We’re one of the UK’s top impact investors. We help customers to take on bigger challenges and opportunities by providing them with the right investment, at the right time.
It’s our purpose to bring ambitions to life and fuel possibilities for people, businesses and communities in Wales. That means our investments have to be about more than just a financial return, or a set of numbers on a spreadsheet. Obviously, we want to make sure we’re backing businesses with real promise – but to us, that’s about so much more than just money.
Our team of portfolio executives builds strong links with our customers, making sure longstanding businesses feel supported.
Our local teams are spread across Wales, and are the face put to our name. Their mix of experience, friendliness and business nous keeps customers coming back to us. They help businesses along their journey, from start up to succession.
They help customers get follow-on funding where and when they need it, along with networking and support to help build better businesses.
That sort of support is really important as more and more businesses look to transition towards Net Zero and become more socially sustainable – whether that’s going for BCorp status, reducing their energy use, or changing how they do business so they can remove the need to use that energy in the first place.
The Green Business Loan Scheme is a great example of the sort of finance we offer, where we’ve seen what the businesses we work with need and created something to support them directly – in this case helping them on their journey towards decarbonisation.
Some of the successes we’ve seen when supporting existing customers include:
- Hadley Hotels, whom we supported with a £75,000 CWBLS loan in 2020, successfully applied for a Carmarthenshire Renewable Energy grant to install new solar energy panels on-site, following a referral from us. They’re one of hundreds of businesses we’ve helped not just with investment, but by bringing them into the networks of business support which exist across Wales, and of which we’re just a part.
- We also invested in the popular Cardiff-based events and entertainment firm Depot, allowing them to open new premises in Cardiff Bay in the summer. As well as providing the investment needed to open the new site, we helped Depot to set up the venue with its environmental impact in mind. Outpost uses 100% renewable energy, and has LED lighting fitted throughout. All of its kitchen equipment uses electricity rather than gas, with a 300L unvented cylinder installed on-site to provide hot water.
- We helped Powys-based Cooks Professional with a loan earlier this year, which meant they could switch out an older fleet of petrol vehicles used by its directors to electric cars. As well as switching to electric cars, the business – which sells cookware and electrical products to consumers worldwide – is now working with suppliers to reduce waste plastics in its packaging, and uses carbon-neutral couriers to deliver its goods to customers.
Rachel Miles, Portfolio Manager, said: “The long-term relationships we build with our customers give us the chance to really get to know them and the sort of support they need. That familiarity is invaluable if they come to us for further investment – it means we know how best to target any follow-up funding, and look at how it can be a catalyst for growth.
“That route to growth is even more important when businesses look at decarbonising and building sustainability into what they do.”
