Financial firm helps companies access £13.4m support during pandemic

Q Commercial Finance says it stepped in to help 66 companies access funding through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme as lockdown sparked a cashflow crisis across the country.

Director Steve Parry said most of the firms it had been able to help were based in the Midlands and had turned to the company after being unable to access funds through their banks or not being able to do so quickly.

The 66 companies covered a wide range of sectors including manufacturing, construction, retail and hospitality and came from Shropshire, the Black Country, West Midlands, Liverpool, Cambridge and London. Loans arranged ranged from £40,000 to £1.37 million.

Steve said Q Commercial Finance – part of the Q Financial Services Group based in Wellington and Shrewsbury – had also helped countless other companies arrange funds through their banks by offering free advice and using its contacts to get applications fast-tracked.

“At the start of the pandemic we were inundated with inquiries about what finance and government support was going to be made available and there was a huge amount of uncertainty among businesses.

“Once the CBILS scheme was launched it became clear that banks would only support their own clients and were being overwhelmed by the volume of requests they were receiving, with some companies facing months of delays to have their application processed.

“We helped a large number of clients speed up these applications by using our contacts and also completed applications on behalf of the client free of charge.

“But many clients were also told that their bank could not help them – or could not do so quickly enough to protect their business – so needed our help. In these 66 cases we helped our clients at all stages of the application and worked to ensure they received the funding they needed quickly enough to safeguard their future.

“I’m pleased to say we were able to arrange more funding than many of the other financial organisations in the region by using the fantastic knowledge and experience we have among our team to cut through the red tape.

“As we emerge from the pandemic it is particularly heartening to see so many of these businesses looking to the future with more confidence and knowing that we played our part in them coming through these turbulent last 18 months.”