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WeDo have moved their HQ to Meadowbank House in Oldham after outgrowing our first home at Bizspace which had provided a wonderful start to our journey.

As WeDo continues to grow we need an office space that can house the full HQ team and support the continued growth of the Trade Finance business.

Since starting out in November 2020 WeDo Trade Finance has grown the team as the business has developed, whilst also building a solid client base who really value the support we can offer in assisting their ongoing growth throughout turbulent times. 

In addition, our new space provides a creative environment within which we promote positive wellbeing and encourage the use of our new break out areas so our people can achieve the right balance between hard work and being happy and healthy within the workplace.

There is now plenty of space to grow as a business whilst developing our own people and teams internally and whilst also continuing to support the growth of our existing clients and welcoming new clients on board.

It’s been a fantastic journey so far and we are excited to see where the journey will take us over the next few years as we grow into our new surroundings and support more and more businesses along the way.

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What a great morning discussing how to support SME’s from alternative finance solutions people may not know about.

WeDo Trade Finance teamed up with Kingsley Asset Finance to bring together an alternative finance seminar and networking event. We are pleased to report it was a great success and it was great to see so many faces who were there to support their clients.

The first speaker was Gary Lee of Begbies Traynor who began the educational journey by discussing their red flag statistics that show how hard hit many SMEs have been since the pandemic began. Gary gave an overview of how many companies are in some form of distress following the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Our very own Vince Tovey was up next. Vince shone a light of what pressures SMEs are facing and what problems they are coming up against. Trade finance is a lesser-known solution, so Vince discussed a few key points about how it works and the key identifiers for clients that could lead them to look at a trade finance solution.

Co Host Jane Pennington was the third speaker through our journey to support SME’s and she discussed the option of refinancing. This option is particularly aimed at clients that have business vehicles, plant, machinery and equipment.

Our final speaker was Chris Parkhurst from Catax, specialists in tax relief and grant funding solutions. This area of a client’s journey is all about innovation and growth where a client has identified a need within a particular industry where an idea can be developed.

We wanted to look at some of the different stages in a businesses journey where there are alternative finance solutions to support survival, growth and development – and we hopefully achieved this.

Don’t worry if you missed out, We hope to hold more networking seminars later in the year and we would love to see you there!

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WeDo Trade Finance have teamed up with Kingsley Asset Finance for a free breakfast seminar and networking event. We will share information, ideas and innovation to those businesses looking for support and growth in 2022.

The last two years have hit SMEs hard, many businesses have had to close their doors in this turbulent time. We want to see businesses succeed.

Our Alternative Finance Seminar sees four guest speakers sharing their expertise and experience. Not only the SME market, but also alternative solutions your clients might not have thought of. We want people to have all the information to support businesses to grow in 2022.

Vince Tovey, Director of WeDo Trade Finance shares his many years’ experience and will be discussing ‘You do the Trade, WeDo the Finance’.

Jane Pennington, Head of Sales for Kingsley Asset Finance will share her knowledge, ‘How can business assets aid cashflow’.

We are very pleased to have confirmed two other guest speakers. Lets put some context into what is going on within the SME arena.

Gary Lee, Restructuring Partner of Begbies Traynor Group will be opening this seminar with his overview ‘Are we nearly there yet? SME’s and the Covid journey’.

Chris Parkhurst, Regional Development Director of Catax group will be closing the mornings discussion with ‘Funding your innovation: Making grants simple’

We are all looking forward to seeing those who can attend 10^th March 2022. WeDo want business owners to succeed and thrive. We want brokers to have all the information to offer their clients the right advice.

Free bacon butties and cake too!

If you would like to reserve yourself a space or to find out more, email vince@wedotrade.finance or hello@wedotrade.finance

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Our post BREXIT relationship with the EU is now over six months old and UK importers bringing goods in from the EU are starting to get used to some of the many changes they have had to familiarise themselves with.

If you are a business owner who is buying from the EU and selling those goods into the UK, you will have been impacted.

To help business owners get to grips with the changes there have been numerous publications, webinars, videos and information sheets provided by HMRC. These will help business owners to understand and, more importantly, comply with the changes. In fact, HMRC have even set up their own YouTube Channel where this information can easily be accessed.

It is important that business owners can reach out and familiarise themselves with the salient points. Whether the help and advice are required for businesses who:

• have delayed their customs import declarations.
• Those who are about to import goods from the EU and wish to understand the full declarations process.
• Those needing advice regarding the “rules of origin” for goods being imported.
• Or a simple overview of the procedures that need to be followed and paperwork that needs to be completed.

At WeDo Trade Finance we are already working with a number of business owners who import goods from the EU. In some cases, we have been able to assist them beyond the simple funding requirement by helping them to understand who they can go to for advice so they can access the information they will need.

Although this initial bedding in period has not been without a few bumps along the way, it is envisaged that more and more SME businesses will be looking to import from the EU. A number of these businesses will be unable to negotiate credit terms with their Suppliers and may be looking for assistance in funding the purchase of the goods into the UK and also in paying the clearance costs upon arrival.

WeDo Trade Finance are happy to help with Supplier payments, Freight payments, Duty and also VAT if required – easing the burden on the day to day cashflow of your business whilst also providing significant buying power to our Clients.

If you are importing from the EU and could do with some assistance or advice, please get in touch – we would be happy to see how we can help you.

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Well – I think there is little doubt they have been a huge help for many businesses who simply would not have made it through without one.

According to British Business Bank, £79.3bn of Loans have been made to 1.67m businesses across Bounce Back Loans, CBILS and CLBILS – of which £26.4bn were CBILS (across 109,877 separate loans – averaging out at roughly £240K each).

Roughly 1/3^rd of all Loans have been taken by businesses based in London & the South East, with a further 11% of Loans taken by businesses in the North West of England – who were the next largest participants on a regional basis.

It is also interesting to note that £12.4bn of all Loans taken nationally are supporting businesses in the Wholesale and Retail sectors – with the High Street now hopefully starting to recover and, in turn, seeing their Supply Chain coming back into play.

So, what next?

In many cases the CBILS Lender has provided a Loan and taken security over the Company (such as a Debenture), which ties up the company assets to that lender and it will be interesting to see what happens when the same business is now looking for extra funding to support their Working Capital requirements moving forward?

How many of those Lenders who have taken a Debenture will be prepared to extend themselves further and provide additional or complimentary funding lines without the support of the Government backed schemes?

And how many of them will be prepared to grant Security to another lender who can come in and assist with the “in life” working capital requirements now these businesses are looking to grow again?

It remains to be seen whether taking a CBILS for some SME’s has helped in the short term but maybe hampered them in the long term as they now seek this additional assistance as they try to take their business forward again.

Let’s hope common sense prevails and the CBIL providers do agree to work alongside other lenders who will be able to help these businesses thrive again.

Or maybe the Government / British Business Bank will take a look at the intended spirit of these Loans, where they have provided 80% support to the lenders, and realise there may be another issue to sort out if good businesses who took CBILS Loans but had to provide a Debenture are to be allowed to breathe and grow again.

Interesting days ahead for sure.

Vince Tovey – Managing Director