New Face For Kiwi Factoring Market

(Thursday, December 15, 2005) - A leading North American finance company that specializes in a niche form of factoring has arrived in New Zealand.

The Interface Financial Group, which operates over 150 franchises across Canada and the United States, officially opened its first New Zealand office in Auckland today.

American-based Entrepreneur Magazine has rated Interface as the number one financial service franchise for three consecutive years.

Established more than 30 years ago, Interface has proved highly successful in providing working capital for small to medium businesses through a niche service called ‘invoice discounting’. During that period, Interface has literally helped hundreds of small businesses achieve their expansion goals through the provision of millions of dollars of much-needed working capital funding. Interface is now expanding into Australasia, with Auckland its first port of call.

New Zealand businessman, Chris Reid, is the master franchisee of the inaugural New Zealand operation. After originally training as a lawyer and practicing locally and in London, Reid joined the transport industry in senior executive roles, working primarily for DHL and TNT in Europe and North America.

Upon returning to New Zealand he owned and developed the Pack ‘n’ Pedal retail group – growing it from two stores to a franchised group of eight. While he remains a director of a small freight company – his prime focus now is growing The Interface Financial Group in New Zealand.

“Having been involved firsthand in a small business, I am well aware of the crucial part that a regular cash flow plays in the business,” he says. “I can empathies with the growth pains that most small business owners face, and I am very excited about the opportunity to bring this much-needed niche business practice down under. Invoice discounting is well established throughout Canada and the United States, and we are confident it will be equally successful in New Zealand.”

The Interface Financial Group provides small to medium New Zealand businesses with a simplified form of working capital financing - similar to factoring, but with very distinct differences. As a rule, Interface does not compete head on with factoring companies for the same clients. In most cases its clients, because of their circumstances, size, amount and frequency of capital required, generally prefer the more simplified ‘use-it-when-you-need-it’ type of finance that invoice discounting, and specifically the Interface approach, offers them.

Reid says clients can essentially use Interface as and when they choose, without fixed term contracts.

“The size of our clients is not really important to us, provided they have a good business, with quality debtors, they generally meet our criteria. Interface really services a need that is currently not adequately provided for by traditional financial institutions.

“However, much of our current North American business is referred to us from other financial institutions. We in turn frequently refer business back to them where a more comprehensive need is required.”

Reid is also keen to dispel the myth that companies using the factoring industry – which in its widest sense included Interface – are in financial difficulty. “Most of our customers are quite successful,” he says.

“But often they are growing too quickly or are too new to fall in line with traditional banking financing criteria. In fact, on average, most of our clients have only been in business for just over two years, employ seven staff and have an annual turnover of $950,000. The average amount of funding requested on an initial transaction is approximately $30,000 and on average they use the Interface service for 18 months.

“The client base is equally varied including food manufacturers, advertising agencies, building contractors, printers, transportation companies, publishers, computer companies, etc. The international client base is a real cross section of the business community, and we anticipate the profile of our local clients to be quite similar.”

For more information about The Interface Financial Group,

Email: ifgnz@interfacefinancial.biz or visit www.ifg-nz.com

ENDS

CAPTION: The Interface Financial Group’s New Zealand Director, Chris Reid.

Chris Reid
Director
The Interface Financial Group
Tel: 09 306 8824
Mobile: 0274 937 492
Email: ifgnz@interfacefinancial.biz or Armin Lindenberg
Lindenberg and Partners
Tel: 09 520 4427
Email: arminl@xtra.co.nz

For More Infromation Please contact:
Chris Reid
Director
Phone: 09 306 8824
Email: ifgnz@interfacefinancial.biz

View all Interface Financial Corp. Press Releases

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