A North American finance company providing working capital for small to medium businesses through “buying” their current accounts, has opened its first Australasian office in Auckland. From left, Interface Financial Group’s Canada founder John Sheehy, New Zealand director Chris Reid and Canada-based president, David Banfield. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Interface Financial Group headquartered in Canada operates 150 franchises across Canada and the US. While its first office down under is in Auckland’s CBD, the New Zealand arm is also being franchised nationwide, says New Zealand director, Chris Reid. Head office is taking the franchise to Australia next year. Interface provides a niche service called “invoice discounting”, where it buys its clients’ accounts receivable for 90 per cent of their value. Interface takes on the collecting of payments due to a company from their good customers. Interface credit checks the client company’s customers before taking on their invoices. The client company notifies its own customers that they are to pay Interface directly for the current invoice. This is not debt collecting, Reid stresses. Interface does not chase up bad debtors. “Most of our clients are very successful. But often they are growing too quickly or are too new to fall in line with traditional banking financing criteria. “In fact, on average, most of our clients have only been in business for just over two years, employ seven staff and have an annual turnover of $950,000. “The average amount of funding requested on an initial transaction is approximately $30,000 and on average they use the Interface service for 18 months. “The size of our clients is not really important to us. Provided they have a good business, with quality debtors, they generally meet our criteria.” Clients can apply online for funding. The advantage to clients is Interface provides them with working capital for whatever they want to spend it on, as often as they like, with no fixed term contract. Clients might need the capital in a low season or to expand staff or stock, for example. Reid says the feedback from small businesses and the wider financial industry, including the major banks, has already been “extremely positive” . “The banks can clearly see how Interface complements their existing financial services and how we can assist their clients which is why they are excited about our service.” Reid originally trained as a lawyer and practised in New Zealand and London, then held senior executive roles in the transport industry, primarily for DHL and TNT in Europe and North America. Back in New Zealand he owned and developed the Pack ‘n’ Pedal retail group � growing it from two stores to a franchised group of eight. While he remains a director of a small freight company, his prime focus is growing Interface in New Zealand. “Having been involved first hand in a small business, I am well aware of the crucial part that a regular cash flow plays in the business,” Reid says. “I can empathise with the growth pains that most small business owners face and I am very excited about the opportunity to bring this much needed niche business practice down under. “Invoice discounting is well established throughout Canada and the US and we are confident it will be equally successful in New Zealand. “The international client base is a real cross section of the business community and we anticipate the profile of our local clients to be quite similar.”
Updated Recently