as the internet, in order to ensure we’re optimising every possible direction to achieve a firm position and reputation within the industry.
What are your views on the booming alternative finance market and where asset finance fits into it?
We think it’s fantastic that more and more SMEs are seeking out finance to help grow their business. However, unfortunately there are still some business owners who are unaware of asset finance as a viable method to fund their business expansion.
We’re doing our duty to raise the profile of asset finance through various tools. For example, in early 2014 we were approached by The Sunday Telegraph to provide a comment on funding for SMEs, and were delighted that our reputation in the marketplace had already reached a point where our expertise was sought from such a well-respected newspaper.
Continuing our relationship with the publication, earlier in 2015 we used the opportunity to be part of the Alternative Finance section of the Business Reporter, part of the Sunday Telegraph — an ideal spot to highlight the multiple alternative options of funding offered by Davenham, which could greatly benefit SMEs across the entire UK.
What's your message to any business looking to raise finance?
You probably have tens of thousands of pounds invested in plant and machinery which you could potentially use as security to raise the funds you need. So rather than looking for funding in the forms of loans, overdrafts and credit cards, why not look into these alternative ways to finance your business, where you may be able to raise more capital than traditional lending methods?
Moreover, if you'd like a customer-focused efficient service and partnership approach with a funder who also understands that time is money, please contact one of the friendly team at Davenham Asset Finance!