™
Working capital for
wholesalers and distributors.
Distribution lives in the gap between two payment terms — you pay your makers for a bulk run, then wait weeks to be paid by the stockists you supply. Short-term finance bridges that gap, and on every product 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 wholesale or distribution business, it does one thing: short-term working capital to keep stock moving through the warehouse and out to your buyers.
Few trades tie up as much cash in stock as wholesale. A food-service distributor commits to a full pallet load to earn the case price; a builders’ merchant carries thousands of lines on the racking “just in case” a contractor calls; an importer pays a factory up front, then waits for a container to clear customs before a single box can be sold. This page looks at how a Business Bridging Loan, Credicorp Flex or Credicorp Slice tends to be used to bridge those gaps, so you can picture the fit before you apply.
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 wholesalers run short on cash
It is rarely about margin on the line. It is about how much cash sits frozen in stock and in your buyers’ ledgers before it ever comes back.
Buying in bulk locks up cash up front
The whole logic of wholesale is volume: order the full container, the pallet, the case quantity, and the unit cost drops. But hitting a price break means paying for a great deal of stock at once — often before you have a confirmed home for all of it. The discount is real, yet the cash to claim it has to be found weeks, sometimes months, before the goods sell through. Miss the buying window and the margin goes with it.
You extend credit to your own buyers
Trade customers expect terms. Win a retailer or a contractor and you are very likely carrying them on 30 or 60 days — that is the price of the account. So you pay your suppliers on their terms, then wait on yours, financing the difference out of working capital. A single large new stockist can be brilliant news and a cash-flow headache in the same week.
Warehousing costs run whether stock moves or not
Inventory is not free to hold. Rent on the unit, racking, forklifts, handling staff, insurance and shrinkage all run in the background, and every pallet on the floor is cash that is not in the bank. Distributors live with the tension between holding enough breadth to fill orders next day and not drowning the account in slow-moving lines.
Demand arrives in lumps
Wholesale buying is rarely smooth. A seasonal peak, a big tender, a manufacturer’s end-of-line clearance or a supplier’s minimum order quantity all force you to commit in chunks. The order you place to be ready for the rush lands on the account long before the rush pays for it — which is exactly the gap short-term finance is built to bridge.
The kinds of funding that fit a distribution business
Three plain-English shapes of short-term credit. The detail and the live terms sit with the lender — here is how each tends to be used across the warehouse.
A Business Bridging Loan — a fixed sum for a known buy
A single lump sum into the company account, repaid over a short, fixed term. It suits a one-off, time-boxed buy you can name: a bulk order that earns a price break, a manufacturer’s clearance run you can flip quickly, or a stock build-up before a known peak. You know the figure, and you can see the sell-through that will clear it coming in.
Credicorp Flex — a line you draw on as stock turns
A revolving facility the company can dip into and repay as inventory sells and buyers settle. For a distributor whose buying is uneven — a quiet stretch, then three big orders in a fortnight — it smooths the peaks without taking out a fresh loan each time. You pay only for what you draw, not the whole limit, so an open facility sits ready for the next buying window.
Credicorp Slice — spread a single supplier bill
Got a chunky supplier or import invoice you would rather not pay in one hit? Slice settles it in full today and lets the company repay over a few weeks for a flat fee. The supplier relationship stays sweet, the stock is on the racking, and the cost is fixed before you commit.
We don’t publish rates or terms on this page on purpose — they live with the lender so you always see the current figures. Check the live product pages on credicorp.co.uk before you apply.
The company borrows — not you
In a trade that lives or dies on the size of the next stock buy, this is the part worth slowing down on.
Plenty of wholesale owners have been asked, by a bank or a broker, to put their home on the line for a stock or working-capital facility. A personal guarantee or a charge over the family house turns a business inventory gap into a personal risk — and in a sector where one over-bought line or one slow-paying stockist can swing a quarter, that is a heavy thing to sign.
