Tempest Design Limited is a rapidly growing footwear company based in Mount Maunganui. They’ve pitched at the high-end of the market and their success is visible in their rapid growth over the last year. We spoke to Eileen Smith their Accountant about how Fifo Capital have been able to support them as they grow.

“We’ve experienced significant growth in the last year. We needed to finance a bigger stock level for the winter range and we needed the extra flexibility of increased cash flow, so we got in contact with Fifo Capital to see if they could help.”

“We sell online; we have two stores; and then we sell to wholesalers across the country. Our bigger shipments tend to be to wholesalers, but then the wholesalers tend to be slower to pay which can tie up our cash. We used the Fifo Capital Invoice Finance for our wholesale invoices and it enabled us to pay for the stock we needed to order. Fifo Capital helped us to get the invoices paid on time which allowed us to use the Invoice Finance product as efficiently as possible.”

“Working with Fifo Capital has improved our cash flow and helped us to get our wholesale invoices paid quicker. We’ve also become more proactive in forecasting our cash flow because we’ve been able to create a benchmark for how we want things to happen going forward.”

A growing business means increased costs and increased pressure on cash flow. Invoice Factoring has allowed Tempest Design Ltd to be flexible to their needs, but a large GST bill needed a different solution.

“With the larger amount of stock coming in we had a huge GST bill to pay for Customs. We took short term finance with a Fifo Capital Business Loan to help us with that. Helen and Gerard took the time to understand exactly what our issue was and why we had it, and offered us a Business Loan for the two weeks we needed it.”

Across two different cash flow challenges, Fifo Capital has been able to help Tempest Design Ltd with two different solutions – each matched to the situation and the need. Fifo Capital’s great service and a focus on her specific business needs have definitely impressed Eileen.

“Fifo Capital were excellent to work with. They were both very keen to understand our business requirements. I found that quite refreshing because often when you go into a bank they don’t really want to understand your business.”

“Everything worked really quickly and efficiently: the paperwork was easy to fill in and, once ap-proved, the money came through the next day. It really was a pleasure to work with them both. And what really made the difference was that their focus was on finding the best solution for us.”