Allica Bank’s Post

Now that the Euros and Olympics are over, it’s time for the sporting event that you’ve all been waiting for… the World Stone Skimming Championships! Hosted on Easdale Island in Argyll, Scotland, tomorrow’s tournament will bring hundreds of competitors and spectators from the mainland to witness this incredible spectacle. Allica is sponsoring the team event in this year’s weird and wonderful tournament and our relationship manager for Scotland, Steven Smillie, will be there to present the prize. We’re all about helping local businesses to thrive, so we’re especially proud to play a part in bringing tourism and investment to this local community. If you’re attending, make sure to say 👋  to Steven, who can tell you how Allica can support your business with personal, supportive relationship banking. Watch the video below to see some epic skimming and find out more about the championships. #businessbanking #SMEfinance #SMEsupport

🏋️ Allica Bank is delighted to have helped Stephen Aucott complete a management buy-out of Knebworth-based Odyssey Health Club & Spa after 20 years of running the business. Odyssey already boasts a 25m indoor swimming pool, outdoor tennis courts, state-of-the-art Technogym equipment, a newly built relaxation room and a café. And Stephen has plenty more plans to continue to invest in developing the club’s facilities and member experience. Stephen has overseen the day-to-day running of Odyssey since 2004. He shepherded the business through an especially difficult period during Covid, which saw membership dip by over 1,000 members. However, membership has now returned to pre-pandemic levels. “My team and I have been helping keep Knebworth fit and healthy for over two decades,” explained Stephen. “This news means I can invest in expanding our offering and improving our members’ experience with a new sense of purpose. The next phase is already underway.” “I am incredibly grateful to Allica Bank for their continued support in funding the purchase. Wahid Nawaz, our relationship manager, really bought in to our mission from the outset and did everything he could to get it over line.” Welcome to the Allica family, Stephen! Read all about it in The Comet - https://lnkd.in/ey552rKm #knebworth #hertfordshire #businessbanking #fitnessclub #healthclub

It’s been a pleasure working with Sean Mavor, Managing Director at Framework, to support his clients with opening business current accounts. Based in Scotland, Framework Accountancy supports established businesses across a range of industries, including creative and media, sports, health and beauty, hospitality and events, and not-for-profit.  Speaking about the reasons they partnered with Allica, Sean Mavor said: “Opening an account is the biggest challenge our clients face with other banks. For those clients who have managed to do so, the process has taken months, often taking up management time and attention. However, it’s different with Allica. “We have already introduced a considerable number of our clients to Allica. Their fast, straightforward account opening process has enabled our clients to continue to concentrate on running and growing their business, rather than having their time taken up with lengthy, overly complicated procedures. “On top of that, Allica’s business current account is easy to recommend to my clients. It has all the functionality needed, plus the added benefits of no monthly fees, cashback, and an instant access Savings Pot with attractive rates.” We’re delighted to partner with you, Sean Mavor and Framework 🤝. #accountants #accountantsspotlight #businessbanking #SMEfinance #SMEsupport 

Allica Bank is excited to announce our acquisition of bridging lender Tuscan Capital Limited 🎉     We’d like to extend an extremely warm welcome to our new colleagues, who will integrate fully into the Allica team, bringing with them a depth of award-winning bridging finance expertise.     It means Allica will now be able to offer bridging finance to our established business customers and via our intermediary partners. We believe this combination of Tuscan’s expertise with Allica’s resources and distribution network is a really exciting prospect for the whole bridging market.     To lead Allica’s bridging distribution strategy, we’d also like to welcome Justin Trowse as Allica’s Head of Bridging. Justin has a wealth of bridging experience and has ambitious plans for developing Allica’s place in this new market.     If you’re a broker and already work with Tuscan, please continue to contact your Tuscan Business Development Manager with any bridging opportunities you would like to discuss. Otherwise, your Allica Business Development Manager will be very happy to talk through any bridging enquiries with you.     Lastly, we’d just like to say a big ‘welcome’ once again to our new colleagues. We can’t wait to get to work with you!     Read more on this story in Bridging & Commercial: https://lnkd.in/eq5WCfXr #businessbanking #bridgingfinance

Another completed deal 🤝. Working with our broker partner, Aston Hibbard from First Business Finance , we recently supported civil engineering and groundwork contractors based in Southwest England with £464,000 of asset finance to fund plant machinery. So far this year we’ve completed over 150 asset finance deals with First Business Finance to support UK businesses.    Aston Hibbard said: “As a long-standing brokerage, we are spoilt with the number of banks and funders we have available to us, but Allica is a firm favourite for our tier one business. So far this year, I have personally overseen funding of around £7 million in assets and facilitated over 150 agreements with Allica.     “From our side, we see Allica as a very good all-rounder, with flexibility in rate, quick underwriting, and efficient payouts with their e-documents system. Not to forget the outstanding support we have from our Business Development Manager, Alexander Fowler, who is always on hand and will endeavour to work with us and the relevant department within the bank to get to the end goal.”    #brokers #businessbanking #SMEfinance #assetfinance 

