Indochine Far East Café: A Thread Capital Success Story
In September 2018, Solange Thompson, owner of Indochine: a Far East Café, applied for a Rapid Recovery loan from Thread Capital to help rebuild her restaurant after Hurricane Florence brought devastating winds and rain to the Wilmington area.
“Florence was scary because we didn’t have a hurricane for a long time,” says Thompson. “And it’s not like the hurricane came and left. It stayed and caused a lot of damage.”
Thompson’s restaurant faced some structural damage due to the storm; a tree crushed part of the restaurant and a power outage caused her to lose the perishables in the refrigerator and freezers.
Thompson was fortunate. Like many others, she had insurance to cover some of the damage; but also like many others,Thompson struggled to reopen her café quickly while waiting for the insurance payouts. Thread Capital’s Rapid Recovery loan helped Indochine reopen just six days after the storm.
A few months later, Thompson received a long-term Resilient Recovery loan to restore her depleted working capital and cover damages discovered too far after the storm to be covered by insurance.
But in 2019—almost a full year after Florence—Hurricane Dorian hit North Carolina, causing devastating flooding and widespread power outages along the coast. Once again, Thompson was forced to close her business and found herself needing emergency capital during the downtime.
And once again, Thread Capital was there for her.
As a business waits for insurance payouts after a storm, it’s vulnerable in the interim to figure out how to recover the business, physically and financially. That’s why Thread Capital’s Rapid and Resilient loan programs are designed to help stabilize a business in the short term and to meet the extended challenges of long-term recovery.
“For many small-business owners, recovery after a disaster is not a linear process,” says Thread Capital Executive Director Jonathan Brereton. “And Thread Capital will be there to work with entrepreneurs to find the best solution for their specific business needs.”
Read more about Solange Thompson here.
For more information about Thread Capital’s Disaster Recovery Loan programs, reach out to the team directly by email: [email protected].