Feature
Business Banking & Finance
LOOKING FOR FINANCE? ART BUSINESS LOANS
IS HERE FOR YOU The M&BG team
BIRMINGHAM SMALL BUSINESS LOANS FUND
With support from Birmingham City Council, Thin Cats peer lending platform and its investors and Unity Trust bank, ART operates a fund specifically for Birmingham-based businesses. The Birmingham Small Business Loan
The ART lending team - left to right: Graham Donaldson, Roz Haque, Andy King and Martin Edmonds
If you need between £10,000 and £150,000 for your business, and the banks can’t help, ART Business Loans (ART) is designed for you. ART, a long-standing Chamber member, based
at Innovation Birmingham Campus, lends to businesses across the West Midlands with a viable proposition, but which are nevertheless unable to access any or all of the finance they need from the banks. If your business needs more than £150,000
ART can lend alongside other providers, including the banks, helping to make up a larger package of finance. The loan can be used for any legitimate business purpose, including to support cashflow. ART lends to businesses working in all market
sectors, helping them to grow or diversify, survive market challenges or keep up-to-date with premises and equipment. “Our aim is to support inclusive growth, job
creation and preservation,” says Steve Walker, Chief Executive of ART. “We are a Co-operative
ART’S BORROWERS ARE APPRECIATIVE OF ITS APPROACH:
“We’re grateful for the existence of lenders such as ART. In today’s economic environment UK businesses more than ever need financiers with vision, who are prepared to take a calculated risk and support an entrepreneurial approach.”
Jules Morgan, KPM Marine
Read the full stories and other case studies at
www.artbusinessloans/casestudies/
48 CHAMBERLINK November 2018
To find out more and to register your interest visit ART’s website:
www.artbusinessloans.co.uk
and Community Benefit Society, designed to fill gaps in the market left by the banks, with the aim of supporting enterprise and the local economy. Our average loan size is £35,000 – a sum which is particularly challenging for some businesses to get elsewhere. Many of our borrowers come back to us more than once over the years for top up loans or new loans as their businesses and market conditions evolve. It is particularly gratifying to see businesses that we helped to get started, grow into significant and successful companies.” What also differentiates ART from other
providers is that it still operates on the basis of personal contact, with its Loans Managers keen to get to know applicants and borrowers, understand their businesses and their needs. The team is highly experienced and knowledgeable about business finance and will work with a business to ensure it has the most appropriate funding in place, signposting to other providers where relevant.
Left to right: John Key and Steve Walker with Jules Morgan at KPM Marine
Fund lends up to £100,000. One of the businesses to have benefited is
commercial cleaning company M&BG, based in West Heath. With ART’s support, the company has been able to grow through acquisition and now offers a ‘one-stop-shop’ for large organisations including local authorities, housing associations and hospitals.
APPLY FOR A LOAN
To apply for a loan from ART call 0121 359 2444 or visit
www.artbusinessloans.co.uk for more information.
INVEST IN ART
“The generosity and vision of investors such as the Cadbury family, local and national companies including Chamber members such as Barclays, IMI, Jaguar, NatWest, Severn Trent and Wesleyan, got us started 21 years ago,” said Steve Walker. Those first investors gained a social return,
but no financial return. Investments in ART now qualify for Community Investment Tax Relief (CITR), which offers 5% per annum of the total sum invested off personal or corporate tax liabilities for five years. ART is about to launch a pioneering social
investment opportunity via the Ethex social investment platform. This will be based on CITR with the initial aim of raising £500,000 to lend.
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