Diversification is the name of the game when it comes to expanding this site!

DAVE CHANDLER is no stranger to diversification. As a farm contractor, he runs a large fleet of equipment and vehicles and spreads lime. He also grows and sells maize and rears his own beef cattle. Now he’s opening up another revenue stream – a high-end livery yard.

The addition of a menage and riding school makes this Dave’s biggest project yet – but he’s found what he calls “an easy, straightforward” way to finance it.

Buying and developing the site, which also includes knocking down an existing house and building a new one, is costing Dave just over a million pounds. But the project has all been made possible not by a bank, but a bespoke deal organised by a specialist direct lender which was set up specifically to support Britain’s farmers, and with whom Dave has become a good friend.

“This is probably the eighth or ninth time we’ve come back to Rural Asset Finance,” says Dave. “We love working with them. Over the years, they’ve helped us fund tractors and other machinery for our contracting business. This is the first time we’ve wanted money for a land or property deal – but they were the obvious people to come to.”

Dave has run Southern Counties Liming in Arundel, West Sussex, since 1991, but with help from Rural Asset Finance, has recently acquired a small equestrian yard next to his farm. “It had four stalls but we’re expanding that to 10 and developing a livery and menage, where my daughter Molly can keep her horses, stable others and also teach riding and show jumping. When it’s up and running, we anticipate the additional income means it will pay for itself, leaving the contracting and liming side of the business to do their own thing.”

Dave already had a farm mortgage and overdraft with a high street bank, but they would not extend the existing loan to cover the new livery – which is where Rural Asset Finance stepped in.

“Every time we deal with them, whether it’s to buy a tractor or build a farmhouse, they just automatically understand what we’re trying to do,” he adds. “They’ve all been involved in farming themselves, so they always see things from a farming perspective. We get a completely bespoke deal designed just for us, at a fair rate, and the whole admin process is so easy, friendly, and really quick too. Why wouldn’t we deal with them?”

It was indeed quick – just under two months from the first phone call. Rural Asset Finance offered quotes at the end of November and the required information was supplied and credit analysis completed the following month. In the first days of the New Year, RAF drew up a formal offer agreement and then an efficient turnaround of legal due diligence and valuation enabled RAF to repay the high street bank in full and ensure Dave had funds in his own bank account for the livery and the new farmhouse – all by the end of January.

“It’s always quick with Rural Asset Finance,” adds Dave. “They just always make everything so straightforward.”

There are of course stringent checks to undertake and detailed questions to answer – but Rural Asset Finance’s inhouse one-stop team ensures these are done quickly and efficiently, says Andrew Carrier, the company’s head of legal and compliance.

“We were delighted to help Dave access the funds for his exciting new project so quickly,” he says. “With Dave, as with all our other customers, it was really important to us to have a smooth handover between our sales, credit and legal teams. That way we can always resolve any potential legal hurdles as soon as we can see them in the process. At Rural Asset Finance, having all those teams inhouse and working together speeds things up and the customer’s journey becomes very efficient.

“Fast and accurate communication is an essential part of how we do business,” adds Andrew. “We want to help customers like Dave move ahead with their projects as soon as possible, so effective and open communication between all the parties means no unwelcome late surprises for us or our customers. And we insist that any customer signing a deal with us sees their own solicitor independently to do their own checks and balances as well – that reinforces their trust in us.”

With the money now safely in his bank, Dave is now drawing up a build schedule for the livery and is hopeful the new revenue stream will be up and running by next summer. “We’re really grateful to Rural Asset Finance for being so efficient and enabling us to get on with the livery straightaway,” he says. “This will keep us busy – but as soon as we want to fund something else, Rural Asset Finance will be the first to know!”