Case Study – Engineering
Precision Pays!
Where would you turn if your condom packing machine
needed a spare part?
Steve Hards runs Star Precision Engineering, a small
but expanding general engineering enterprise
located in the Melbourne suburb of Moorabbin. The condom
conundrum was one of many problems he's solved for a
wide range of customers.
His company had previously been focused on manufacturing
spare parts for the power transmission industry, mainly
through value adding to material imported from overseas
When Steve bought into the business in 2002 it had been
operating for more than ten years but was a one-person
workshop with a part-time office assistant.
"It was a challenge," says Steve. "From
the contacts I had built up over the years I knew we
could source more work and bigger contracts but we needed
a flexible financing structure that would allow me to
hire staff to work on the projects and be able to pay
them while I waited for the client to pay me."
Steve looked at a number of options and chose to use
Benchmark Debtor Finance's confidential facility.
"We discovered Benchmark in 2003 and it's one of
the best moves we've ever made.
"Benchmark helped to smooth our cash flow and enabled
us to employ more people, which in turn allowed us to
meet specific contract obligations and at the same time
expand the business."
Today, Star Precision Engineering employs five full
time and two part-time staff and turnover has more than
tripled in less than two years. Their clients include
companies in the canning and packaging industries and
cover a wide range of diverse engineering needs.
Says Steve: "Many of our clients use expensive
machinery imported from overseas and look to us for quick
turnaround on replacement parts and fittings.
"Benchmark has allowed us to grow to the stage
where we can take on those urgent jobs and deliver the
required parts much more quickly than the client could
source the same part from Europe or China."
"I'd genuinely recommend any growing small business
to look at debtor finance as a flexible finance option."
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