Third of all funding demands from SMEs coming from hospitality
A third of all demand for money lending is coming from the hospitality industry, funding company Boost Capital has found, with the average cash injection per business around £40-50,000.
This is despite recent Bank of England figures showing that lending to hospitality SMEs (small and medium enterprises) dropped by 5.4% in the past year.
This means that despite the demand, many UK small businesses are struggling to find financing, as figures show that overall lending to SMEs decreased by £0.7m in August.
However, Boost Capital said that it has seen the number of enquiries, and the number of loans, for hospitality businesses increase above the SME average, with money going towards refurbishment of premises, business cash flow, buying of equipment and repairs.
Marc Glazer, chief executive of Boost Capital said: "We have seen a dramatic rise in enquiries from restaurants and bars specifically, since we launched in the UK.
"It seems that this sector is finding it particularly hard to access finance for growth from traditional means and it is very encouraging to know that we can help them expand."
Boost Capital is owned by US business financier Business Financial Services, with a recently-acquired credit line from US firm Wells Fargo Capital Finance (part of Wells Fargo & Company), and aims to provide businesses with funds within five days. It claims that its repayment plans are at affordable levels, and can therefore help SMEs see "light at the end of the tunnel".
