Page 2 - SME Toolkit: The Star Covid-19 Edition

2 THESTAR www.thestar.co.uk Wednesday,May27,2020
BANKING
in association with
RECOVERY: SHEFFIELD BUSINESS SET TO ‘BOUNCE BACK’ IN A STRENGTHENED FINANCIAL STATE
Microbrewery says “cheers” to support from Barclays
Sheffield home-grown microbrewery, ‘Little Critters Brewing Company’, is a business with an affinity for making good tasting beer with quirky, animal themes – from their modern take on an English classic ‘Malty Python’ beer, to their chocolate malt stout ‘Sleepy Badger’.
It all started in 2012, when they took their love for cask ales and dream of opening a microbrewery, and start- ed the addictive journey of home brewing in the kitchen with a kettle and ambition. Fast forward to earlier this year, where they were settled in the Kelham area and were continuing to grow the busi- ness with new processes, new kit, more people, new recipes and a stable 10BBL plant with a great team.
Andrea Steer toasts the future of Little Critters Brewing Company
The Coronavirus lock- down has shaken the hos- pitality industry and unfortunately caused the brewery to close, resulting in a loss of income, aside from their online sales. This had an impact on cash flow and the team of six at Little Crit- ters had concerns around the business’ ability to survive.
They decided to approach Barclays regarding the Gov- ernment backed Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) and successfully applied for £50,000 of funding, which was received within 48 hours
of completing their applica- tion. The loan will help the business to not only survive the pandemic, but also be in a stronger financial position to move forward post COVID-19.
Mark Steer Managing Director at Little Critters Brewing Company, said: “Set- ting up Little Critters has been a dream come true for us, so we were thrilled when we were able to access a Bounce Back loan through Barclays. We’ve invested heavily in the business over the last couple of years and we’re now con- fident we can survive these challenging times and return
to profit when more normal trading returns.”
Neil Bradburne, Barclays Business Area Manager in South Yorkshire, said: “We’ve built up a strong relationship with Little Critters Brewing Company over years and, understanding their business and how difficult current trading conditions are, we wanted to see how we could help them during this diffi- cult time. We’re delighted to be able to support them with a Bounce Back loan, and we hope this funding will help them move forward with their future plans.”
Matthew Steer of Little Critters Brewing Company, Sheffield
Support measures for customers impacted by COVID-19
Barclays is here to help your business get through this challenging time.
Here are some of the ways we are helping our customers to manage their money and cashflow, access funding, and signpost to Government support.
We’re giving free every- day business banking and not charging interest on over- drafts between March 13 and
June 12 2020.
This applies to all cur-
rent and new customers with an annual turnover of up to £250k and will happen automatically.
We’re offering capital repayment holidays on exist- ing loans over £25k.
Barclays is an accred- ited lender for Government- backed lending schemes.
These include the
Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS), Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), and Covid-19 Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF)
We’re continuing to offer businesses access to fund- ing, including our existing £14 billion lending fund, which offers support to small and
medium-sized UK businesses. For more information, visit: https://www.barclays.
co.uk/business-banking/ Basic Government guide- lines for businesses reopen- ing at this time are based
upon five main directives;
1 Carry out a COVID-19 risk
assessment.
2 Develop cleaning,
handwashing and hygiene procedures.
3 Help people to work from home
4 Maintain two met res social distancing throughout the workplace, where at all possible.
5 Where people cannot be two metres apart, manage the transmission risk. There are several ways in this can be done, including screens or barriers, and side to side or back to back working.
Neil Bradburne, Barclays.