Bluestone makes relocation possible for growing business

Office move and fit-out becomes a reality thanks to leasing solution

Specialist recruitment agency Austin Fraser has moved into newly refurbished offices in Reading with the help of a £200,000 fit out project financed through Bluestone Leasing - one of the UK’s largest independent leasing companies.

Austin Fraser, which specialises in recruitment for the IT and engineering sectors, has made the move to The Forbury in Reading to accommodate the company’s continued growth. They began trading in April 2007 with just two staff turning over £900,000 in the first year, and have grown to their current level of 40 employees with an annual turnover in excess of £10,000,000. The office move has enabled them to create space to achieve their future growth plans of up to 66 UK based staff by 2013.

Bluestone Leasing, based in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, successfully structured a complex solution involving eight banks to ensure that the project could be financed in its entirety including office design and fit-out.

Steve Russell, sales director at Bluestone Leasing, said: “Office moves and fit outs are often expensive and can exert a significant pressure on a company’s cash flow and resources especially with heavy deposits and extended project schedules.

“Although we have been specialising in this arena for over ten years, for many businesses using leasing for fit out and interior projects is completely new. Once they see the benefits and often the huge tax savings, they typically need little encouragement to use a finance option. Obviously our experience and the fact that we manage the whole process for them helps greatly as it makes everything simple and straightforward.”

Russell continued, “For many businesses the tax advantages alone will be persuasive enough but ultimately spreading costs for depreciating assets in line with the return on investment makes sound commercial sense for most organisations. The VAT also gets spread throughout the term further reducing demand on up front capital.”

The link-up between the two companies came about through Metrix Commercial Interiors, one of Bluestone Leasing’s established vendors, which carried out the design and refurbishment works.

Buckinghamshire-based Metrix Office Interiors create bespoke office interiors which are well designed and provide staff with a pleasant and productive environment to work in. The company offers a full-service solution, including consultancy, design, planning, refurbishment, fit-outs and relocation services.

Steve Saunders, director at Metrix Commercial Interiors, said: “Working with Bluestone Leasing means we can give our clients the best options for them to finance their office renovations. In such challenging times, payment up front is sometimes not an option for businesses and yet ensuring they are providing a high quality working environment is essential.”

Derek Simpson, Contracts Director from Austin Fraser, said: “As we were rapidly outgrowing our old premises we really needed to move quickly. Working with Bluestone Leasing allowed us to do that without the move impacting greatly on our cash flow. The people at Bluestone listened to our needs and were extremely efficient at sorting out the finance for us so we were able to go ahead with our expansion and refurbishment plans much sooner that we would have been able to if we had to pay for the re-fit in full upfront.”

Mr Russell, from Bluestone, added: "We have completed hundreds of these projects over the last decade and facilitated the relocation of business of all sizes from new start companies to large global corporates. In addition to our technical competency, we bring an unparalleled panel of specialist banks and funders to the table, many of whom are simply not accessible to UK businesses directly."