News and Press Releases

From time to time we submit articles to Business Money magazine, usually a case study that illustrates one of our finance products at work. You can access all of these articles here along with press releases, other articles and items that may be of interest.

Business Money Articles

Magazine and Website for Finance & Banking for Business.

  • October 2007 - All in a month's work
    We often promote ourselves as offering transaction finance for the "difficult and unusual" because we hope such adverts make interesting reading. But it is hard to find such a story every month. The last month has been characterised by the "pretty straightforward by comparison", which is what most clients need of course....
  • September 2007 - Specialists in Transaction Finance
    Specialists we are, so what is our call? Our clients are businesses, turnover £10m to small. Some are new, some old, and some are restarts. Some trade, some manufacture and we buy their parts...
  • August 2007 - A turn up for the boots
    We detected just a touch of urgency in the voice of Dick Clark when he called to introduce Chris Cantrill and his chicken business...
  • June 2007 - The peck of our bunch.
    We detected just a touch of urgency in the voice of Dick Clark when he called to introduce Chris Cantrill and his chicken business...
  • May 2007 - When a solution is found
    A cure for dementia? Improved train and bus safety? A reduction in global warming or landfill? For such health, safety, security, and environmental needs, when an economic solution is found it must be afforded in our developed society...
  • April 2007 - To be different
    Since 1991 we have provided complicated transaction finance, using methods that were innovative at the time. We pioneered the funding of focused sales ledgers, and restarts, and construction industry debt finance, each at the time when others were shy. Now all that is normal, so we look elsewhere for innovation in funding our clients...
  • March 2007 - Have Factory, Will Travel
    If you want nine cu. metres of concrete in the UK you could order a batch delivery and one of those traditional lorries would arrive, turning the concrete constantly on its journey before feeding it onto your site. To ensure there is no shortfall you would probably order 10 cu. metres, and hope you don't actually need 11 cu. metres...
  • Febuary 2007 - Fit for most purpose
    You probably know us for "trade finance" in complex circumstances. That would suggest that we fund risky scenarios, but we know that apparently simple traded transactions can carry more risk than our complex clients...
  • January 2007 - The Power of the Raspberry
    In 2007 we will be continuing our series of adverts in which we describe how our trade finance contributes to the delivery of environmental and security products. This time we are also seeking responses from readers who can introduce customers for this technology...
  • December 2006 - Puberty at last
    Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when JFK was assassinated, when the twin towers were felled, or when Fairfax Gerrard was formed...
  • November 2006 - Sheep May Safely Graze
    For the present, because we are buying cows just now. We have funded sheep before, and tuna and whelk and you name it. The funding of food and perishables requires special knowledge and skills which we have been honing for 10 years...
  • September 2006 - Jam Tomorrow
    We normally advertise what we do for a client. In this case we are advertising what a client is now doing, mostly without us. Many of you will be interested, particularly if you have older teenagers in your families...
  • August 2006 - The shoe must go on
    Our monthly advert normally tells of something complex we do for a client. We tend to describe the difficult and unusual, but 25% of new clients are quite straightforward so could make less interesting reading, but please read on...
  • July 2006 - Three Little Pigs
    Last month we featured our client, Red Rhino, and his on-site ecological aggregate crusher. It seems, unsurprisingly, that there is a link between animals and environmental products. Do you remember the story of the three little pigs?...
  • May 2006 - A Horny Problem - A Crushing Solution
    Red Rhino Crushers Ltd. was a start-up in 2004 and was our story of the month in Jan 2005. The principal, Colin Campbell, had been seeking new share capital...
  • April 2006 - Two Amazing Ladies
    The story this month is not about us. It is primarily about Two Amazing Ladies who have been supporting ChildLine for years...
  • March 2006 - Ladders to Africa
    We fund complex transaction finance requirements as well as simpler needs. We like it when our introducer does not prequalify their enquiry but calls us to see what we might do...
  • February 2006 - Chilled Balls
    Rohi International Ltd is the brand owner of "Swedish Chef". It sells chilled Swedish meatballs to supermarkets in the UK. The owners are Swedish, although Rohi is a UK company....
  • January 2006 - A Weigh in a Manger
    Malcolm Davies called early this year. He reminded me he had been a client of ours in 1998. He made machines used in food manufacture. His finance needs then were simple. His products since had evolved....
  • April 2005 - Duty calls
    We all know that beer, wines and spirits are much cheaper in France and Spain, whether the goods were originally sourced in UK or elsewhere. There will be many of you who load your car boot to the gunnels when driving back from France, or even embark on a special 'booze cruise'...
  • March 2005 - No Money, No credit, No Problem
    It was 1pm and we were nearing the close of our second meeting with a prospective client. After the first meeting they had put their purchase data into our spreadsheets so that we could evaluate their need and the benefits they would get from our facility...
  • February 2005 - Off the Beaten Track
    Our usual client story describes something complex and off the normal beaten track of trade finance. This client itself excels off the beaten track, so we are on very familiar territory...
  • January 2005 - A Horny Problem
    Colin Campbell had a funding problem and was seeking equity finance, but his search was failing. Colin is an engineer inventor with a product vital in today’s ecological world, yet virtually without competition. He was spending time seeking 250k of finance to manufacture to meet his orders...
  • October 2004 - Kindest Cut of All
    When a client names themselves after the 1000-mile Italian motor race from Brescia to Rome and back, you instinctively know it will be fun to keep them on their course...
  • September 2004 - Software for Coppers Makes a Mint
    This client example is especially written for those who specialise in Business Turnaround, be it Insolvency Practitioners or other advisors. You introduce and advise, we finance...
  • July 2004 - Constant Motion
    Each month recently I have told how we helped one of our clients meet their ambition. I hope you have found them interesting. As we enter our 14th year may I tell our short story? I have a question for you at the end...
  • June 2004 - Unshellfish Interest
    The life of a trade financier is full of variety. We do whatever our clients do, wherever they are...
  • May 2004 - Funding in a New Zone
    Many people think of "trade finance" as the funding of imported, pre-sold, traded goods to insured customers. Of course, we do that. But that is much less than half our business, and it is not the most exciting part...
  • April 2004 - Malaise Delays a Laser
    Some Trade Financiers, like some banks, will give a business a funding facility only when it is well established. We seek a safe way to finance transactions in any business, even if it is just starting...
  • March 2004 - Tapping Our Liquidity
    Sometimes we choose our direction; often we respond to opportunities. Solving new problems all the time keeps us on our toes. O'Hagan Contract Interiors Ltd was also taking a new direction...
  • February 2004 - Back to Basics
    We offer trade and transaction finance to SMEs. Although we often do the "difficult and unusual", we have evolved as the market has moved and we have gained experience. We started in 1991; we have changed a lot since then. What was "difficult and unusual" in 1991 is now standard, and we have moved to new territory...
  • January 2004 - Cold Comfort
    We offer trade finance. Normally that means the funding for a transaction ready to happen. But sometimes we have to think ahead. In this case, we were asked to fund existing stock of a company that had no firm orders, but sells an amazing product that can offer real benefits to the human race....
  • November 2003 - Hole in One
    This is a story about haute couture, not golf. Sometimes "less" means "more". Less material. More money...
  • June 2003 - Player Sent Off, Down to 10 Men
    If you can have real fun whilst doing a good job for others and earning a margin, the world feels good...

Press Releases

Fairfax Gerrard in the news.