Staffline Group PLC

Case study
Article tags:
  • Receivables Finance

The Challenge

Staffline Group PLC is one of the UK’s largest recruitment companies specialising in the manpower needs to essential services, including food production, logistics, manufacturing and automotive sectors. The Group had seen a number of years of organic and acquisition led growth. However, in more recent years, both over-stretching growth and internal control challenges meant that the Group suffered from declining profits and an over-leveraged balance sheet.

Staffline, led by a new market leading management team, embraced the turn-around challenge and set about implementing a complex strategy to effect change and drive value for all stakeholders. In order to support their new strategy, they recognised the need for both a new debt and equity solution.

The Solution

Having previously supported Staffline throughout their challenging period with a bilateral working capital Receivables Purchase programme, ABN AMRO Commercial Finance worked with the company and its independent debt advisers, KPMG LLP, on a new funding solution that would provide the extra support required.

ABN AMRO were happy to continue this support as part of an enlarged structure that provided enhanced facilities by generating increased availability for both UK and Irish billed and unbilled receivables. ABN AMRO provided £30m of funding as a key participant in the provision of a new £90m syndicated facility with RBS Invoice Finance and Leumi ABL. This was arranged in conjunction with a successful £48m equity market raising.

The Result

Daniel Quint, Group CFO at Staffline said,

A great characteristic of the facility is that it is a flexible funding solution – as we grow, it will grow with us. It has given us the confidence to make sure that our core service is delivered well, particularly as we come out of Covid and return to sustained profitability.

Key to this has been a relationship driven approach, where all parties have worked together to identify problems and find solutions that work for all. The new facilities and equity proceeds have provided Staffline with the increased liquidity and flexibility to meet their forecast needs and enable sustained growth.