Food ingredients business Newberry International Produce has agreed a £2.9m asset-based lending facility with RBS to fund significant growth.

The package, from Royal Bank of Scotland’s ABL team and NatWest, has been structured against invoices and inventory.

Newberry sources and supplies frozen fruit and vegetables for the food manufacturing sector and also owns the Smootheelicious brand of smoothie pouches.

Its growth plans include the addition of a new factory next to the existing one in Gloucestershire to bring production over to the UK from Europe, creating 10 jobs.

International expansion is also underway with its products being exported to Australia, the Middle East and many European countries, as well as the launch of a new frozen protein smoothie.

MD Gill Pearson said: “This is a really exciting time for both businesses. The frozen fruit and vegetable market is continuing to expand as the focus remains on nutrition and healthy eating, which is presenting us with a variety of opportunities, both at home and overseas.

“In response to this we are launching a new frozen protein smoothie which uses 100% natural ingredients and moves us into the health and fitness and nutritional markets. Opening a new factory based in Newent is also important and brings new jobs to my local area. Our existing production units are based on the Continent but we wanted one here so that we can have product development at our fingertips.”

Newberry was established in 1995 and now has revenues of £10m. Current MD Gill Pearson joined the company in 2002 and formed a sister division Gill’s Fruit Fusions to offer pre-portioned frozen fruit smoothie sachets for the catering, retail and fast-food markets. Pearson took full control of Newberry in 2012 and launched the Smootheelicious brand two years later.

She added the asset-based lending facility complemented Newberry’s invoice discounting facility because it is secured against assets, so as these grow, so does the funding line.

“The working capital provision from this facility gives us extra confidence to grow the business and is helping to support our growth strategy with the new factory and product development.”

Source

Andrew Don

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