Press release
Hereford firm's expansion plan packs a punch
A rapidly expanding Hereford packaging business is on target to take sales past half a million after securing a clutch of lucrative deals with a host of major suppliers.
Established in 2004, Contrapak provides design and packaging facilities for companies throughout the UK, ranging from chemicals to pet food manufacturers.
Sales last year reached £100,000 and the directors have secured funding from Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance to help it take turnover past the half a million barrier.
Operating out of its 6,000 square feet premises on the Webton Business Park, the business has recently been signed up by a host of household names including chemical giant, Unilever. The firm has also developed a range of innovative environmentally friendly water soluble packs that are leading to contracts both in the UK and in Europe.
Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance is providing Contrapak with a flexible asset based lending facility. Commercial Finance will lend against the business' sales ledger to improve cash flow and free up funds to ensure the firm has the capital required to hunt out and fulfill contracts quickly.
Graham Collins, regional manager at Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance, said: "Cash flow is king for a company such as Contrapak. The business has invested a great deal of money in state of the art facilities, but without an appropriate working capital facility in place, new contracts can become increasingly difficult to service whilst maintaining high standards.
"The directors were determined to make sure Contrapak had the necessary financial resources in place in order to move forward and acknowledged invoice discounting was the quickest and most suitable solution."
Kirsty Smith, director at Contrapak said: "It's always been our intention to grow slowly in the first couple of years and then look to expand once we were established.
"In our first 18 months we were working primarily with smaller firms that wanted to outsource their packaging requirements for cost saving reasons. We're increasingly partnering larger businesses now, especially those that are looking to trial new products but don't have the capacity within their existing facilities.
"Sales should easily exceed £500,000 this financial year and now that we have the right financial package in place, we're confident that we can move forward and grow at a fast but manageable rate".
Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance is part of the Lloyds TSB Group plc.
