Alice and Jennifer discuss plans tipped for approval for a new Leicestershire hotel, an investment for an expanding gym group, and we hear from Chris Walton from Shawbrook.
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00:00Plans for a new hotel on a historic brewery site, an investment for an expanding gym group
00:05and blending options, all featured in today's business briefing and this week we are sponsored
00:09by Shawbrook.
00:10Good morning Alice.
00:11Good morning Jennifer.
00:12So to kick off today's briefing, plans for a new Leicestershire hotel that forms part
00:23of a brewery business are set to go before planners next week with a positive recommendation.
00:29So Everards Brewery Limited is seeking reserved matters approval for a hotel with up to 120
00:34rooms at Everards Meadows in Soar Valleyway.
00:38This site is a flagship project for Everards Brewery Limited which has more than 170 years
00:43of brewing history and it has been envisioned as a premier destination where the history
00:48of the brewery can be celebrated while providing the business with a dedicated site to accommodate
00:53its present day and future operations.
00:56Labby District Council's Planning Committee will review the application on the 23rd of
01:00January and members are recommended to approve the scheme.
01:04Excellent.
01:05It's a really interesting story, quite reminiscent of the Brew Dog Hotel.
01:08For sure, yes.
01:09But nice that you can see the history there.
01:12Well in other news, in funding news, Puma Growth Partners has invested £4 million into
01:18NRG Gyms which operates sites across the UK.
01:22So the business was originally established in 2013 and it now has 30,000 members.
01:28It has sites in places like London, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and Watford.
01:34I think gym groups are quite a fast growing business, especially since COVID when people
01:39realised that exercise is very important for mental health as well as physical health.
01:44So the business is looking to expand further across the UK and obviously the funding will
01:49help that.
01:50Alongside that, to boost those plans, they've also appointed Neil Greenhalgh who is a non-executive
01:56director.
01:57Now Neil is very experienced in this area.
02:00He worked at JD Sports for 20 years.
02:02Five of those years were spent as Chief Financial Officer.
02:05So quite a big appointment for them and yeah, quite an exciting time.
02:10I'm sure we'll see a lot more of them over the next few years.
02:14Hopefully.
02:15Well, sticking on that topic, obviously when you're growing a business there's so many
02:18different ways and so many different things that go into that, but finance is very key
02:23for that as we know.
02:24And Insider has hosted a special interview with Chris Walton.
02:28He's Head of Corporate Leverage Finance at Shawbrooke and he's explained some of the options
02:32available to support business growth.
02:35So we're going to cut to that video now, but that's all from me and Jennifer.
02:40So thank you for watching and enjoy the interview.
02:43Hello, I'm Simon Keegan.
02:45I'm the editor of the Northwest Business Insider.
02:48And as we go into 2025, I'm joined for a special business interview with Chris Walton,
02:56the Head of Corporate Leverage at Shawbrooke.
02:59Hi Chris.
03:00Hi Simon, good to meet you.
03:02So tell us a little bit about your role at Shawbrooke, Chris.
03:05So I head up the Corporate Leverage team here at Shawbrooke, which is essentially the cash
03:10flow lending team that looks after owner-managed businesses across the UK.
03:15We're providing cash flow-based leverage finance products.
03:17Yeah.
03:18So we're heading into 2025.
03:20It's been an interesting couple of years really, hasn't it, in business and the wider kind
03:27of economic climate.
03:29So how do you see the market looking in the new year?
03:33Yeah.
03:34So we are positive about 2025.
03:36It's been a turbulent few years, as you say, and I'd say sort of cautious optimistic.
03:41There are clearly challenges on the horizon for our clients, so for SMEs in particular,
03:46with the forthcoming national insurance increases and minimum wage in particular.
03:50But generally I think when we're talking to clients and advisors across the market, I
03:54think people are feeling upbeat about the opportunities, challenges to navigate, particularly
03:58to see how those cost pressures will be navigated and whether people are able to pass through
04:04those pressures in terms of the prices that they're charging to their own clients.
