7 O’CLOCK GmbH: New Controlling and €2 Million in Bank Financing for a New Warehouse

7 O’CLOCK GmbH is a fast-growing e-commerce company. To build a new warehouse, it needed around €2 million in bank financing, but it had no financial planning that would convince a bank. Acting as fractional CFO, Roemer Capital built financial planning, controlling and a business plan within a few weeks. The bank approved the €2 million.

The Project in Numbers

• 4 management tools built: financial planning, liquidity planning, a KPI dashboard and a business plan with a financial model
• 3 areas now fully transparent: costs, margins and cash flow
• €2 million in bank financing approved to build the new warehouse
• A few weeks from project start to a complete finance and controlling system

Starting Point

7 O’CLOCK GmbH is one of the leading e-commerce businesses in its niche. Sales were strong, growth was fast and operations ran efficiently. Financial management, however, was not keeping pace.

There was no continuous financial and liquidity planning. Cost and margin overviews were incomplete, and investment decisions were made without reliable figures. As a result, management did not know exactly which products, channels and campaigns actually generated margin, or how a decision would affect liquidity.

On top of that, a concrete investment was due: a new warehouse was to be built and financed with a bank loan of around €2 million. For financing of this kind, a bank expects integrated planning, clear KPIs and a business plan with a financial model. These were exactly the documents that were missing.

Objective

7 O’CLOCK needed a finance and controlling system, and fast, that matched its growth and could serve as a basis for decisions both internally and externally:

• integrated financial and liquidity planning that brings revenue, costs and cash flow together
• a KPI dashboard that shows management where the company stands at any time
• a clear cost and margin logic for each product and sales channel
• a business plan with a financial model that shows the bank how the company is developing and why the investment is viable

The concrete goal was the bank’s approval of around €2 million for the new warehouse, without the project slowing down day-to-day operations.

Approach

Acting as external fractional CFO, Roemer Capital worked directly with the management of 7 O’CLOCK:

• consolidating figures from accounting, the shop system and marketing into integrated financial and liquidity planning
• building a KPI dashboard with a controlling system that tracks the key performance figures continuously
• setting up a cost and margin logic for each product and sales channel
• preparing a business plan with a financial model that makes the planning clear to the bank and other capital providers

Every step was designed for clarity, practicality and fast implementation. The result was not a pile of separate tools, but a financial framework that grows with the business.

Result

After a few weeks, 7 O’CLOCK had a complete finance and controlling system. Since then, management has had full transparency over costs, margins and cash flows and makes decisions on investments, hiring and growth based on reliable figures.

Based on the business plan and financial model, the bank approved €2 million in financing to build the new warehouse. The investment went ahead as planned.

Today, the new financial structure underpins both internal stability and credibility with banks and potential investors. 7 O’CLOCK is well prepared for its next conversations with capital providers.