"Getting this finance has meant more beer, and who doesn't like that?!"
Ian Macrae
“Forest Road Brewing Co was started by Pete and myself, two Americans with 13 years brewing experience between us at six different breweries in two different countries, trying to make great beer in the number one city in the world.”
“We were un-able to increase our overdraft with our Bank and were referred to Funding Xchange to see what alternatives were available. A quick application to the Funding Xchange platform returned a number of loan options, and we opted for Iwoca as the terms and flexibility suited what we required. We accepted the offer and the funds were made available all in the same day.”
We met at Camden Town Brewery in 2012 where we both worked as brewers for 3 years. After brewing half a dozen award winning recipes and developing recipes for two of Camden’s best rated beers we decided to strike out ourselves and start our own brewery. The only problem, we had no cash to build our own.
Through connections in the industry we somehow ended up brewing our first 15,000L batch on one of Belgium’s most famous family run breweries all without paying a dime up front. Over time we’ve built a great relationship with them and continued to develop our beer, “Work”, a 5.4% American Style Pale Ale.
We’re now growing sales towards our anticipated London brewery opening in late 2017. Oh yeah, and we just made a Lager.
From purchasing raw ingredients to selling beer takes us almost two months (the beer ferments and conditions in tank for five weeks). Add on payment terms with customers and there is a big gap between increased sales and cash in the bank. We used Iwoca’s cash to brew more beer and pay the duty on it.
Ian decided on a Flexible Credit Line.
A flexible line of credit allows you to access money – up to £100,000 – as and when you need it. So, it’s great for businesses that need money quickly, to re-stock or expand into new premises for example. Essentially, it’s a flexible loan, meaning that you can re-pay and re-draw money like a traditional bank overdraft (although there’s no bank account required).
Learn more about Flexible Credit Line
Ian arranged his Flexible Credit Line with our lending partner, iwoca.
Iwoca offers a new type of credit facility for small businesses, allowing them to take advantage of opportunities previously only available to their larger peers. From placing larger stock orders to bridging cashflow gaps, they believe that access to finance is crucial to driving business growth.
“I was guided by the Funding Xchange team through the process and was able to secure access to £16,000 through Iwoca.”
“The finance allowed us to draw down cash as and when it was needed, and only pay interest on what we’d drawn down.”
“The speed of Iwoca was really impressive – the offer from them, and others, was quoted instantly with Funding Xchange, and after accepting Iwoca our application was approved and the funds made available the very same day”.
Learn more about our lending partner, iwoca.
“Getting this finance has meant more beer, and who doesn’t like that?!”
“The funding has provided us with access to cash, whenever we need it, which means we can make sure suppliers are paid quickly and that we can fulfil our growing sales orders and be ready for our new product launch.”
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