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>> JAMES: Harrogate Spring Waters is ten years old now and we've firmly established ourselves
as a Top Five UK Spring Water. We're really excited for the future as we continue to develop
our brand and actually, meeting the needs of the consumer. You know, lots of consumers
out there now understand the importance of hydration and hydrating on the move.
To our businesses now, there's eight million pounds worth of turn-over which from a scratch-start
was something that we're really proud of and we're right on the cusp of some exciting developing
opportunities.
And one of these developing opportunities is to extend the building here and put in
a new high-speed line, we're going to be looking to put bottles of water down that line at
36,000 bottles an hour which is really exciting.
We've got two brands of Spring Waters, Harrogate Spring Waters is our core brand and that's
been around for ten years now, and five years ago we set up a brand called Thirsty Planet
which is a charity spring water and through Thirsty Planet, we've provided over one and
a half million pounds worth to charity.
Last year, we decided to look at our banking options and we'd worked with the previous
bank for ten years since the business has started and we decided that we'd assess the
market and see what was out there.
We spoke with Aldemore and we were really impressed with what we saw, so we decided
to take the plunge and we haven't looked back since we did that.
Invoice financing certainly freed up my management time and that of my finance department, I
know for sure that we have a controlled way in which we operate our finances and the fact
that we can release cash as soon as we invoice is a huge factor and a big part of why we
chose invoice financing and a big part of why we chose invoice financing and certainly,
it grows with our business so the profile of invoicing more and raising capital is a
perfect way of running our business.
From day one when I met with Aldermore, I was certainly very impressed. It started with
the website and when I met the people they came a long and they got my business straight
away. They were interested, they engaged with my people and they got within touching distance
of every asset of the business very quickly. Certainly made the right decision in going
with Aldermore, it's a great company and they are proud to be British just like us.
I think there are lots of pre-conceptions out there about invoice finance and I certainly
see the positives in it. The barometer for me is that if I asked my finance department
would they change the way of working other than invoice they'd absolutely say no. It
allows them to free up their time and focus on the important stuff, a day to day cash
management is so straightforward in invoice finance.
Since making the transition with Aldermore, we haven't looked back and are really quite
excited at the prospect of growing with Aldermore. We've been around for ten years and to make
a change after ten years was a big decision but we are absolutely sure it was a right
decision as we continue to grow our business. And also, look at the exciting prospect of
expansion plans and right behind us, we know that there is a team of people there to support
us within Aldermore and we were really encouraged that they share the same vision as us as growing
and expanding this business.
I think any prospect of changing your banking arrangement is quite daunting and is certainly
not a decision you take lightly. And I think when you are as considered as what we are
and you've worked with people for a long time and there's long-standing relationships is
very difficult but for us, black and white told us that this was the right decision and
we are so pleased we did, we've had a great transition and going forward, we are quite
excited to be working with Aldermore.