Case Studies

Listen to what some of our clients had to say about their experience of taking the leap with us and how their loans have transformed their businesses.

Highland Shepherds Huts

Inverness-shire

Zoe Hall has strong background and experience in her family’s long standing self-catering business in the Highlands. Her parents always had great ideas of having Shepherds huts or cabins on their land to let out. She thought it would be nice to follow in their footsteps and try herself to get planning for three Shepherds huts.  Zoe managed to get approval for the planning, which proved complex as they neighbour an RSPB Nature Reserve, their site sits within an ancient woodland, and they are set in the Cairngorms National Park.

CopperCairn Ltd

Fife

CopperCairn first came to life in October 2020 after entrepreneur Mitch Bechard decided to leave behind his career as a global whisky ambassador for William Grant and Sons and Glenfiddich and start his own business – whisky experiences with a twist.

DSL Business Finance provided Mitch with loan funding to purchase a luxury custom-built eight-seater van to enable him to take groups around some of Scotland’s best distilleries.

 

Camperceilidh Campers

Aberdeen

Eileen O’Farrell is an experienced Chartered Accountant, working primarily within the Oil and Gas sector for some 25 years. Following the oil price downturn in 2015 in Aberdeen, she left the oil and gas industry to pursue a new adventure and joined parts of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race before becoming a Royal Yachting Association-certified commercial yacht master.

With the hospitality and sailing industry hit hard by the social distancing requirements of Covid-19, foreign holidays significantly reduced, she spotted an opportunity to set up a  staycations business.

 

Hebridean Inn

Isle of Skye

Skye entrepreneur John Coghill noticed a letter in the newspaper in 2019 from a Broadford local drawing attention to the fact that there were few options left for dining out and takeaway food. After some additional research, he spotted the Hebridean Inn was up for sale.  The inn was a well-known hotel and restaurant in Broadford that has been part of the village since the 1970s. However, it was reduced to B&B for ease of management by the owners were aging. John and his partners acquired the Inn and set up Hebridean Hospitality in 2019. Soon after, the company approached DSL Business Finance for a loan to refurbish the restaurant kitchen.  The business has a strong management team with John at the helm and is supported by Accountant, David Liepins. John has previously managed large capital expenditure projects for his family business. He has also worked in the kitchen at Skye’s world-renowned restaurant and hotel The Three Chimneys, as well as managing other hotels on the island.

McKellar Accountancy

Paisley

Suzanne McKellar had worked as an accountant for over 10 years with a range of small and large accountancy firms. During this time, she had identified a number of opportunities within a market she knew well and needed relatively nominal support to assist with starting her own practice which was primarily focused on taxation. In 2017, she approached DSL Business Finance for a start-up loan.  DSL provided a start-up loan to help get the business going. The loan funding was used to purchase required accounting software and other start-up cost. Over the next two years, the business thrived.

ThermaFY (Shock Innovations Ltd)

Scottish Borders

Trading under ThermaFY, Kelso based Shock Innovations Ltd is helping hospitals to tackle coronavirus infections after receiving early-stage loan funding to support development of its thermal imaging technology.

An initial loan from the Scottish Microfinance Fund, which DSL Business Finance delivers on behalf of the Scottish Government, was provided to assist as part of an overall package to fund working capital as the business sought to establish itself in 2018.

A second sum was subsequently awarded using the Digital Development Loan Fund, a separate Scottish Government funded initiative delivered by DSL in partnership with Lanarkshire Enterprise Services Ltd to provide loans to SMEs working to improve their digital capabilities and capacity.

The loans have helped to fund the development of ThermaFY’s thermal imaging technology, now being used by the NHS in a number of UK hospitals in the fight against Covid-19.

Let Us Support You.