URICA, the government-backed early payment network for SMEs, has joined forces with Gardenex, the UK's Federation of Garden & Leisure Manufacturers, to help give their members access to cash.  For those businesses, there is no risk, zero debt, and no fear of late or non-payment of their invoices any longer.

Through this new partnership, URICA can now let Gardenex’s members use their online platform, allowing them to get their customer invoices paid in cash as early as the day after approval.

URICA’s unique early payment offering means businesses can trade on the terms that suit their business.  All businesses need to do is send their invoices online via URICA, and receive cash payment on those invoices once URICA has confirmed payment from the customer.  The customer then pays URICA the entire value of the invoice, up to 90 days after the original invoice date.  In total, URICA is now in the position to pay Gardenex’s members a total of £72m in cash, tomorrow. 

A critical advantage of URICA’s support for Gardenex’s members is access to their global partners, and in particular Euler Hermes, for credit checking of existing and new customers both in the UK and internationally, helping protect their businesses from commercial risks. This partnership with URICA ensures Gardenex members have cutting edge solutions to finance, risk and credit insurance.

Gardenex is the UK’s federation of garden and leisure manufacturers.  Established in 1961, it assists and supports its members in exporting, and helps international trade buyers find good quality British products.  It also protects its members’ interests by making representations to government on legislation and public matters affecting those companies’ business interests.  Its members are British manufacturers and designers of gardening & leisure equipment, growers and garden centre designers.  The partnership with URICA represents Gardenex’s continued effort to support and promote their members’ interests, and the garden and leisure manufacturing sector as a whole.

Of the partnership, Lindsay Whitelaw, Founder & Chairman of URICA, said:

“We are delighted to be partnering with Gardenex to help their members grow and thrive.  They do an incredibly important job in supporting those small companies who make up the garden and leisure manufacturing sector, which in turn is so vital to the UK economy as a whole.  In an increasingly tough and globalised economy, and with the banks unable to provide the support that is needed, we aim to make sure smaller businesses can grow, employ more staff, export and thrive, but freeing them from the burden of late payment.  We are thrilled to be doing this for Gardenex’s member’s and look forward to working with them for the foreseeable future.”

Amanda Sizer Barrett, Chief Executive of Gardenex, said:

“The current economic environment means that our members are often confronted with challenging and unwelcome hurdles that detract from the day-today running of their business.  What we’ve tried to ensure with this partnership is that those companies we support are unburdened from one of the biggest of these challenges – late payment and lack of cash flow.  Giving them access to cash and freeing them from risk means that they can, with their often limited resources, trade on the terms they want and focus on the things that really matter to their businesses.  We are therefore extremely pleased to be working with URICA and are excited to be forming what we hope will be a very long-lasting relationship.”