The challenge: For the Ozone Coffee Roasters International team, the challenge was trying to fund business expansion whilst establishing a relationship with a bank in the UK. This is where the team at New Zealand Export Credit (NZEC) come into the picture.
The solution: NZEC was able to support Ozone, by providing a Guarantee to their existing New Zealand bank so they could provide a multi-year loan facility to Ozone and allow the NZ Bank to guarantee facilities provided by a UK Bank.
The benefit: This has helped Ozone not only expand their UK operations but, just as importantly, establish a relationship with a bank in the UK.
The team at Ozone have been putting their beans to the test and think they have found the perfect blend of expanding their business globally and keeping it local.
OCR International Limited (trading as “Ozone”) and its subsidiaries is a coffee roastery business with cafes in New Plymouth, Auckland and London. With a presence in the UK for over 10 years, they felt the time was right to expand and consolidate their operations in London. This involved the purchase of cafes and coffee machines, and the consolidation of production facilities. The challenge for the team was trying to fund the expansion whilst establishing a relationship with a bank in the UK. This was where the team at NZEC were on hand to help.
NZEC was able to support Ozone, by providing its guarantee to ASB in New Zealand so that ASB could provide a multi-year loan facility to Ozone. This also allowed ASB to guarantee facilities provided to Ozone by their bank in the UK. “This has helped us not only expand our UK operations but, just as importantly, establish a relationship with a bank in the UK” says Ozone’s CEO Lizzie Gurr.
We are well connected across a range of NZ Inc solutions to support exporters says Lizzie, including working with other government agencies such as New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE). Ozone’s NZTE Customer Manager, Lionel Crawley, confirmed that NZEC’s support for Ozone’s UK growth aligns well with work NZTE has been doing to help Ozone grow sales and build capability in the UK. The progress that Ozone have made could not have been achieved without the funding support from NZEC”.
What you thought might have been a tall order has become a reality for Ozone. Part of the loan will assist with the relocation of the existing London central roasting and despatch facility to an existing facility in Stafford, Midlands England. This results in consolidation of the production facility with existing staff, removes current duplication of production roles and despatch costs and lowers the net cost to serve. To assist with the London production facility relocation, Ozone intends to invest in technology-based packing and bag forming equipment. This will both alleviate current production pressures and support future growth intent.
Another component of the loan is acquiring two well-presented central London cafes. This opportunity will promote and grow Ozone’s wholesale sales and establish further brand exposure among a central London demographic for both retail and e-com sales.
“NZEC’s support has helped enable Ozone to access working capital to fund their business growth in the UK and assist Ozone in establishing a banking relationship with Lloyds” says NZEC’s Senior Business Originator, Phil Quinn. The guarantee from NZEC provides confidence to lenders to enable them to support exporters to expand globally.
ASB’s Head of Major Commercial Group, Matt Allen, noted “Offshore working capital facilities can provide additional challenges for banks, and partnering with NZEC gives us confidence to support further facilities for our customers”.