Barclays’ Bounce Back Loan Was difference between life and death for my business

When coronavirus hit, Tony Olley feared for Barmouth Beach Club, which he describes as “a very special place.”

For Tony, 52, wife Suzanne, 50, and their 32-year-old daughter Kayleigh, running the holiday club on the Welsh coast is a dream come true as they provide much-needed breaks for disabled people.

“We were destroyed,” says Tony, who was looking forward to a busy spring and summer. The Beach Club, which provides free holidays for disabled

people thanks to some paying guests, saw 90% of bookings cancelled or postponed.

Hope of a brighter future came in a Bounce Back Loan from Barclays which Tony found simple to apply for.

“It was unbelievably easy,” he says. “It took me seven minutes in total, from logging on to filling out the application form – and it was approved in under 10 minutes.

“That was the difference between life and death for the business. Without the Bounce

Back Loan we wouldn’t have survived. Even if we had managed to get back open we’d never have got the turnover back in time to catch up with the debt. All the hard work and everything we’d done would have been for nothing and there would have been a lot of very disappointed people.”

Now Tony is looking forward to the day when Barmouth Beach Club can open its doors, with new safety measures in place. And his guests can’t wait to return to their little bit of paradise.