Sun City Pallets

Startup Struggles

“I didn’t have any cash flow, to be honest,” says Sun City Pallets owner Javier Adriano, reflecting on his time before starting with Viva Capital Funding. Focused on creating high-quality packaging materials for factories, such as wood pallets and custom crates, the El Paso startup only had three employees and was bringing in around $15,000 monthly.

Hungry for growth, Adriano would personally deliver pallets to clients at 3 am if they needed them. “That’s customer service,” he says. Yet, in return, his company would sometimes wait 45 days for invoices to be paid. He struggled to cover payroll and purchase materials.

Solved by Invoice Factoring with Viva

Adriano noticed the Viva Capital sign while shopping for a new pair of work boots (next door) and decided to walk in. When the Viva team walked him through the process and numbers, he was confident he found the right partner for his financing needs. With Viva’s invoice factoring services, “I’m able to get that cash flow, pay my employees, and keep my business going,” Adriano explains.

Within about a year of starting factoring with Viva, Adriano faced two other major business challenges: the California fires and a pandemic. The fires increased the cost of wood by 75% year-on-year, while the pandemic impacted cost and materials availability further. Despite the odds, Sun City Pallets was able to stay on track with cash flow accelerated through factoring. Adriano’s team has now grown to twelve and shows no signs of slowing. Better yet, he never worries about how to cover payroll or purchase materials, and his back-office processes are a breeze with Viva handling the billing and collections.

Growth Challenges

Adriano is on a mission to make Sun City Pallets one of the biggest pallet manufacturers in The Southwest—a tall order for a startup with humble beginnings. To make it happen, the company needed a trailer for pallet delivery. This would make deliveries faster and allow them to increase volume. Unfortunately, startups rarely qualify for funding from traditional lenders, which puts Sun City at a disadvantage.

Solved by Asset-Based Lending with Viva

Again, Adriano turned to Viva and asked about equipment financing options. When he learned that Viva’s asset-based lending program could get him the trailer Sun City needed, he was all in. Growth was so rapid that he not only purchased one or two trailers but three.

Now, Sun City Pallets has grown revenue by 400%. Adriano says factoring is what helped the company get there. “It’s a good opportunity, especially for a small company like mine that is just starting out.” He’s got his sights set on a couple of forklifts next, which he knows he can achieve with Viva’s continued support.

No matter what industry you’re in if you invoice other businesses after goods or services are delivered, like Javier, then invoice factoring may be your ideal cash flow solution. As one of America’s leading specialty finance companies, Viva has decades of experience and offers a variety of funding solutions to meet the needs of small-business owners today. If factoring sounds like your ideal business booster, start with a complimentary rate quote.