Gateway provides US$1.5m purchase order finance for UK food imports into US retail

Gateway Trade Funding has closed a US$1.5m purchase order finance facility for a California food importer, providing funding to pay UK suppliers before cash is collected from major US retail customers.

The unnamed importer brings established British food brands into the United States and approached Gateway in August while looking for additional financing to support rising order volumes and the working-capital requirements created by international procurement.

The transaction was completed around one month later and also involves the business moving from an existing lender.
The central financing issue is the timing mismatch between the two ends of the supply chain. Overseas suppliers require payment before the importer receives cash from US retailers, leaving the company to finance inventory and order fulfilment during the intervening period.

Gateway’s facility funds supplier costs associated with confirmed customer purchase orders, providing liquidity further upstream in the trading cycle than conventional receivables finance, which normally advances against an invoice after goods or services have already been supplied.

That distinction makes purchase order finance particularly relevant to importers whose biggest liquidity requirement occurs before inventory reaches the customer. Financing supplier payments allows a company to accept orders that might otherwise exceed the amount of cash or conventional revolving credit available to fund procurement.

Gateway’s wider purchase order finance product can provide funding covering up to 100% of qualifying supplier costs. The company has not disclosed the percentage of supplier costs covered in this particular transaction, so the general product maximum should not be treated as the facility’s actual advance rate.

Pricing, maturity, the identity of the importer, the UK suppliers and the US retailers involved were also not disclosed.
The facility is relatively small compared with institutional ABL transactions, but its financing mechanics provide a clear example of working-capital funding being inserted between a confirmed retail order and the supplier payment required to fulfil it.

For cross-border food importers, where inventory must be purchased, transported and delivered before retailer receivables are collected, that timing gap can expand quickly as sales grow. The Gateway facility is designed specifically to finance that gap rather than adding unrestricted corporate debt.