Yolanda Noble, chief executive, Dsicmm
Securing finance is basically all about showing your business is going to be viable in the long term. It was much more difficult when we did the refinancing, simply because the banks are currently very nervous about investing in businesses, especially in the print sector. We had three months of due diligence by the banks before we could get the deal signed off, which is something we’ve never had to do before, and there were a lot of restrictive caveats included that we certainly would not have had in the past. The reporting structure back to the bank now is also very different. It is achievable, but I can’t see it getting any easier in terms of financing for the print sector at the moment.

Tim Hill, managing director at Speedscreen
We are a small company and needed finance on our latest investment, the Durst Rho 800 Presto. We have a long relationship with Lombard, but it wasn’t easy convincing the underwriters, they know little about this technology and would rather say no than take a chance on an unknown. I blame the manufacturers to a large degree, if it was a Ferrari they could check guides for an idea on depreciation or values and make a judgement, so manufacturers need to give buy-back values to calm lenders’ fears. Lombard did come good for us and full marks to them, but I know of many other deals they have walked away from.

Adrian Williams, managing director, Orchard Press
We got funding for our new MBO folder from our usual bank, Barclays. We don’t do factoring, I don’t think it’s a good practice going forward. We did speak to a couple of print finance firms, we get calls from them all the time, but compared to Barclays, those offers did not come out as well. Earlier this year, we tried to get funding for a CTP system, but we have found that no-one wants to finance pre-press kit, obviously because the price drops like a stone. They won’t take the risk. But they know that with hardware there will always be a market to sell it 10 years down the line.

Kevin Godfrey, marketing and communications manager, Service Point UK
Being part of a large listed stock exchange (Madrid Stock Exchange) enables us to raise finance comparatively easily – at least as compared with many other companies. We currently have good standing and facilities with major financial institutions and are, therefore, more able to weather what for us is short-term market instability. It also enables us to take full advantage of opportunities to acquire other companies at what are often advantageous rates. We have been around for 90 years and have seen it all before.