Finance Yorkshire makes major investment in Microdat

A Leeds-based brewery equipment manufacturer is raising a glass to fulfilling its order books after receiving a £500,000 equity linked investment from Finance Yorkshire.

Microdat is the second company to receive an equity linked investment from Finance Yorkshire.

The designer and manufacturer of equipment for the brewing industry uses up-to-the-minute technology and innovative engineering techniques to manufacture products such as cask and keg handling systems, in addition to providing spares, ongoing service and maintenance.

The company oversees a wide variety of projects for companies ranging from multi-nationals to SMEs and supplies to larger industry players such as Inbev, as well as growing Real Ale brewers including Timothy Taylor.

The investment from Finance Yorkshire has come at exactly the right time to help Microdat capitalise on a busy period of orders – and will ensure they can fulfil them.

Microdat founder and Managing Director Stephen Midgley said: “We had a great year in 2008 with a turnover of £3.6m, a dip in 2009 of £1.7m and then another high of £4.2m last year.

“The dip was caused by the banking recession because, while we had great order books, we were struggling to fulfil them purely because of a lack of working capital. It meant we had to delay projects by deferring them on to the following year and that caused this ‘zig-zag’ effect in our figures.

“2010 could have been even better had we had the financial resources now provided by Finance Yorkshire.

“Finance Yorkshire has provided working capital and development capital funding and this, in particular, will help to meet our buoyant sales order pipeline.”

The investment will also enable the business to recruit new staff as well as developing existing products for new and related sectors. The business will seek to expand its knowledge base and product set into Europe and the US.

He added: “Having more working capital will enhance our capabilities which will also lead to improving our profitability further.

“It was the flexibility of Finance Yorkshire’s approach which really appealed to us and we’ve found them very easy and straightforward to deal with.

“Ash Chopra and the team at Finance Yorkshire were highly responsive and Microdat were able to drive a quick and hard deal using the correct professionals. The Microdat team of Roy Butcher and Howard Smith ensured that we got a great deal and had all the necessary information to hand.”

A strong professional team was put in place to secure the investment deal including Richard Feltham of Garbutt and Elliott Corporate Finance who advised Microdat, while the principal legal advisors were Paul Johnson of Irwin Mitchell and Debbie Jackson and Joy Irving of Walker Morris.

Finance Yorkshire Investment Director Ash Chopra said: “Microdat’s case highlights the funding issues impacting SMEs in the region, namely the lack of incremental finance, largely as a result of challenging trading conditions in recent years. However the business has an excellent order book, a recently developed product range and a fantastic market reputation and we look forward to working with Microdat in realising their full potential.”

Earlier this year S3 ID, the UK’s market-leading provider of innovative location awareness solutions, became the first company to receive an equity investment from Finance Yorkshire.

Helping a range of small and medium sized businesses to meet their funding requirements for growth and development, Finance Yorkshire provides seedcorn, loan and equity linked investments, ranging from £15,000 to £2m.

The project is supported financially by the European Union. It has attracted £30million investment from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of Europe’s support for the region’s economic development through the Yorkshire and Humber ERDF Programme, £15million from Yorkshire Forward’s Single Programme, and £45million match funding from the European Investment Bank.

For more information about Finance Yorkshire, please visit www.finance-yorkshire.com or ring 0845 649 0000.

Note: this news article is from Finance Yorkshire’s previous fund. Read more about Finance Yorkshire