“We’ve gone from being a company doing $1Million a year and not making any money to doing $6Million last year, estimating $8Million this year and with a very good pipeline in place which will see us grow significantly again in 2021. We have repeat orders for next year and now that we know we have the financing in place we can accept those orders.”
Duroair, the innovative clean air technology company, provide unique retractable enclosure systems that solve many problems for their customers saving them time and money in the process. With an impressive range of clients from large space and aeronautical companies, the US Military as well as smaller businesses, Duroair are on a fast growth trajectory and are using Accelerated Payment’s flexible invoice financing model to help build their business.
From their beginnings in the aerospace industry, Duroair’s patented safe, environmental and cost saving solution for indoor air problems has inevitably led to a demand for their product from businesses both large and small. Facilitating the larger contracts presented a challenge as both the build of the indoor units and the accounts receivables had to be financed in line with typical contract payment terms. “While our smaller customers are self- financing due to phased payments, large companies are used to paying after everything is in and 90 days later. With the large contracts, we had to finance the build and then the accounts receivables.” says Casey Bruyns, CFO and Co-Founder of Duroair “We had a large contract with a US plane manufacturer and to start off, the EDC (Economic Development Corporation of the Canadian government) gave us a loan, but then they got out of that business and we found ourselves with other large contracts that we needed to finance. The banks didn’t understand our process and didn’t like the risk even though our clients were blue chip companies.” Duroair’s challenge was to find a finance partner that would understand their process and find a way to finance the large orders. Casey had used invoice financing before. “There’s a lot of competition and competitive rates. Being able to finance the build was key. But other providers we talked to had the handcuffs on us – they wanted to start with 100K or 200K. They didn’t understand – we have a million dollar deal, we have to do the million dollar deal! Accelerated Payments got that – they took the time to do the research, understand our process and found a way to finance these large orders”.
BENEFIT GETTING THE FINANCIAL FREEDOM TO GROW
Accelerated Payments worked with the EDC to combine it’s Individual Invoice Finance service with the EDC credit guarantee program designed for Canadian businesses selling internationally or within Canada. 90% of Duroair’s business is within the US with resulting invoices facilitated by both parties.
The company can select the key customers and invoices they want financed. Casey says, “Accelerated Payments’ financing model is much more flexible than that afforded by the banks for example. I don’t have to borrow a bunch of money I don’t need right now – I access it when I need it. It’s easy for us as a company to estimate what our costs will be and build it into the cost of the project.
“We’ve gone from being a company doing $1Million a year and not making any money to doing $6Million last year, estimating $8Million this year and with a very good pipeline in place which will see us grow significantly again in 2021. We have repeat orders for next year and now that we know we have the financing in place we can accept those orders.”
Casey’s says Duroair will continue to use Accelerated Payments’ invoice finance model. “It makes sense. We don’t need to go back to a bank. I’d rather deal with a company we can grow with. Once we continue on our path working with blue chip businesses with reasonable risk, we can keep accepting work – there’s a lot of comfort in that. We’re growing very fast even with the loss of three months of installation and delivery due to Covid . Next year we expect to double our revenue – with the support of Accelerated Payments we can get there. Having Individual Invoice Financing in place means we can concentrate on building the business – that’s what we really want to focus on.”
