Reward Finance Group achieves ten years of continuous growth
Despite the pandemic, alternative finance provider, Reward Finance Group, which has offices in Leeds and Manchester, has marked its milestone anniversary with ten years of continuous growth.
For the year ended February 2021, revenue grew by ten percent, pushing through the £16m barrier, with profit before tax increasing by 19%.
The loan book grew by £10m in the year to February, with a further £10m added since the year end, taking the book to £95m. Over 300 SMEs were supported during the 12 months.
Commenting on the results, group managing director, Nick Smith, said, “Once again, the group has completed a record-breaking year despite a very challenging market due to the impact of Covid-19. During a period when lots of businesses have fallen by the wayside, including many finance providers, Reward is now in a far stronger position than pre-pandemic.
“We have always taken great pride in our flexible and pragmatic approach when providing finance to SMEs. This was reinforced with the client-by-client strategy we adopted for those businesses affected by the pandemic, rather than taking a blanket sector view.
“Our experienced relationship managers worked closely with clients to provide solutions specially tailored to their needs, such as full or part payment holidays. At one point 25% of our clients were in special arrangements but, by the year end, all the clients were able to return to the original terms.
“We were also able to continue to provide funds quickly to those who needed to react to business opportunities, or those needing additional funds to successfully navigate their way through the disruption, as there was no change to our lending appetite throughout the pandemic.”
“Since the year end, we have added £20m of additional share capital into the balance sheet enabling us to increase our own funding lines and lift the maximum amount we can lend from £3m to £5m.
“With banks being pre-occupied with Covid support recoveries it is certainly going to be a busy time for alternative finance providers, and Reward is well-placed and ready to help SMEs drive their businesses forward.”