Credicorp is built differently. The agreement is between Credicorp and your company — the Ltd, LLP or PLC that holds the supplier accounts, the warehouse lease and the bank account. There is no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. The company stands on its own trading position, which is exactly how it should be when the money is funding the company’s stock.
This is the flip side of the lender’s model: because Credicorp lends only to bodies corporate, it sits outside consumer credit entirely. The full regulatory position is set out on the group site, creditcorpgroup.co.uk/lending-and-regulation.
How it can play out — a worked example
A made-up, clearly anonymised business — not a real customer — just to show the shape of the timing problem.
Picture a small catering-supplies wholesaler — call it a UK limited company with a leased unit, two vans and a handful of staff — that supplies cafes, pubs and independent restaurants. A manufacturer offers a full-pallet price on a fast-moving range: take the volume now and the case cost drops sharply, easily worth it across the season. The catch is that the pallet has to be paid for on the supplier’s 30-day terms, and it lands just as a new chain account — a genuine win — comes on board on 60-day credit.
So the warehouse fills, the rent and the handling staff run as usual, and the company is now carrying the bulk buy and bankrolling a big new buyer at the same time. On paper the numbers are healthy — good margin on the range, a stockist that will reorder for years. In the bank account, the company is funding the gap between paying the maker and being paid by the chain, with cash sitting on the racking in between.
Rather than pass on the volume deal or lean on the director personally, the company bridges the gap with short-term finance against its own trading position — covering the bulk buy — and repays as the stock sells through and the new account settles its first invoices. Same margin, same account won; the difference is simply that the cash was there when the buying window was open. The figures and the right product for a situation like this are set on the lender at credicorp.co.uk.
Wholesale & distribution funding — common questions
The questions wholesale and distribution owners ask most. For anything beyond these, the lender’s team can help.
Can my wholesale company borrow without a personal guarantee from the director?
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 and your business.
We want to buy a big container in bulk to hit a price break. Can funding cover that?
That is one of the most common reasons wholesalers look at short-term finance. A Business Bridging Loan or Credicorp Slice can fund a large purchase now, so you secure the volume discount, with repayment timed around the stock selling through. The specifics and the live terms are set on the lender at credicorp.co.uk.
We offer our trade buyers 30 and 60-day credit. Does the funding take that into account?
Offering credit terms to your buyers is normal in distribution — it is often the price of winning the account. Credicorp looks at the company as a whole rather than securing against any one customer ledger, so the gap between paying your suppliers and being paid by your stockists is exactly the kind of working-capital need these products are built to bridge.
Can the funding help with warehousing and the cost of holding stock?
Yes. Rent, racking, handling, insurance and the simple fact of cash sitting on the shelf as inventory all weigh on a distributor. Short-term working capital can ease the squeeze of carrying stock between buying it in and shipping it out, so a busy buying season does not drain the account.
Are you a bank, and is this regulated consumer credit?
No. Credicorp is an exempt business lender, not a bank and not a consumer-credit firm. It lends only to bodies corporate under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001, so this is business credit, not a regulated consumer credit agreement. It is not for sole traders or for borrowing in a personal name.
Where do I actually apply?
This site is the Creditcorp brand front door and does not take applications. Applying, drawing down and managing the account all happen on the operating lender, credicorp.co.uk. You can compare the products and start an application there.
More general answers live 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
If your business straddles these trades, their pages may fit the cash-flow shape too.
- Retail & shops — buying stock ahead of a busy season and smoothing the gap between paying suppliers and ringing the till.
- Manufacturing — funding a raw-materials run or fulfilling a large order while customer invoices catch up.
- Logistics & transport — covering fuel, vehicles and wages on long payment terms while you move the goods.
Or head back to the full industries overview to see all sixteen sectors. For company, trade-mark and legal detail, the group site is creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
Keep the stock moving
Whatever buy you’re funding, applying, drawing down and managing your account all happen on the lender’s site, credicorp.co.uk.