Background
Iconic Canadian East Coast Cuisine
Blowers & Grafton is a restaurant and bar that has a menu based on iconic Halifax and Canadian east coast foods and drinks with a focus on sharing east coast culture with the rest of Canada. They opened their first location in March 2017 in Calgary. They now have 3 locations in Calgary & Edmonton and are continuing to look for opportunities to share east coast cuisine with the rest of Western Canada.
Challenge
A Need for Expansion but a Lack of Options for Financing
During the pandemic (July 2020) Blowers & Grafton were presented with a great opportunity to expand their business to a third location. As a company they were in a great position to expand even with the challenges of the pandemic. However, traditional banks had little appetite in funding a new restaurant venture even though they were well positioned from a financial perspective. Despite bankers agreeing that providing Blowers & Grafton financing made sense, their hands were tied due to the policies banks put in place towards lending to the restaurant industry during that time of uncertainty.
“We approached Merchant Growth and very quickly we were able to establish our financial health with them and they agreed to provide us the necessary capital to grow our business. They were able to see the opportunity that we were seeing that traditional banks would not fund.”
Samim Aminzadah, Owner – Blowers & Grafton
Solution
Merchant Growths Convenient and Fast Financing Options
Blowers & Grafton owner Samim approached Merchant Growth as an alternative option to financing after being turned away from traditional lenders, and very quickly Merchant Growth was able to establish the restaurant’s financial health using their proprietary technology. After the Merchant Growth team reviewed the health of the business they agreed to provide the restaurant the necessary capital to grow their business. Merchant Growth was able to see the opportunity that the owners of Blowers & Grafton saw, that traditional banks did not.
Result
Expansion of the Business
Blowers & Grafton used the funds provided by Merchant Growth to then build the company’s third restaurant location despite the challenges. Blowers & Grafton is now in great shape to take on further growth post pandemic.
