Bridge Farm Group secures refinancing deal with support from FRP

Horticultural expert Bridge Farm Group has secured a multi-million refinancing package for its business. The deal was supported by the debt advisory team of FRP Corporate Finance.

Established in 1988, Bridge Farm is the UK’s leading producer of ornamental plants and cut flowers. Based in Spalding in Lincolnshire, the business grows more than 70 million plants and flowers each year in 60-acres of biomass-heated glasshouses. The business sells to UK-wide supermarket and DIY retailers.

In 2020, the firm returned to independence, with a deal buying back the company from Sundial. It formed Bridge Farm as an entity controlled by David Ball, former CEO of Bridge Farm and current partner at Artemis Growth. In the years since, the firm has grown its annual turnover of £30 million, and has a workforce of 160 employees – growth enabled by a refinancing deal in 2021. Bridge Farm Group secured £29 million of debt finance from specialist lenders Shawbrook Bank and Tosca Debt Capital.

Now, as Bridge Farm looks to further expand its operations, and invest in its unique mode of producing flowers, it has once again sought a refinancing deal. The latest multi-million-pound package, also with Shawbrook, will support Bridge Farm as it looks to consistently produce its extensive range of high-quality plants and cut flowers at scale while also penetrating the market for plant-derived extracts and molecules.

The transaction was completed with support from several professional services firms. Shawbrook Bank received legal council from Shoosmiths, as well as financial due diligence from EY and property due diligence from Savills. Meanwhile, Bridge Farm received legal counsel from Browne Jacobson, and was supported through the debt raising process by FRP Corporate Finance.

Louise Motala, managing director at Bridge Farm Group, commented, “This deal represents another key milestone for Bridge Farm as we continue to expand and build value in the business. It is essential that we continue to invest to maintain our expertise in both horticulture and bioscience, and this new facility affords us greater flexibility to explore wider routes to growth. The advice and support we received from FRP’s debt advisory team was outstanding and their expertise ensured a smooth transaction from start to finish.”

To support Bridge Farm’s growth ambitions, the FRP Corporate Finance debt advisory team, led by partner Tom Cox and manager Rory Denison, ran a competitive debt raising process to identify a financing partner to support the next phase of its growth plans, having recently completed investment in a new bioscience facility. Having secured two fully credit backed offers to refinance the group, FRP subsequently supported management in the detailed negotiation of terms to completion of the financing.

Cox added, “This refinancing facility provides much greater flexibility to Bridge Farm in its new financing arrangements and has reduced its cost of capital. The transaction successfully delivers more favourable terms to the business, whilst also providing the group with additional capital to help deliver the ambitious growth plans within its bioscience operations.”