The background
Nomadic Washrooms specialise in luxury shepherd hut toilet hire and shower trailers for festivals, events, and weddings. Launched in 2019 by husband-and-wife team Kate and Stu, Nomadic Washrooms was created when the couple were planning their own wedding and realised that what they were searching for wasn’t available. Seeing an opportunity, Nomadic Washrooms was born.
When lockdowns were enforced in early 2020, the 40+ bookings they’d had for their first upcoming season were cancelled. This posed a big problem for a brand-new business which didn’t qualify for any government grants and funding. Luckily, they managed to get a contract for 2 trailers to be on the set of the BBC show, ‘The Repair Shop’.
Based in Mid Wales, they hire out their trailers throughout Wales, the Midlands and further afield. We met Kate and Stu at the Start Up Awards Wales in July last year, where we both won awards in our individual categories. After the initial meeting, we reached out to them about the support we could offer, this led to them getting in touch to find out how we could help them with their business growth plans.
The challenge
When their contract with the BBC ended, all 5 of Nomadic’s trailers were fully booked for the foreseeable future, and in 2022 they won the National Loo of the Year award. A fantastic position for the business to be in, however there were some challenges that they had to deal with.
Last year they received over 1000 enquiries looking to hire their trailers from all corners of the UK. They found themselves hauling their 8 trailers across the country and realised that this wasn’t sustainable. They also needed to expand their fleet and obtain a second base.
Nomadic had a Welsh government grant in place from the Rural Business Investment Scheme, but needed further support to aid their exciting plans, and wanted to raise working capital given the seasonal nature of the business.
The solution
When Kate and Stu came to us with their plans, we knew we would be able to support them and help them achieve their dreams of expansion. Initially, we were able to release working capital by using some of their existing assets as security. Since then, we put a funding package in place which complemented the funding they’d already received.
As a result of this, they were able to acquire a new fleet of trailers to service their growing client base. We helped them finance four commercial vehicles along with trailers and washrooms. Now with a second base in Oxfordshire, they’re able to split their fleet, with 7 trailers at one site and 6 on the other, and both bases benefitting from the use of 2 vehicles.
Due to the success of the expansion and their business, Nomadic are looking at franchise opportunities as the next part of their business development plans, with a view for us to support with funding packages.
The feedback
It’s a pleasure supporting businesses like Nomadic Washrooms to achieve their goals. Their founder Stu Richards gave us some fantastic feedback:
“In everything we do, we like to work with smaller or up and coming businesses. We spoke to the bigger finance companies, and they were just not right for us. We choose to work with Hexa because right from the start we got a personal experience, Ben and Stu are always at the end of the phone and quick to respond. It’s refreshing to work with such a hands-on team and people on the same wavelength as us.
Working with Hexa has eased the pressures we had of having to drag 5 trailers around the country. The whole process of working with them is just simple, only a couple of weeks ago we needed a new truck, I spoke to Hexa and within two days we were able to purchase a new one. Their support allows me to go about my day-to-day job, secure in the knowledge that I’ve got professionals working in the background to get me the best deals.
Hexa’s quality of service is 5 stars, their personal approach is second to none and I feel at ease working with them. They’ve always got our best interests at heart.”
Find out more
Check out the Nomadic Washrooms website here.
Do you need help making your business grow? Get in touch with Hexa here.