Vending company gets invoice financing ‘Reward’
REWARD Finance Group, the Manchester and Leeds-based alternative lender, has provided funding to help AIM-listed vending machine business Uvenco UK take advantage of a near £1.5m debt forgiveness deal with its existing bankers.
Reward has provided total facilities of £1.365m with a traditional confidential invoice finance facility with additional leverage against other balance sheet fixed assets.
This has enabled Uvenco to pay its existing bankers £1m in full and final settlement of its near £2.5m of debt, as well as providing additional working capital to assist with its turnaround strategy.
Uvenco UK PLC changed its name from Snacktime in May 2016 to reflect its relationship with Uvenco Group, the largest vending machine business in Russia.
Uvenco UK operates vending machines from three major depots in the UK, as well as the brands Drinkmaster and Snack-in-the-Box, its in-cup and franchising businesses. The largest depot of the vending operations is at Greenbank Business Park in Blackburn.
The £16m turnover business has had well documented problems over recent years but wholesale changes, including the appointment of a new FD, and the CEO from the Uvenco Group are all part of a wider plan to restore the business back to former glories.
Sergei Kornienko, chief executive of Uvenco, said: “We are indebted to Reward for the speed with which they were able to help us maximise the one off opportunity that our existing bank gave us. This will provide us with a significant further step towards the reshaping of our balance sheet.”
David Jones, joint managing director at Reward, said: “Reward specialises in being able to move quickly and to being able to help businesses take advantage of opportunities.
“This deal is a big positive to Uvenco’s shareholders. Sergei and the revised management team continue to rapidly make big improvements to the Uvenco UK businesses which gave us the confidence to support them on this transaction.”
