Many great businesses began in a garage and American Cable Company is no exception. After immigrating to the United States with his wife and two children, Carlos Gonzalez started a cable company out of his family’s garage in 1976. By 1978, he employed 30 people and was able to purchase his very first commercial facility in Philadelphia.
Despite surviving multiple sluggish economic times, the business was hit hard by the Great Recession. Due to the automotive industry crisis and customers who moved manufacturing overseas to cut costs, the company struggled to make ends meet, taking on high interest debt to keep the doors open.
Eventually the business recovered and started to grow again. To support this growth, they needed to refinance real estate and retire their high interest debt. Despite upward trends, the owner was unable to find conventional lender willing to take a chance on the business. That’s when the owner was referred to CRF.
After the recession, the business diversified its client base and a large construction company that had moved its business overseas to save money, began to bring it back to the cable company. CRF felt strongly that this was a company that deserved a second chance, given its impact on the community, and provided $2.3 million in financing. The financing also saved American Cable more than $233,000 per year in interest payments.
The financing enabled the business to create and retain 84 jobs, 59 of them held by minorities, in a low-income community of Philadelphia with a 30.9% poverty rate. Despite difficult times, Carlos never gave up on his business and neither did CRF.
