Publisher Peter Harrigan’s business, Medina Publishing, began life when Harrigan was travelling in the Gulf and the company first published a book by Jordan’s Princess Alia Bint Al Hussein on Arab horses.
It was followed by other books on culture in countries such as Bahrain, including history books around Britain’s historic bonds with Saudi Arabia, mostly published for niche audiences and those living in the region.
The company was based in South London initially, and later moved to Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
After the move, Harrigan turned to UK Export Finance for help with performance tender bonds on contracts in the Middle East as he looked to expand.
Governments in the Gulf states often demand such bonds in advance, which can be up to five per cent of the value of a contract.
Harrigan says he was struggling to find funding without securing it against personal property and was “desperately looking around for finance”.
While looking at UK Export Finance’s case studies on the organisation’s website he spotted a business contact he knew. Harrigan called him and then promptly called UKEF.
“I instantly got a reply, a mobile number, and had a call. From then things started moving. The response was electric. The level of interest and understanding was incredible,” he says.
Local to global: though based on the Isle of Wight, Medina Publishing has procured significant contracts in the Middle East
Credit: Medina Publishing
Having to have performance bonds in place had previously impacted Medina Publishing’s cash flow, Harrigan says, and this curtailed further investment and growth in the business.
‘’UKEF helped because it released the need to have that money sitting there where you can’t touch it,” he says. “We didn’t have to drain cash and fight for cash flow, we just had to have a bond in place to run the contracts without tying down our reserves.”
UKEF arranged a General Export Facility via Harrigan’s bank, HSBC, which means UKEF provides a guarantee of up to 80 per cent of the facility limit and the bank can offer larger lending facilities.
The extended facility meant Medina Publishing could “confidently” move onto securing a contract for several book projects, including research, writing, design and translation into Arabic.
“We wouldn’t have been able to do that project without UKEF’s help,” says Harrigan. “What was astonishing was the speed with which they got on the case.”
Having UKEF’s support has enabled Medina Publishing to “take the step to go for more contracts,” says Harrigan. “This is the fuel that will help us to go forward.”
Harrigan says another benefit of working with UKEF is that it “doesn’t just tick boxes” with the bank. “Having a contract backed by the government helps with clients as well,” he says. “It has kudos.”
Visit ukexportfinance.gov.uk to find out more
