Flexible & digital multi-option facility helps Construction Company build for the future

1. Read the full story...
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Fact file:
Sector
Construction
Locations
Staffordshire
Turnover
£8m
Purpose
Support business growth
Solution
Bonding line and overdraft facility
Flexible & digital multi-option facility
helps Construction Company build
for the future
The story in brief:
• A S Enterprises Ltd is a family-owned construction company that has
grown from one man to a workforce of 90
• Many of their contracts with public sector organisations stipulate the
provision of performance guarantees and bonds
• An exponentially growing company required flexible facilities to support
their growth
• We arranged a multi-optional facility of £800,000
• Facility could be used to issue bonds and partially as a working
capital overdraft

2. Firm foundations
Building a business takes determination,
time and a lot of hard work. Doing so whilst
also meeting all the demands of another full-
time job is an entirely different achievement.
But this is what Andy Sulin did. During the
recession of the early 1990s Andy, like so
many others, felt the impact of rocketing
mortgage interest rates. Already working
for a construction company, Andy began
taking on small building projects during
evenings and weekends. From garden walls
and garage conversions, this side-line grew
through word of mouth into a fully-fledged
company, A S Enterprises Ltd.
Today, the business is still family run
and wholly owned by Andy and his wife
Alison, who has helped manage it from the
beginning. Joshua, their 21-year-old son,
is also actively involved.
The scale and scope of projects have
grown significantly since those early days
and now include new build, conversions and
restoration work. Clients span commercial,
retail and industrial sectors and many
contracts come from housing and education
authorities, and healthcare trusts.
A time of exponential growth
2016 was a particularly busy year for
the company; successful bidding and
completion of several large public sector
contracts saw turnover increase by almost
70%. Many of these contracts were repeat
business, prompted by A S Enterprises’
well-established commitment to service
and quality. But no matter how good a
contractor’s reputation is, public sector
organisations look to reduce risk by making
certain bonds and guarantees a stipulation
of any contract. These can include advance
payment guarantees, performance, bid and
retention bonds, and the sums involved
are significant.
Bonds benefit the contractor too, not
only by helping win the contracts, but by
reducing pressure on the working capital
of the business. For example, a retention
bond helps mitigate against the end client
holding back payment of a percentage
of the final amount to ensure the contract
is properly fulfilled. It means that we –
the bond providers – agree to pay the end
client the equivalent percentage should
the work not be to the agreed standard.
The retention bond creates a win-win:
the client has the financial protection they
need and A S Enterprises get paid in full,
without delay. This frees up more working
capital for re-investment.
“ Knowing the
facility is there
gives us the ability
and confidence to
tender for new and
larger contracts.”
Andy Sulin, Managing Director,
A S Enterprises Ltd.

3. Get in touch, visit natwest.co.uk/business, call 0800 210 0235 or minicom 18001 0800 210 0235
Security may be required. Product fees may apply. Over 18s only.
National Westminster Bank Plc. Registered in England Wales No. 929027. Registered Office: 280 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 4RB.
ANY PROPERTY USED AS SECURITY, WHICH MAY INCLUDE YOUR HOME, MAY BE REPOSSESSED
IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON A MORTGAGE OR OTHER DEBT SECURED ON IT
Optimising the facility
“We already had a bond facility with
NatWest, but as the business underwent
rapid growth, so too did our bonding
needs,” explains Andy. He turned to Ben
Lavin, his Relationship Manager, to ask
about possible solutions. Ben called on
the expertise of his colleague Jatin Lealh,
Trade Finance Manager.
Jatin Explains “AS have a good track
record of using these bonds and have
never had one called upon”, he continues,
“Knowing this – and that the business was
doing well and represented a very low risk –
we were keen to offer an increase in overall
facilities AS had with us. But we also
saw that this represented an opportunity
to digitise the way they issued bonds as
filling in manual forms, scanning them
and posting them could be quite onerous.
We decided to re-organise the existing
arrangements for the benefit of both sides,
principally by combining their overdraft and
bonding line into one multi-option facility
and by introducing our secure online trade
platform, MaxTrad, to manage the bonds.
Using MaxTrad, Andy can issue, amend
and administer all bonds online, rather
than having to fill out paper forms. The
process is faster and more efficient and
shows at a glance details of all the bonds
in play. “It’s more convenient and will give
us peace of mind too,” comments Andy.
Benefits of our
‘one bank’ approach
Andy is clear that the bonding facility is a
real enabler to the growth of the company.
He also values the other services he gets
from us and our partner divisions. This
includes Lombard asset finance, which he
has used to acquire company vehicles, and
our tailored personal banking services, to
which he recently switched from another
provider. “We like being with a bank that
can give us all that we need under one
umbrella,” he says, “We’re also confident
that people like Jatin and Ben really
understand our business and genuinely
have our best interests at heart.”