Case Studies

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Aston’s impressive growth boosted by funding from Seneca

Case Studies

Aston Microphones are the UK’s sole designer and manufacturer of high-quality vocal and instrument microphones.

The business was founded in 2015 by James Young, Alan Gavin and Phil Smith and has grown rapidly since its inception. Support from the professional music community has been very strong with over 600 high-profile artists, producers and engineers endorsing and using Aston Microphones both in the studio and on tour.

Seneca Trade Partners are delighted to be supporting Aston Microphones with a Trade Finance Solution, allowing them to increase production of their microphones to keep pace with their rapidly growing order book.

Our facility has enabled Aston Microphones to bring their innovative new products to market with a significant UK stock holding so that orders can be fulfilled immediately from stock held in their warehouse. It took less than 7 days from the date of the first meeting to completion.

James Young, Aston Microphones CEO, said “Seneca Trade Partners moved very quickly in order to get this facility set up for us. It will enable us to increase payments to suppliers to meet our growing demand for the products. The fact that Seneca Trade Partners is owner-managed means that we dealt with the decision-makers from day one and the whole process went very smoothing and very quickly. We look forward to working with Seneca to deliver the next phase of growth of Aston Microphones as we continue to bring new, UK-manufactured, products to market”.

 

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Seneca Trade Partners and Forest Creations combine forces to deliver growth

Case Studies

Seneca Trade Partners are assisting a North East-based manufacturer of wood flooring who required working capital funding to purchase unfinished stock to meet increased customer demand for their products.

Forest Creations manufacture wood flooring in a variety of styles and finishes, with particular prominence in commercial retail and high-end domestic apartments.

Funding for unfinished stock is difficult for many lenders as the stock being purchased typically undergoes a production process and therefore assessing rights of ownership to finished goods stock is difficult.

In this case, Seneca was confident in the management team and saw the potential for growth in the level of orders and sales enquiries. The raw material stock also moves through the factory quickly and all production is done to order.

Tom Flanagan, MD of Forest Creations said: “The flexibility provided by the stock purchase facility from Seneca means we can be confident in accepting increased orders from our customers, as we know we will be able to purchase the stock we need to deliver our finished products to our customers on time.”

Mark McGuire, Director of Seneca Trade Partners said: “The opportunity to support growth is what our business is all about, clients are often constrained by suppliers requiring proforma payments for goods and orders are then often lost through not having the ability to pay. Forest was a classic example of this and we are really pleased with the growth shown by the business since our facility was put in place.“

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