™
Working capital for
UK manufacturers.
Raw materials out today, payment in ninety days — finance shaped to the gap in between.
Manufacturing ties up cash like few other trades: you buy materials, run the line and pay wages long before a finished order is invoiced and settled. These guides explain how short-term finance fits — and on every one, the company borrows, never you personally. No personal guarantee.
Creditcorp is the growing name for the Credicorp group, and Credicorp Limited is the lender behind it. For an incorporated UK manufacturer, it does one thing: short-term working capital for the gaps that production creates.
A jobbing engineering firm waiting ninety days on a tier-one customer. A food producer buying a season’s packaging up front. A small batch manufacturer who has just won an order three times the size of anything before. The shape of the pressure is the same — money leaves the business for materials, labour and tooling weeks or months before it comes back — but it lands differently depending on what you make and who you sell to.
Throughout, the borrower is the company — a UK private limited company (Ltd), LLP or PLC — not the director who signs. That means no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. These are not personal loans, payday loans or sole-trader finance. When you’re ready, applying happens on the lender’s own site, credicorp.co.uk.
Why manufacturing eats cash
The working-capital gap in manufacturing is wider than in almost any other sector. Four things drive it.
Raw materials are paid for first
Steel, aluminium, polymer, timber, board, castings, electronic components — most have to be bought, and often paid for, before a single unit ships. When commodity prices move or a supplier tightens terms, that outlay can jump with no notice, and it lands at the start of the cycle when nothing has yet been sold.
Long lead times stretch the cycle
A part may sit as work-in-progress for weeks: cut, formed, machined, assembled, finished, tested, packed. Every day in progress is cash you have already spent and not yet recovered. The longer and more complex the build, the longer your money is locked inside the factory.
Large orders are feast and famine
Winning a big contract is the goal — and the squeeze. A single order three or four times your usual size means buying three or four times the materials, often before the customer pays a penny. Growth, in manufacturing, costs cash before it earns it.
Customers pay slowly
Manufacturers sell business-to-business, and downstream buyers — retailers, distributors, OEMs, main contractors — routinely pay on 60 or 90-day terms. So the money you laid out at the very start of the cycle comes back at the very end, and the gap in between is real cash you still have to find for wages, power and the next job’s materials.
The kinds of finance that fit
Three plain-English products, used three different ways on the factory floor. Detail and the live terms are on the lender — we don’t quote rates here.
A fixed sum for a known materials run
When you can name the figure — this much steel for that confirmed order, due to be invoiced on a known date — a one-off Business Bridging Loan is the simplest fit. A single agreed amount lands in the business account, you buy the materials, and you repay over a short fixed term as the order is delivered and paid.
A line you draw against as runs land
When materials buying is lumpy and recurring — a fresh purchase every few weeks, never quite the same size — a revolving Credicorp Flex facility tends to suit better. A limit is set for the company; you draw what a run needs, repay as the finished goods are paid for, then draw again, with interest only on what you have actually drawn.
Spreading a single supplier bill
When one chunky supplier invoice — a bulk material order or a tooling bill — lands at an awkward moment, Credicorp Slice pays the supplier in full today and lets the company repay over a few weeks for a flat fee. Your supplier relationship stays sweet; your cash flow gets room to breathe.
The company borrows — never the director
This matters more in manufacturing than almost anywhere. The owner of a plant or a workshop usually has a lot riding personally already — the unit, the machines, sometimes the family home pledged against an equipment lease or an overdraft. Stacking a personal guarantee on top of a working-capital loan can mean betting the lot on one big order arriving on time.
Credicorp draws the line cleanly. The agreement is between Credicorp Limited and your company, so there is:
- No personal guarantee — a slow-paying customer or a stalled order does not put your home or savings on the line.
- No charge over a home — nothing of yours personally is pledged as security for the company’s borrowing.
- No personal credit check on a director — the lender assesses the company, not your own credit file.
- A clean separation — the limited company you set up to carry the risk is the borrower, exactly as it should be.
