Reward Finance - X-MIST

X-MIST


 

Here is another great example of clients adapting its business to help in the fight against coronavirus.


David Muirhead, a commercial carpet cleaner by trade, teamed up with a chemical laboratory a couple of years ago to develop X-Mist, a successful product designed to help the hospitality industry to shift difficult smells.


However, when the pandemic struck, they quickly adapted the product to fight the virus and it has now emerged as a leading sanitiser to combat COVID-19.


X-Mist is a dry sanitisation process contained in an aerosol which, when activated with the simple click of a button, disperses a broad-spectrum biocide evenly over an area of five metres by five metres. The droplets disperse easily because they are ionised and therefore repel against each other. With a germicidal log reduction between 5.3 and 6.4 (most bleaches are around 3), it exceeds the 3 to 4 needed to kill coronavirus and remains active for seven days.

Unlike other sanitisation processes, which are wet and consequently can take up to three days to dry out, X-Mist is dry, enabling a vehicle or room to be available for use and occupation just one hour after application.


Orders were soon being placed by schools, care homes and several large coach companies. Further testament to its effectiveness was the fact it was being used at the HQ of a major high street pharmacy.


Demand for X-Mist grew rapidly, requiring it to dramatically step up production. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company was producing 10,000 canisters per month for the hotel sector. However, with interest also being shown by the NHS, X-Mist scheduled production runs of over 100,000 cans every month.


To meet the production levels, the company chose a leading canning and fulfilment company, which guarantees the product for up to 12 months. However, being a relatively new business, X-Mist was required to make payment on a pro-former basis.


Needing to act quickly, Director of X-Mist, Richard Batchelor, approached Reward Finance Group for the working capital injection and we quickly provided them with a £400k Business Finance facility.


“It was vital for us to fulfil the growing orders rapidly, but we understood the banks would take weeks to reach a decision, especially in the current economic climate,” said Richard. “I was recommended to Reward by my partner Tina Brown, who has been a client of theirs for more than six years, as she said they would be able to turn the deal around in a few days.

“We discussed the proposal with Alan Sanderson of Reward via a video call, and he quickly understood the business and the huge potential for the product. Alan was incredibly helpful in sorting out all the necessary paperwork without making us ‘jump through hoops’ and the funds were provided to us within two weeks, which was a miracle bearing in mind the COVID-19 situation had everyone in lockdown, including our solicitors!’’


X-Mist continues to go from strength-to-strength and it is now also available from Costco, CEF and Plumbase.