ACS Clothing receives 8.5 million pounds in funding

ACS Clothing, formal wear and wedding hire company, has acquired 8.5 million

pounds in funding from the Business Growth Fund (BGF) to help expand its e-commerce facilities and international presence.

The BGF, an investment vehicle backed by Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered to help local businesses grow which have a turnover between 5 million and 100 million pounds, has taken an minority stake in the Scottish supplier of formal wear.

ACS, the company which rents our formal men's wear through retailers such as Austin Reed and Burton, is set to use the funds to develop its online platform, in order to offer a multi-channel service to its retail partners.

Richard Freedman, co-founder of ACS, explains that investment in its online e-commerce division and software sector is the "quickest way to expand our business." He highlights that all "the retailers that are doing best are the ones with the strongest online and multi-channel offering," according to the Herald Scotland.

He adds that in addition to developing the company's e-commerce, ACS is also planning on reassessing its stock and explore options for international expansion as the company also received another 3 million pounds from Clydesdale Bank.

ACS has over three million garments at its facility in Lanarkshire and handled an estimated 400,000 UK orders last year. Freedman believes that although 2013 was a "terrible year" in terms of weddings, "2014 is shaping up to be a very strong year for us".