A growing – and glowing – success, with financing help from UPS

Shannon Cumberland says the candle-making company she founded outgrew its old space.

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With business booming, the heat was on Shannon Cumberland. The founder of Denver-based Rosy Rings Inc. had to find a new location for her wholesale candle-making company.

“We were just stuffed into our old location,” says Cumberland, whose products are sold in about 1,800 stores in North America. “Our building was really dilapidated. We had candles stored everywhere – it was crazy.”

Cumberland asked her banker to help her finance a new building. He came through, but with a loan requiring a sizable down payment and no money for moving expenses, “I said, ‘I don’t know how we’re going to come up with that,’ and he said, ‘Well, do you have a rich uncle?’” Cumberland recalls.

The suggestion may not have been very helpful, but it did provide fodder for lighthearted conversation with her UPS customer service team.

“We were telling the UPS people what he said, and we were all cracking up, and then they said, ‘Do you know about UPS Capital^®?' " Cumberland says.

A capital education in financial services
Cumberland soon learned that UPS Capital, which provides financial services to companies of all sizes, could help her buy a new building plus a whole lot more.

“UPS Capital helped us buy the building, fund the actual move, purchase equipment and make renovations to the building,” says Cumberland, adding that the loan was for a larger amount and with a smaller down payment than the loan her banker had offered. UPS Capital also helped her consolidate the company’s debt and secure an additional line of credit.

And Cumberland, who admits she’s not exactly a banking whiz, says UPS senior business development officer Marcia Cohen walked her through the entire process.

“We had to write a business plan, which we had never done, and Marcia gave us a lot of valuable input,” says Cumberland. “She had us make spreadsheets as well as projection forecasts, and we actually incorporated those into our day-to-day operations.”

Because UPS Capital is a U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Preferred Lender, Rosy Rings was able to secure a low-cost, SBA-backed loan package in a relatively short period of time. That’s because the SBA delegates the loan processing and approval process to its trusted Preferred Lenders, such as UPS.

Helping in more ways than one
Cumberland says her established shipping relationship with UPS made the financial relationship a natural. “If you use UPS, they become acquainted with your business,” she says. Additionally, “UPS had already helped us grow in many ways long before we needed the loan.”

Although Rosy Rings closed on the loan package and moved to its present location in April, Cumberland says she has stayed in touch with her UPS Capital advisor, Marcia Cohen.

“We didn’t even know about that program, and I’m so grateful I found out about it,” says Cumberland.