Funding saves dozens of jobs at ventilation and air conditioning business

Bibby Financial Services (BFS) has provided a £500,000 funding facility to FEL Group, a ventilation and air conditioning specialist with have over 20 years’ experience in the industry.

The Scunthorpe-based business provides and installs comfort cooling, refrigeration and ventilation systems to customers across a wide range of public and private sectors including health, leisure, education.

It offers complete turnkey solutions for data centres, from cooling plants and controls through to IT network infrastructure, building construction and security systems.

Managing director, John Higginbottom was introduced to BFS by his financial advisors Garbutt & Elliott, to help support the Management Buyout (MBO) of the business.

David McIntyre and Conor Smyth from BFS’ Corporate and Construction Finance teams, respectively, worked with the advisors to structure an Invoice Finance facility to support the completion of the MBO. The £500,000 funding line has helped resurrect the business, saving over 30 jobs.

Higginbottom said: “The funding from BFS has been fundamental in securing the future of FEL Group and, most importantly, the jobs of 35 of our employees. I was impressed by how quickly the team acted – quickly getting to the heart of our company and providing a funding solution that met our needs.

“BFS have been paramount in helping us take the business forwards and we’re very happy to have them on board.”

David McIntyre, corporate manager at Bibby Financial Services, said: “FEL Group is an experienced specialist within the construction sector with a well-established customer base across the UK.

“We are delighted to be able to support the ambitions of the MBO team and provide the funding they need to move the business forward and focus on achieving their goals.”