Melbourne-based hospitality and housekeeping services business GIAN Group nearly crashed when the Melbourne Grand Prix was cancelled in 2020. Adding to its woes, in one terrible week, travel bans caused it to lose nearly 80% of its business cleaning hotel rooms.
GIAN Group director Gilles Delord was devastated when he faced the possibility of laying off 240 of his 280 staff across Melbourne and Sydney.
But in what he describes as ‘pure luck’, new business opportunities were found in a previously very small part of the business: sanitisation cleaning at hotels where returned travellers were isolating, as well as commercial, retail and medical sites.
As an existing ScotPac Invoice Finance client with a A$750,000 co-op facility set up in April 2019), GIAN Group qualified for a ‘Boost Business Loan’ online, which Delord said was crucial in allowing the business to quickly fund equipment to do the new sanitisation work.
Invoice finance (also known as debtor finance) allowed the business to accept extended payment terms with larger clients.
As restrictions on movement eased, the office team continued working from home most days, using cloud-based communication and business management tools to stay connected, and the business is hiring more cleaners.
This article is republished with permission from Acuity magazine, the official journal of Chartered Accountants ANZ – https://www.acuitymag.com/