04:08I think if we look across the business as a whole and the market in the UK, I think
04:13people are feeling that there are definitely opportunities.
04:15We are largely dealing with sort of event-driven financing, so where there's a change of ownership
04:20or sort of M&A that's taking place.
04:23I think people still remain positive about the resilience of the UK economy, despite
04:27some of those headwinds overall.
04:29Yeah.
04:30So you say that you're dealing with that kind of event-driven.
04:33So this is businesses that will come to you and say, look, we're looking to maybe acquire
04:40another business or something of that nature.
04:43So where do you kind of fit into that landscape?
04:47What sorts of situations will a business come to you, rather than perhaps a more mainstream
04:54lender?
04:55Yeah.
04:56So I think, as we've seen over the last five, 10 years, the specialist lending businesses
05:01and like Shawbrooke, are really sort of fulfilling a need as the more traditional high street
05:06banks have pulled back from some of those more growth-orientated SMEs, either because
05:11they feel they're looking for slightly more vanilla credits, or just the size of the SME
05:17market and the size of the deals isn't as attractive to the traditional lenders that
05:20are trying to focus on, I'd say, those more vanilla, slightly larger transactions.
05:24And therefore, the role Shawbrooke provides in the ecosystem is, to my mind, really critical
05:28around helping those growth-orientated SMEs that perhaps are less straightforward, less
05:33vanilla credits that are looking to, particularly around M&A, or for the owner-managed businesses
05:38where you've got owners that are perhaps coming towards the end of their career, have built
05:42the business and are looking around change of ownership, exit solutions.
05:46And Shawbrooke can really assist in providing the financing to facilitate, whether it's
05:50the growth strategy or the sort of transition for owner-managers looking to exit.
05:53You change some of your sort of divisions and your focuses.
05:57So how's that going to help with that?
06:00What's the plan there?
06:01Yeah.
06:02So my team at Shawbrooke, we recently reorganized to bring all of the owner-managed cash flow
06:07lending businesses together into a single team.
06:09And the view is that bringing that specialization and focus will allow us to really improve
06:14and increase the service we deliver to our clients.
06:17We found, as the bank and the organization has grown and developed, we've seen a lot
06:20of success over the last five, six years with our cash flow proposition, but we had it scattered
06:25in a few different teams.
06:26And we view as bringing it all together into a national team will really allow us to get
06:30that sort of concentration of expertise, which we think will allow us to deliver faster and
06:34better for our clients.
06:36And so will it, you say faster and better for the clients, do you think it will be,
06:40you know, what else will it mean for the clients?
06:42Will there be new products on offer?
06:44So I think fundamentally the proposition and what we're looking to deliver isn't changing.
06:48What we're really trying to do is the professionalization and sort of ease of use for our clients should
06:54be that bit smoother.
06:56We know event-driven financing, M&A, particularly for owner-managed SMEs, it might be the first
07:01time they've done a major financing event, the first time they've done a major acquisition,
07:05and therefore having a partner in a specialist lender like Shawbrooke is really important.
07:09And therefore our view is having that, someone who can hold their hands and work with them
07:12in partnership to navigate through that process is what we're trying to bring to bear.
07:16And our view is the team, in terms of its new focus, will allow us to go from strength
07:21to strength.
07:22That's the thing, isn't it?
07:23I think even if it's a really experienced business owner, often they'll find themselves
07:29buying a business for the first time, selling a business for the first time, you know, even
07:34with all of that experience, they can still be quite new to some of these processes, can't
07:39they?
07:40And as you say, if it's slightly, I think the phrase you used was less vanilla, they
07:47need to look at perhaps a more sort of bespoke solution.
07:51Absolutely.
07:52And that's kind of what we pride ourselves in bringing.
