AmeriMerchant, Leading Provider of Merchant Cash Advance, Offers Resolution
 
(New York, NY-March 19, 2007) How will your restaurant stack up in a year that’s projected to generate $537 billion in sales?  
 “A lot of our clients are restaurants,” said David Goldin, president and CEO of AmeriMerchant (www.amerimerchant.com). “After all, it does take money to make money, and our application process is easy, our decisions are quick—and our funding is even faster—and, as one of our restaurant owners said—you can really be hurt if you don’t act quickly.”
 
Banks, which became even more conservative after the Dot.Com crash, often reject restaurant loans for what they perceive as a high rate of failure. Statistics give it an almost 50% failure rate and, if we see those numbers, so do banks. Other reasons include lack of proper collateral, insufficient operating history, inappropriate amounts (banks sometimes have minimums or maximums imposed on their lending amounts.)
 
“The restaurant industry is highly competitive,” said Bruce Grindy, senior economist at the National Restaurant Association. “Therefore, an establishment needs to constantly change and adjust—and do what it needs to do to stay on the cutting edge.”
 
AmeriMerchant provides merchant cash advances and can supply working capital up to $200,000 per location to a restaurant. The company does this by credit card factoring; that is, by purchasing advance credit card processing sales.
 
“It’s a tough business,” said Ron Billotte, the CFO at The Council of International Restaurant Real Estate Brokers. “Banks are often hesitant to do business with restaurants.”
 
The following comments are from a few AmeriMerchant clients:
 
“My sales have doubled in five years,” says Holly Nelson “but that didn’t matter. All that
mattered was that I leased, not owned, the building.”  Nelson owns a restaurant in an airport in Ohio. She recently added patio space “which I could do because of AmeriMerchant.”
 
“What I especially like is that decisions are made quickly and funding is fast—and it’s sort of nice to have a little back-up,” said David Wolff, owner of a catering company Wisconsin. He recently added a banquet facility. “I used the AmeriMerchant business cash advance to complete that expansion.” Then he laughingly said, “Since they take the money every day, it just doesn’t hurt as much.”
 
 “For us, it’s all about time,” said Francesca La Monica, proprietor of a diner in Illinois. “The last time, I received my money from AmeriMerchant in 12 hours—and thought the guy was joking, it was so fast!”
 
LaMonica continued: “We’ve been in business for 7 years and sales are booming. In that time, we’ve added outdoor space and replaced equipment; in fact, this summer we had to replace 2 compressors. It wouldn’t have been impossible for us to work with a bank, but it would have been difficult—and extremely time-consuming, what with all of the approval channels and paperwork. And in this business, if you don’t act quickly, you can be hurt.”
 
Ten years ago, Beatriz Arredondo opened a small restaurant. Today, it has grown to become one of Miami’s hottest spots, with dancing, comedy and other entertainment, even an art gallery. Once open only Monday-Friday, it is now a popular weekend spot. 
 
Another AmeriMerchant restaurant client first opened in 1990 in Mexico. Soon, it became so well-liked that it was necessary to open several locations, entering this country.
 
AmeriMerchant (www.amerimerchant.com), a leading provider of merchant cash advances, supplies working capital to retailers, restaurants, e-commerce and other merchants. The company can provide businesses with up to $200,000 in working capital per location by purchasing its future credit card receipts.
 
The 5-year-old company has 60 employees, with 2007 projections estimated at $75 million worth of credit card receivables purchased. The company is headquartered in New York City with an additional office in San Mateo, California.