This is exempt business lending to bodies corporate, not consumer credit. The full regulatory position — and why the perimeter is drawn exactly there — is set out on the group site at creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
A worked example
A made-up but realistic situation — not a real customer, just an easy way to picture the fit.
The business. A precision sheet-metal fabricator, a UK limited company with eleven staff, turning over a little under £1m a year supplying enclosures to two larger equipment makers. Solid order book, healthy margins, but every customer pays on sixty-day terms.
The squeeze. One of those customers offers a standing order more than double the firm’s usual monthly volume. To take it on, the company has to buy a large run of steel and powder-coat consumables up front, and cover an extra fortnight of agency labour to hit the delivery dates — weeks before the first invoice on the new work falls due, let alone gets paid.
The fit. Rather than turn the order away or lean on the director’s own savings, the company looks at short-term working capital. Because the materials buying will come in waves as the standing order ramps up, a revolving facility suits better than a single lump sum: the company can draw as each steel run lands and repay as the finished enclosures are invoiced and settled.
The point. The borrower is the company, so the director’s home and personal credit file stay out of it entirely. The exact amount, term and cost would be set by the lender — we don’t quote figures on this site. To see real terms and apply, the firm would head to credicorp.co.uk.
Manufacturing funding — common questions
The questions manufacturers ask most. For anything specific to your company, the lender’s team are on credicorp.co.uk.
Can a UK manufacturing company borrow without a personal guarantee?
Yes. Credicorp lends to the company — a UK limited company, LLP or PLC — not to the director who signs. There is no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. The agreement sits between Credicorp Limited and your manufacturing business.
We have a large confirmed order but need to buy raw materials first. What fits?
That is the classic manufacturing gap: cash goes out for steel, polymer, components or castings weeks before the finished goods are invoiced and paid. A short-term Business Bridging Loan gives you a fixed sum for a known cost and a known date, while Credicorp Flex lets you draw against a limit as a materials run lands. See the products on credicorp.co.uk for detail.
Does Credicorp lend against machinery or is this asset finance?
No. This is unsecured short-term working capital for the business — it is not hire purchase, leasing or asset finance against a specific machine. It is meant for the cash-flow gaps around production: materials, wages, tooling consumables and the wait for customers to pay. For buying a major capital machine outright you would usually pair it with dedicated asset finance elsewhere.
Our customers pay on 60 or 90-day terms. Can finance bridge that?
Long downstream payment terms are common in manufacturing supply chains, and they are exactly what short-term working capital is designed to smooth. You fund the production now and repay as the customer invoices settle. Credicorp does not invent rates here — the live terms, amounts and cost caps are published on the lender, credicorp.co.uk.
We are a limited company but quite young. Are we eligible?
Eligibility is decided by the lender on credicorp.co.uk, which looks at the company (Companies House record, a business credit check and an affordability check on your business bank statements) rather than the director personally. Incorporated manufacturers that have been trading for a while and hold a business bank account are the intended borrowers.
Is this consumer credit or a regulated business loan?
Neither in the consumer sense. Credicorp lends only to bodies corporate, and under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001 lending to a body corporate is not a regulated credit agreement. It is exempt business lending — not consumer credit, not a sole-trader or personal loan. The full regulatory position is on creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
More general questions are answered on the Creditcorp FAQ, and the how-it-works overview walks through the whole journey from first look to funds in the bank.
Related sectors
Manufacturing rarely sits on its own. If your business straddles a couple of trades, these neighbouring guides may fit too:
- Wholesale & distribution — for buying in bulk to hit a price break and bridging the gap between paying makers and being paid by stockists.
- Logistics & transport — for the fuel, wages and long payment terms of getting finished goods out of the door.
- Construction & trades — for fabricators and suppliers buying materials before the first valuation lands.
Or browse all sixteen on the industries overview. For company, legal and trade-mark detail, see creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
Ready to fund your next order?
Applying, drawing down and managing your account all happen on the lender’s site, credicorp.co.uk.