An engineering company that provides vital services to NHS hospitals throughout the South West and Wales is using funding support from NatWest so it can continue helping frontline medical staff during the coronavirus pandemic.
Rotamec - which is headquartered in Cheddar and has offices in Exeter, Pontypool and Redditch - is a specialist engineering firm that supports multiple sectors with the provision and repair of electrical and mechanical infrastructures and facilities.
These include important heating and pump systems used in hospital theatres and patient wards, which are under increased pressure because of the Covid-19 outbreak.
The business, which employs 65 members of staff, also provides services to key food manufacturers across the region, which supply products to major supermarkets.
Launched in 2000 by managing director Simon Brooks, the business has been supported by NatWest which has provided funding through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Funding Scheme (CBILS) to help Rotamec maintain its important 24/7 on-call service, which hundreds of customers are dependent on.
Mr Brooks said: “The pandemic is forcing lots of businesses to temporarily suspend their operations, but that wasn’t an option for us.
“Too many key frontline services involved in fighting the coronavirus pandemic rely upon our support to ensure the facilities they use are reliant and operational.
“We therefore needed to maintain our engineering workforce and worked with NatWest to access the funding we needed to continue working at capacity.
“NatWest were great in working quickly to support us and providing the capital we needed, and we’re therefore continuing to help provide important services to frontline organisations like the NHS whose work is so important right now.”
Paul Grantham, senior relationship manager, at NatWest, said: “We believe it’s really important for us as bank to be as supportive as possible for our customers during the pandemic.
“This is what is driving our work during this difficult time, both through providing loans and other supportive services such as free employee management guidance.
“Rotamec, like many businesses across the country, are working tirelessly to support others, and that’s why we worked quickly to give them the help and funding they needed. We want businesses to know we are there for them and will do everything we can to support them.”
CBILS provides financial support to smaller businesses across the UK that are losing revenue, and seeing their cashflow disrupted, as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
The scheme is a part of a wider package of Government support for UK businesses and employees. British Business Bank operates CBILS via its accredited lenders. There are over 40 of these lenders currently working to provide finance.
CBILS gives the lender a government-backed guarantee for the loan repayments to encourage more lending.
