SHEilds Limited

Business Loans Case Study

Left to right: SHEilds Chairman Mike Shields and Finance Yorkshire Investment Manager Ian Atkinson

The Company

SHEilds Ltd is a health and safety training company.

The company, established by chairman Mike Shields in 2002, is based in Hessle, Hull, and has offices in Dubai and India.

SHEilds Limited provides health, safety, environment and management training to businesses across the world through eLearning, classroom learning and NVQ courses.

The Challenge

The eLearning aspect of SHEilds’ business has led to global growth and the company has seen a lot of success in India, Africa and the Middle-East, as well as the UK.

SHEilds was looking for funding to support the continued international expansion but also to grow its Hull-based sales force.

Chairman Mike Shields explained: “Because many of the courses we offer are taught online, our business has a global reach and we have seen a lot of success in many countries across the world. SHEilds has a good track record for growth in terms of both turnover and staff numbers.

“Whilst our business is growing overseas, we see expansion in the UK as just as important and wanted to invest in new members of staff from our local area.”

The Solution

After a recommendation, Mike Shields approached Finance Yorkshire to discuss funding options.

SHEilds was given a business loan of £100,000 from Finance Yorkshire which went towards implementing a new marketing strategy and employing five new members of staff at the Hessle office.

Mike said: “We approached Finance Yorkshire after they were recommended to us and we were very pleased with how the investment turned out. The process ran smoothly and we were grateful to Finance Yorkshire for the funding.

“It has enabled us to take on members of staff from the local area, something we see as very important.

“We also used the investment to launch a new website and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to help us organise our increasing number of clients and ensure they are getting the best possible service.”

The Investment Rationale

Finance Yorkshire Investment Manager Ian Atkinson said: “SHEilds is a highly profitable company with great growth prospects in the UK and overseas.

“It is always pleasing to see a company investing in the local community and we were happy to support SHEilds’ plans to take on more staff at its Hessle head office.”

Future Expectations

With the launch of the new website SHEilds Ltd is hoping to launch business in other continents such as North and South America and Europe.

Mike said: “Since SHEilds Ltd was established we've taken enormous satisfaction in training thousands of international clients who have gone on to bigger and better things with a quality and a worldwide recognised qualification.

“We hope to continue offering a quality service to our customers, further enhanced by the expansion of our Hull-based team and our new website and CRM system.”

Note: this case study is from Finance Yorkshire’s previous fund. Read more about Finance Yorkshire

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