Regency Factors hits £100m turnover

TURNOVER at Regency Factors, which provides invoice discounting services to small businesses, has passed through £100m for the first time.

The family-owned Bury-based company also saw a slight rise in profits in the year to the end of January, newly-filed accounts show.

Turnover rose 14.8% from £88.4m to £101.5m and operating profits from £1.5m to £1.6m.

The company, founded in Salford in 1991 by chairman and owner Maurice Craft, competes with larger national players such as Bibby Financial Services. It has around 50 employees at its base on Jubilee Way.

In his review of the year chairman Stephen Clague says he does not expect any “major uplift” in turnover and profits due to the general economic picture.

He said: “There are still no signs of a major economic upturn and therefore the directors cannot foresee any major uplift in turnover and profit.
 
“Despite this the directors are confident of maintaining their market share in the coming year and expect a similar level of profitability.”

Referring to the rise in turnover this year, he said the benefits had been “dampened by the continued fall in gross profit margin percentage resulting from the highly competitive market.”

Mr Clague revealed too that Regency has been approved to join the government’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme, which aims to help small firms needing funding to grow but which are unable to meet normal lending criteria.

Under the EFG scheme – which has been offered for several years by many high street lenders – the government provides a guarantee to the lender of 75% of the loan amount.