Tailored financing solution
How eCapital helped this commercial grower with their year-round cash flow need.
Since 1994, a Texas-based greenhouse grower has been supplying high-quality live plants to major retailers including The Home Depot and Walmart. Their regional success quickly expanded across neighboring states—Oklahoma, Arkansas, and New Mexico.
Growth accelerated dramatically when the company began selling to Lowe’s, now its largest customer. Today, the grower operates over 5 million square feet of greenhouse space to meet growing demand.
THE CHALLENGE
In 2017, the company faced a sudden cash flow crisis when its long-time bank exited the greenhouse lending space. With 95% of sales tied to Lowe’s, finding new financing through traditional lenders proved challenging.
Seasonal business cycles and upfront inventory costs placed even greater pressure on working capital. To continue operations, the company needed a new source of liquidity—and fast.
The business had a week where we sold $5 million worth of product, and we had never sold more than $4 million in any one week. We didn’t have any trouble drawing on those funds.”
Company President
THE SOLUTION
Through a financial advisory referral, the grower connected with LSQ (now eCapital) and secured a $15 million AR financing facility with a 90% advance rate. eCapital also arranged an inventory line of credit through its specialty finance network.
Later, to ease supplier payment terms and maintain strong supply chain relationships, the grower adopted eCapital’s supply chain finance program—enabling on-demand payments to vendors while extending their own repayment timeline by 90 to 120 days.
THE STORY
Though initially hesitant to move away from traditional lending, the grower quickly embraced eCapital’s user-friendly FastTrack® platform for managing receivables and payables. The flexibility it provided helped the company navigate winter cash constraints and ramp up inventory just in time for peak season.
That preparation paid off during the 2020 COVID-19 surge, when spring demand soared, and the company hit record weekly sales. Thanks to ecapital’s AR and AP finance programs, the grower maintained smooth operations, met retailer expectations, and continues to scale confidently into the future.
“It’s very easy. In fact, our assistant controller was doing the entry in FastTrack within weeks of being hired”.
Explore the solutions that supported the growth strategy for this large commercial grower
ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE FINANCING
Flexible financing solutions to help businesses improve cash flow, and unlock capital for growth.