“I think it’s really hard to run a business when you don’t know what might happen next,” says Allica’s CEO, Richard Davies.   He was talking to City AM as part of their Ambition A.M. Accelerator programme. Richard outlined the importance of stability and growth for the UK economy – and especially the role played by established SMEs with between five and 250 staff, who make up a third of UK turnover and employment.   It’s a segment he said has been neglected by the high-street in favour of corporates and the mass market, leaving many of them struggling to access the finance they need to invest.   The result is that a majority of finance for SMEs is now provided by non-high-street lenders.   “Name another mainstream financial market where the majority of provision is not high street banks – there isn’t one. That’s a pretty big success story,” Richard said.   “But I still think there’s a lot of problems about access to finance because there’s so many [providers] out there and it’s hard to know what’s best, which is why we’re personally big fans of the commercial finance broking industry.”   📰 Read the full article, including what Allica is doing to give these established businesses the banking they deserve, here: https://lnkd.in/e52entpN #businessbanking #SMEfinance #banking

"Much like many high-street bank branches, the bank relationship managers that accountants used to work with have disappeared. All that extra work and responsibility has landed on accountants’ desks." Sophie Hossack joined Allica Bank as Head of Partnerships just under a year ago to manage Allica's new accountancy partnerships team. In this AccountingWEB.co.uk Q&A, Sophie talks about the importance of banks and accountancy firms working together to get the best for established UK businesses. "Accountants have become the last pillar of support for SMEs. Every day, up and down the country, accountants are hearing clients’ frustrations with their banking experience. Poor service levels, no answers, ‘computer says no’ rejections," she said. "For too long, accountants have been stuck with how to help. We’re trying to reverse that trend and make banking a service again – and a genuinely helpful one, at that." 🗞️ Read the full Q&A on AccountingWeb to find out how Allica is working with accountants and how our proposition for the accountancy segment has developed over the past year: https://lnkd.in/es9cy99h #businessbanking #accountants #SMEsupport

It’s been a pleasure working with Ehsan Kiani from Affinity Group to support a family-run property portfolio with a £3.1 million commercial investment mortgage 🤝. The property investor, based in Birmingham, was looking for commercial mortgage refinance to raise capital for their business expansion.    Ehsan Kiani said: “Allica Bank have been hugely supportive to our business with their clear, regular and consistent communication. We recently closed a complex transaction under the very competent stewardship of Shay Stanford. Our clients have been assisted with a refinance and capital raise supporting their business expansion. It was a simple choice to work with Allica given their understanding of trusts and UK trading SMEs. From deal origination to disbursement, the team have delivered at all levels with speed – something we are all seeking in commercial lending.”     Shay Stanford, Allica’s Business Development Manager, added: “We know how important speed of credit decisioning is for business owners. To ensure a speedy outcome for Affinity Group and their client, we ran the approval on the trust structure of this deal by our due diligence and compliance teams prior to the application being submitted. This made the whole application process straightforward and resulted in speedy underwriting. We’re so pleased to be able to support this business with their growth plans.” #brokers #commercialmortgages #SMEfinance #businessbanking 

🧑🎨 “Why would you be with a bank that doesn’t give you a personal relationship manager? And why would you be with a bank that doesn’t pay interest? Moving to Allica was a no-brainer,” said Andy Connacher, founder of Bury St Edmunds graphic design agency Whitewater Creative.   Having grown steadily since launching 30 years ago, the agency has a broad range of clients, from international cosmetics brands to UK pub and hospitality chains.   In April 2024, he met Allica relationship manager Emily Hopkins at a business event. After hearing about Allica’s business current account and that he’d get personalised support from Emily, he saw no reason to wait and moved Whitewater’s banking over to Allica Bank.   The business now enjoys a top-tier savings rate on their instant access savings. “It’s money that would otherwise be earning nothing with another bank. So I thought why not put it to work?”   But what Andy most appreciates is the dedicated support of his relationship manager, Emily, who helps get things done. "For me, this is the main benefit of working with Allica and having a relationship manager: not having to deal with a call centre. Being with Allica has definitely saved me personally a lot of time,” he said.   Find out more about how Allica is supporting Whitewater here: https://lnkd.in/edHbEikX #businessbanking #savings #burystedmunds #suffolk #eastanglia #graphicdesign