United Car Parts accelerates expansion, driven by seven figure funding line from ThinCats
ThinCats, the leading fintech lender for mi-sized SMEs, has backed Reading-based automotive services group, United Car Parts, with a seven figure funding facility designed to enable the business to achieve its plans for multi-service line growth.
The transaction has provided substantial additional working capital for United Car Parts to expand into new and complementary service areas. The funding from ThinCats supports the group’s business strategy, which is focused on the emerging Electric Vehicles (EV) market, building further on the group’s advanced digital platform and further investment in new state-of-the-art paint and bodywork services facilities.
Established in 1991, United Car Parts provides a range of automotive services for business and corporate clients, including the sales of car parts and accessories, vehicle servicing and paint and bodywork services. The company’s key clients range from major vehicle leasing companies, corporate fleet divisions, business consolidators and corporate facilities management companies and the SME sector.
The group consists of two trading entities, United Car Parts Ltd and Wargrave Auto Centre Ltd. Since purchasing the business in 2016, the owners have acquired a series of complementary businesses to expand the group’s presence and range of services. Today, the company employs 15 staff and up to 40 contractors.
Dipen Pattni, director at United Car Parts, commented: “As a progressive business, it is essential to find a lender that understands the dynamics of the sector in which you operate, as well as your business models and future plans. From the first meeting, I got the impression that ThinCats were looking beyond the initial transaction to see how they could help us grow over the long term.”
He continued: “ThinCats stood out immediately from the banks. Instead of looking at our historical results, they were far more focused on the people and our plans for growth. They were very straightforward and commercial in all of our discussions and gave us a clear indication of their commitment to fund our business at an early stage. This, together with the assurance of being able to pick up the phone to their decision-makers at any time, brought complete confidence to the deal.”
David Ball, corporate finance executive at BKL, who provided financial modelling and corporate finance advice to the client, said: “We were delighted to work with ThinCats on this transaction. The funding they delivered will enable the client to pursue a number of routes to further their business growth. We are currently working with a number of growing businesses and seeing high levels of activity within fund raising and M&A and look forward to working with ThinCats again in the future.”
Dave Sherrington, regional head of sales at ThinCats, commented: “This transaction sums up what ThinCats is all about in funding forward-thinking businesses and giving them the opportunity to achieve their ambitions through expansion into profitable new areas. We are delighted to welcome United Car Parts to ThinCats and are excited about working with them to help them accelerate their growth as they develop their integrated multi-service model framework.”