271 investors help local equine centre launch
The loan will allow the owners to develop the neglected site into a fully-equipped equestrian centre which will provide a comprehensive range of services, and create up to ten new jobs for local people when running at full capacity.
It will incorporate stables, paddocks and room for horses to exercise, as well as a small shop selling animal feed and horse bedding. There are plans to expand the shop as the business develops, and provide further amenities such as a craft store, horse rider coaching and an online order and delivery service for horse bedding.
Peer-to-peer lending platforms such as Assetz Capital enable individual investors to team up in order to lend directly to UK SMEs such as Potterspury Equine Centre: investors can lend as much or as little as they like, and the loan to Pottterspury Equine Centre was made up of investments from 271 people, parts ranging from £20 to £25,000.
Potterspury Equine Centre is owned and run by a family team: husband and wife Clive and Alison Worker are managing the site with their daughter Lisa Worker. Alison has been riding, training and competing with horses since she was five years old, and her daughter Lisa has never known life without horses and currently teaches people to ride and break horses.
The business will provide stables for rent, and already has a waiting list even before launch, meaning that these will be very quickly filled. It will also provide care for horses which are recuperating, rider training and courses in horse husbandry, as well as collection and delivery of horses.
Alison Worker, co-founder of Potterspury Equine Centre, commented: “We’ve got customers lining up before we’ve even launched, so it’s amazing to think that we almost didn’t get the funding we needed to get started. We approached high street banks with a solid plan and the right background to run a business like this, but they simply didn’t want to know. The best offer we had was to borrow the money in a year’s time at an exorbitant rate – if we’d done that, we’d have lost the opportunity.
“Thankfully, Assetz Capital was able to be flexible and really help us. The team saw that this was a good opportunity, and we were able to secure funding quickly and simply – they took a serious look at the business, even coming to visit us on site, and got things moving without delay”.
Stuart Law, CEO of Assetz Capital, commented: “We’re all agreed that local businesses like Potterspury Equine Centre are vital to the economic recovery. That’s why it’s so important that these businesses are able to access the funding that they need. We visited the site, met the team behind it and analysed their plans and are confident that the business will be a success – given how quickly our investors funded this loan, it’s clear that they agree too.”
“Unfortunately, banks are prone to overlooking opportunities like this without properly looking at them - thankfully, we’re able to assess each loan on its own merit.”
Assetz Capital has lent more than £37m to UK SMEs and property developers since it launched in March 2013, and is considered to be the one of the fastest growing P2P lenders in the UK.
- July 17, 2014