Durowipers: URICA “part and parcel” of the British manufacturing system

Durowipers is a British manufacturer of windscreen wipers for the marine industry. Its innovative, patented design lengthens the life of wipers and reduces maintenance costs. The popularity of its design and the size of orders are growing exponentially.

That growth requires high investment, which poses a challenge for an SME like Durowipers. It used to ask clients for pro forma payment but was missing business opportunities.

“When I told customers it was pro forma, that put people off, especially clients in another country. They would have to hand over a lot of money without getting anything for it immediately. We’ve lost orders in the past like that,” says Noel Gould, owner of the company.

Durowipers did not want to push the problem down its supply chain so it needed to find a solution – a way to offer clients credit without risking its own cash flow or hurting its suppliers. It chose the URICA early payment platform.

“The banks are not necessarily geared up to understand our problems. They’re too slow and cumbersome and this is where URICA comes in,” says Mr Gould. “They do a credit check straight away on the client and from our point of view they fund the order, and that means we’ve got funds to facilitate it.”

Durowipers can now take on more export orders because it can offer competitive credit terms with URICA. He sees the early payment platform as a way for UK manufacturers to bridge the gap between taking an order and payment – something he believes is holding the sector back.

“URICA have come out with a unique form of funding because it’s directly related to success. You win an order and that’s a success so all URICA is doing is joining in the celebration. Normally if you go looking for finance, companies think you’re in trouble. The uniqueness of URICA is they can join in our success,” says Mr Gould.

“I see URICA as a guiding light to solving the problems of British manufacturers because we’ve all got the same problems. I see this as a major advance in finance.”

With the support of a finance partner, Mr Gould is positive about Durowipers’ future: “Our latest order is the biggest order we’ve ever had. If this is the way it goes forward it will be very good. Now we’re offering credit we’re straight away increasing the amount of orders we can catch.”