lenders that seem poised to bring new money into the sector. “I hope we do see more competition,” says Munford. “There are some big names already in the bridging sector that get a lot of publicity but are only processing four or five deals a month. They’re not really lending at all. So it would be good to see more money available for borrowers – if we’re lending short-term, we want people to be able to exit.”
Locke nods in agreement. “For me bridging is an exciting place to be and our longer term strategy of moving into the more medium-term finance market means that as the market loosens up and more funding becomes available we will be in that middle market as well,” she says.
This longer term view has a big objective Munford plans to hit six months in.
“We want to be one of the biggest short-term finance lenders in the bridging market in the next six months,” he says. “The jury’s out on how big the short- term finance market is and depending on where you’re sitting our £50 million could look quite a lot. Add to that other lines of funding we have in the pipeline and we think we can get there this year.”
The whole Omni Capital proposition is aiming to be more formal than bridging has been considered in the past claims Munford. Something he puts down to the shift in the wider bridging market. “It used to be a mishmash of family run businesses offering short term finance, a cottage industry if you like,” he says. “But there have been a number of large, reputable institutional investors backing the bigger bridging lenders that are lending the market credibility.” With direct access to the high spec brand of Candy & Candy as well as the high net worth client base behind Mortgage Centre IFA, it seems Omni is on track to join the leaders in the more professional bridging market soon. And with Locke on board, it’s fair to say not just Omni Capital but the whole of bridging has been lent an air of class and ability that Lord Sugar for one would be envious of. n
What’s Lord Alan Sugar really like when the cameras stop rolling? He’s like he is when the cameras are on. The whole show was like an extended business interview and that’s the way we were treated. Having said that he has his one liners and likes to put you down with a bit of humour but he is as he is on TV. He’s a wheeler dealer, a successful businessman.
What was the most important thing you learned on the show? I learned there was a lot more to me than I had initially thought. I was always good at maths and science at school which is why I went on to study accounting and finance at Birmingham University. I did well and studied hard but never gave myself the opportunity to try something new.
I learned what I was good at on the show and where I could add value. While the finance background is important in any business, what really gave me a buzz was understanding ways to grow and develop a business and brand.
Favourite experience on the show? It has to be the baby grow episode where I broke a record. We had to choose a product from a selection shown to us by start-up firms and I went and pitched it to all the big retailers. We chose a baby grow that changed colour when the baby overheats, which is something that’s been linked to cot death. It was a great product and the family who’d come up with it I think had experienced a loss through cot death so there was a story that went with the product. We got really positive feedback about the pitch but we also sold £119,000 worth of these baby grows to kiddicare. com and Debenhams which was an all-time Apprentice record. The company also got great PR off the back of it and are doing really well.
And worst? The tour bus. We had to develop a tour of London and my team - Stella, Stuart and myself – decided to do a cockney tour. I’m not from London and didn’t really know what a cockney tour would consist
of so was a little bit dubious. I’m not sure Stella did either but she wanted to do it and thought it would be great. It wasn’t. It turned out to be the worst tour ever. Stuart wanted a huge price and charged £35 a ticket. It was a really hard sell. Despite that I think I was the top sales person on that task over both teams but it was just so annoying that I got fired against Stuart Baggs with all that rubbish about fields of ponies. It went from a serious business show to being a bit ludicrous. But, there we go.
Quote of the series? Stuart: “I’m not a one-trick pony, I’m not a ten-trick pony - I’ve got a field of ponies waiting to literally run towards this job.” You know what they say. With a field full of ponies comes a field full of...
How has your life changed since The Apprentice? I wanted a great job out of the show and I’ve got that. But the public support for me has been a bit mind blowing. I receive kind messages and emails daily. I think because I got fired in such a dramatic way and got an apology from Lord Sugar, people think they can come up to me in the street and hug me. The scale and popularity of the show is something none of us was really prepared for. Everything’s changed from that perspective. And one thing I didn’t think about was never being able to have a bad hair day ever again!
mortgage introducer APRIL 2011 35
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