Fiduciam has completed a £1.18m loan to finance Hustyns Hotel and Spa in Cornwall under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), enabling the hotel to continue operating until the end of 2022.
Hustyns Hotel and Spa in Wadebridge closed for three months during the lockdown, reopening in July to experience its highest demand for rooms in recent years, only to be affected once more by the second national lockdown.
Fiduciam’s loan provides the hotel with secure commercial funding for 24 months; financing costs have been reduced thanks to CBILS, and the absence of early repayment charges gives the borrower added flexibility.
Fiduciam has been accredited by the British Business Bank to offer loans under the CBILS. Delivered through British Business Bank accredited lenders, CBILS is designed to support the continued provision of finance to UK smaller businesses during the Covid-19 outbreak. The scheme enables lenders to provide facilities of up to £5m to smaller businesses across the UK who are experiencing lost or deferred revenues, leading to disruptions to their cashflow.
Ravi Gupta of Hustyns Hotel and Spa, said: “COVID-19 has posed unique challenges to the hospitality industry – it’s been a real year of volatility. 2020 was expected to be a significant year as we had invested in the hotel with a refurbished restaurant and a new ‘glamping’ offering coming on stream.
“We know that we have a good business model and strong demand, but after strong revenue and profit growth in 2019, the lockdown meant we experienced a difficult spring and early summer 2020 when we couldn’t let out rooms or lodges.
"Once the lockdown was lifted, we had to immediately scale up operations and staff levels for full occupancy.
"The loan from Fiduciam means that we cannot only weather this latest lockdown, but we can make the investments we want to into our resort and know that our business’s future is secure for the next two years.”
Marc Morris, underwriter at Fiduciam, said: “Hustyns is the perfect fit for our CBILS offering. Pre-COVID the hotel was performing well and deleveraging.
"The CBILS loan provides 12 months of space for Hustyns to maintain resilience and rebuild its accounts before the borrower returns to servicing interest. In the medium term, the borrower plans to refinance onto a term product.”