07:54Part of the reason I've been doing this for nearly 20 years, and one of the reasons I
07:57love my job is I love working with businesses, with owners around understanding their sector.
08:01And they are the experts to how they run their business and how they operate within their
08:05market.
08:06You know, what we bring is that financing expertise, which particularly for businesses
08:09going through first major acquisition or first major financing event, they might need a bit
08:14more support and guidance around that element of it.
08:17And that's where I think we really bring that specialist expertise to help bring our knowledge
08:21around finance and lending to their expertise around the business, the market they operate
08:26within.
08:27So something Shawbrook's always been known for is that kind of personal approach.
08:32And it can't be one size fits all, can it?
08:35What you don't want is, you know, that kind of, I always use that phrase, it shows the
08:42generation of TV I grew up with, computer says no.
08:46You don't want that kind of thing, do you?
08:47You want to look at the individual stories and the individual circumstances.
08:52Is that still really important to you going forward, that personal approach?
08:57Absolutely.
08:58We, cookie cutter kind of banking is not what we do.
09:01Every business is different, have its nuances.
09:04And we know when we're looking for entrepreneurial, growth focused clients that we can support
09:08that, you know, we know there are going to be bumps in the road.
09:11It's not going to be a linear sort of straightforward climb.
09:14And that's kind of the specialism we bring is around understanding that every deal, every
09:17client, every business is different and therefore finding the right solution that works for
09:21them and having a partner in Shawbrook that can go with them on that journey through the
09:25ups and sometimes the downs that will happen when businesses are trying to navigate into
09:29new markets or into sort of new territories, new products.
09:33I suppose that's a key as well.
09:34You don't just want it to be a one-off lend, do you?
09:36You want to be with them, as you say, on that journey, don't you?
09:40Absolutely.
09:41It is about having that close relationship with the business and working with them as
09:45both the initial financing event, but really, you know, where we find our proposition resonates
09:51most firmly with clients is where they are looking to, it's not just the immediate deal,
09:55the immediate financing.
09:56It's about the journey they want to go on, the growth aspirations they have for their
09:59business and having a lending partner that can grow with them, can provide follow on
10:03financing or is there for the next event, what might be one, two, three, four years
10:08down the line.
10:09And that's where we particularly find some of our more traditional competitors often
10:13struggle even if they like a deal on day one.
10:16It's having the confidence to be able to follow and back the management team on the next deal
10:20and the next opportunity and having a partner that the management team knows is going to
10:24be there with them on that journey.
10:25So do you find that you've got these kind of businesses that you've worked with for
10:29the long haul?
10:30Yeah, absolutely.
10:31As I say, we've been, you know, we stood up the Cash for Lending Proposition 2019 across
10:37Shawbrookeshire just before COVID, which was interesting timing with hindsight.
10:42We've seen a lot of businesses that started with the bank back in 2019 that have grown
10:47with us and we've grown on that journey with them and that's a real joy to see some of
10:51those businesses on that trajectory and new clients that we brought on board more recently
10:55that we are very excited to work with them as they progress through their own trajectory.
11:00Yeah, so talking of their growth trajectory, what about your growth trajectory?
11:06You know, what is the future for Shawbrooke and where do you see your business growing
11:11towards?
11:12How high can we go, I suppose?
11:14So, yeah, we have big growth ambitions now.
11:16We've seen a lot of success over the last five years in terms of the various cash flows,
11:21the propositions.
11:22Our view is that by bringing the business together into this new dedicated team, we
11:26will accelerate and see further growth.
11:28So we're very focused on across the key regional hubs that we support, driving our business
11:33forward as we grow with our existing clients and look to bring new clients on board as
11:37well.
11:38Fantastic.
11:39Thanks very much for joining us.
11:42As with any of our videos, if people want to know more, check out insidermedia.com and
11:49you'll see all of the latest news from Shawbrooke, I'm sure.
11:54And thanks for joining us.