With a combined total of over 40 years’ experience in the Construction industry, Darrell Privett and his business partner, Paul Carman, set up commercial refurbishment business, Advance PM. Starting out with a vision to provide high quality refurbish services to clients, the pair established the business in March 2017 and have subsequently experienced substantial growth following an exceptional standard of delivery on reputable projects. Since inception, Advance PM has grown to turnover in excess of £1m, with an outlined target of £3m for the next year.
As well as refurbishments, Advance PM offers design, dilapidation and maintenance services on a nationwide scale, operating from a base in Loughton, Essex.
Beginning their journey 14 months ago with a small pub refit project, Darrell and his team has since worked on projects from the likes of Selfridges, Westfield, Allianz, Pizza Hut and Lidl.
As the business continued to expand its portfolio, Darrell found that cost pressures mounted as a result of payment terms that elapsed up to 60 days. Combined with the rising costs of raw materials and a commitment to staff payments, the strain on working capital availability became unsustainable.
With limited cash to invest in new projects, Advance PM approached Bibby Financial Services (BFS) after speaking to friends about the service. The Construction Finance team at BFS were able to structure a £150,000 funding line in order to mitigate the cashflow strain. The funding facility in place will allow the business to fund supplier and staff payments, whilst continuing investment into existing and prospective refurbish projects.
Darrell Privett, Managing Director at Advance PM, said:
“My business partner and I spotted an opportunity for high quality commercial refurbishment in the retail space almost three years ago. Selling my existing business combined with 18 months’ of rigorous planning resulted in the founding of Advance PM.
“In the short time that we’ve been in operation, we’ve experienced aggressive growth and we needed a funding partner that understood our business, our aspirations and grew in-line with the company.
“BFS were vested in my business and the Construction Finance team had substantial expertise in the sector. They operated in the utmost professionalism and a funding line was structured for us in the space of five days.
“We’ve considerably grown our workforce and our vehicle fleet in order to meet the demand we’ve received from our existing debtors. The Construction Finance funding line not only helps us plug cashflow gaps, but we’re now actively recruiting for new members of staff for the business.
“Now with the funding in place, we can look to grow our business to £3m turnover by 2019 by developing the relationships we have with our existing clients and continuing to deliver a high standard of work.”
Helen Wheeler, Managing Director of Construction Finance at Bibby Financial Services, said:
“Darrell’s ambition and determination is evident of the success that he has achieved with Advance PM so far and I’m delighted to see his hard work paying off.
“Using Construction Finance, the business is able to overcome lengthy payment windows and cashflow gaps, as well as having access to a team of industry experts.
“Now unrestricted by debtor payments, Advance PM can experience improved cashflow reliability and working capital control. The business has experienced very impressive growth over the past 14 months and we thoroughly anticipate their future successes in the coming years.”