Seafood wholesale
You pay at the dock and get paid in forty-five days.
Sec. 01 — The capital problems
What actually makes this business hard to finance.
You buy on cash terms and sell on credit terms
Boats, docks and importers want payment immediately. Restaurants, distributors and grocery want net 30 to net 60. That mismatch is the defining financial characteristic of the business.
Shelf life is measured in days
Fresh product that does not move is not inventory, it is a loss. That puts extraordinary pressure on cold chain reliability and on the speed of the sales cycle.
Supply is seasonal, quota-driven and unpredictable
Landings depend on season, weather and regulation. When product is available at a good price you need to be able to buy it, and the window does not wait for a credit decision.
Live tanks and blast freezing are specialised capital
Live holding systems, plate freezers, IQF lines and glazing equipment are expensive and have a narrower resale market than general food equipment, which affects how they finance.
Import timing adds weeks of float
Container product is paid for well before it clears and sells, adding a second financing gap on top of the domestic receivables gap.
Sec. 02 — Which products fit
And why they fit here specifically.
Invoice factoring
The best fit for the structural gap — strong customers, thin balance sheet, immediate cash need.
Line of credit
For established operators who qualify, it is cheaper than factoring and invisible to customers.
Cold storage financing
Blast freezing, live tanks and freezer capacity are the capacity constraint in most of these businesses.
Equipment financing
IQF lines, plate freezers, graders and packaging equipment.
Working capital
For an unrepeatable buy on a landing or a container at a price that genuinely will not come back.
Sec. 03 — Typical deal sizes
What these projects actually cost.
- Packaging or grading equipment
- $30,000 – $200,000
- Blast or plate freezing capacity
- $120,000 – $800,000
- Live holding systems
- $50,000 – $350,000
- Factoring facility
- $150,000 – $5,000,000
- Facility purchase
- $900,000 – $8,000,000
Sec. 04 — Cash cycle
Seasonality, and when the money moves.
- Purchase terms run from cash on the dock to net 7. There is very little flexibility at this end.
- Sales terms run net 30 to net 60, and large grocery customers frequently take the longer end regardless of what the invoice says.
- Lent, Ramadan and the December holidays each produce demand spikes that have to be bought for in advance.
- Landings are seasonal by species, so a diversified book smooths the year and a concentrated one does not.
- Imported product ties up cash from payment at origin through clearance and sale, frequently six to ten weeks.
Sec. 05 — Two examples
What these files look like.
$900,000
A factoring facility that funded a fourth account
A wholesaler turning away volume for cash-flow reasons opened a factoring facility against its existing customer book and took on an account it had previously declined. The facility was retired eighteen months later in favour of a conventional line.
Illustrative example, not a named client.
$410,000
Plate freezing to extend the selling window
An operator financed plate freezing capacity to convert peak-season landings into frozen inventory that could be sold across the year, turning a short, price-depressed selling window into a twelve-month one.
Illustrative example, not a named client.
Sec. 06 — Get started