How we’ve structured finance for businesses like yours.

Financing a replacement tractor without draining seasonal cash flow

Customer situation

A North Yorkshire-based arable contractor operating across 1,500 acres. Their primary tractor suffered a major transmission failure mid-season, threatening upcoming harvest commitments.

Asset required

John Deere 6R 250 (value £165,000 + VAT).

The challenge

The farm’s main income arrives in two distinct spikes — post-harvest in autumn and subsidy/yield payouts in early spring. A standard monthly repayment profile would have severely strained cash flow during the winter and early summer months when revenue is low.

Options considered

• Outright purchase — would consume £165k of liquid working capital reserved for fertiliser and diesel.
• High-street bank loan — fixed, rigid monthly repayments that didn’t match the farm’s cash flow cycle, and took 3+ weeks to process.
• CW Asset Finance route — a tailored, seasonal Hire Purchase agreement.

The CW solution

Conor structured a 5-year Hire Purchase agreement with a bespoke seasonal payment profile. Monthly payments were scaled down to a nominal amount during low-revenue winter months, with larger lump-sum payments aligned precisely with harvest income spikes. VAT was deferred for 3 months to coincide with the client’s next quarterly VAT return.

Key outcome

The client secured the machine in time for harvest without taking a single pound out of their core operational reserves.

“High-street banks love flat monthly figures because they fit into an automated risk algorithm. But farming isn’t a flat monthly business. If your broker doesn’t understand seasonal cash flows, you’ll end up tying up working capital when you need it most.”

— Conor, CW Asset Finance

“CW understood our farm’s cycle instantly. Conor set up the payments to hit when our grain cheques clear, so we upgraded our main machine without sweating our day-to-day cash flow.”

— David M., Agricultural Contractor, North Yorkshire

Adding 5 vans to a growing fleet without straining monthly overheads

Customer situation

A regional logistics operator secured a sub-contract with a major online retailer, requiring five brand-new, Low-Emission Zone compliant commercial vehicles.

Asset required

5x Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 315 CDI vans (total fleet value £190,000 + VAT).

The challenge

Minimising the monthly outgoing liability on the fleet balance sheet so the business could keep operational margins high while hiring five new drivers simultaneously.

Options considered

• Contract hire (leasing) — lower upfront cost, but no asset ownership at the end and steep penalties for mileage overruns.
• Standard Hire Purchase — full amortisation over 4 years led to monthly payments slightly too high for comfortable cash flow.
• Hire Purchase with a balloon payment — low monthly outlay with ownership retention.

The CW solution

Conor structured a 4-year Hire Purchase agreement with a 30% balloon payment at the end. By deferring a portion of the capital cost to the end of the agreement — backed by the strong resale value of Sprinter vans — monthly repayments were reduced by over £280 per vehicle, per month.

Key outcome

Lower monthly overheads let the client comfortably fund driver salaries, and the new fleet was on the road within 7 days.

“People often forget how much flexibility you have when structuring a deal. Adding a structured balloon payment keeps your monthly overheads low today while letting you build equity in assets you actually own.”

— Conor, CW Asset Finance

“The speed was unreal. Conor had the finance lined up before the dealership even finished preparing the vans.”

— Sarah K., Fleet Operations Manager

A sole trader with no trading history, funded and paid out inside 24 hours

Customer situation

A newly self-employed bathroom fitter who needed a van before he could start taking work. No filed accounts, no trading history, and no limited company behind the application to assess instead.

Asset required

A work van for a bathroom installation business.

The challenge

It is the hardest profile in the market to place. A lender running a single credit policy finds nothing to score and stops there — which tells the applicant nothing about whether the van was ever fundable. Applying to several lenders in turn would have left a credit footprint each time and made the next decline more likely.

Options considered

• Wait until accounts existed — would have meant months without a van, and therefore without income.
• Apply to high-street lenders in turn — each application marking the credit file on the way to a likely decline.
• CW Asset Finance route — go straight to the lenders who assess sole traders and new starts properly.

The CW solution

Rather than putting the application through lenders whose policy was never going to fit it, we approached the lenders on our panel who assess sole traders and new starts on bank statements and work pipeline rather than filed accounts, and secured the best rate available for the profile.

Key outcome

From first conversation to payout took 24 hours. For someone who had not started trading yet, being able to begin work the next day rather than the next month was the entire point.

“A new business getting declined tells you almost nothing. It usually means that lender does not write new starts, not that the deal was unfundable. Knowing which lenders do is most of the job.”

— Conor, CW Asset Finance

From a first van to a saw mill in three years

Customer situation

Paul Fridd Fencing, starting out in Ripon and needing a first vehicle with no trading history behind the business.

Asset required

A van, then two post knockers, then a £70,000 Wood-Mizer saw mill — funded one at a time over three years as the business grew.

The challenge

The hardest asset to fund is the first, because a new business has nothing on file for a lender to assess. What comes after is a different problem: each asset is a bigger commitment than the last, and each sits in a different category. A van is a vehicle, a post knocker is fencing machinery, a saw mill is timber processing plant — and not every lender that will fund one will look at the others. The saw mill was the biggest step of all, because it was not more of the same work: it moved a fencing contractor into milling its own timber.

Options considered

• Personal finance for the first van — would have put the vehicle in the wrong name and limited what came next.
• A new lender for each asset — re-explaining the business from scratch every time, and starting cold on machinery it had never borrowed against.
• CW Asset Finance route — one broker who knows the business and matches each asset to a lender with appetite for that category.

The CW solution

We funded that first van. As the work came in we funded two post knockers, and then the £70,000 Wood-Mizer — each one arranged against where the company actually stood at the time, and placed with a lender that understood the asset. Because the earlier agreements were on file and performing, each application was stronger than the one before rather than another cold start. That track record is what made a diversification purchase fundable, rather than a step too far.

Key outcome

Inside three years the business went from one van to running its own fencing machinery and milling its own timber. Paul Fridd Fencing is now diversifying beyond contract fencing on the back of that saw mill, and has used CW Asset Finance since the start without once having to re-explain the business to a new lender.

“The first one is the hard one. After that what matters is that somebody remembers the business, and knows which lender will look at a post knocker or a Wood-Mizer rather than only the vans. Diversifying is where most contractors get told no — usually because the lender is being asked to back a business it has never seen before.”

— Conor, CW Asset Finance