Case study: Pergolux

️🖥️ Website: https://pergolux.co.uk/
💼 Industry: Retail
📈 Stage: Scale-up
📍 Headquarters: Norway (PERGOLUX is a customer of Revolut Bank UAB)
💳 Product used: International payments & transfers

Challenge: PERGOLUX needed an affordable way to make global payments across 14 countries, and access funds in multiple currencies.
Solution: Revolut Business’s global payments, currency exchange at the real rate, and multi-currency accounts.
Results: They can move money across borders in a range of currencies at excellent rates – enjoying smoother operations and greater savings.

In 2021, Norway-based company, PERGOLUX opened their doors to start providing high-quality and innovatively-designed Pergolas to people and businesses around the world.

They had outdoor space solutions sorted, with integrated drainage systems and sun protection that met both luxury and practical needs. But, like with every new business, there were a few challenges they had to iron out. For one, how to handle international payments and multi-currency operations smoothly.

Today, they're an international business, operating in 14 different countries, and managing suppliers and customers across those regions - including the likes of Red Bull and Volvo. Revolut Business is helping make it possible – and letting them save money in the process.

Challenge: A global business being blocked by borders

PERGOLUX felt the complexities of traditional banking most when they faced delivery and stock issues, making it difficult to meet growing customer demand. They’d done the hard work designing the product, now they just had to get it out in the world.  

When dealing with traditional banks, operating across multiple currencies can be a pain. Johannes Lauchenauer, CEO & Co-founder of PERGOLUX puts it like this:

“We’re receiving multiple currencies for multiple entities. Which means, we had to open 1 bank account per currency and per entity. If you receive 5 currencies for 1 entity, that would be 5 bank accounts, and so on, which quickly becomes stressful.“

PERGOLUX needed a way to pay suppliers across Europe, US, Chile, and beyond – all with efficiency and ease.

Making international payments isn’t the only thing that proved difficult. Once PERGOLUX went through the painstaking process of setting up different currency accounts, they had to plan internal transfers days in advance. For example, transferring money from their Business account in Norway to their Business account Chile could take 4–6 days, making it difficult to access their own funds.

Not to mention the currency exchange markups. Some providers often charge between 1-3% or more on top of the interbank exchange rate, which can really add up when exchanging large amounts of money. PERGOLUX needed to find a solution that would make this essential task as cost-efficient as possible.

So PERGOLUX needed to be able to move money between countries seamlessly, and access their funds fast, all in a way that helped them avoid unnecessary, extortionate fees. But that’s enough with the challenges, now let’s look how PERGOLUX solved them.

Solution: using tools built to simplify global payments

In January 2023, PERGOLUX tried Revolut Business to manage their international payments and transfers – a choice made easier by recommendations from other businesses. Here’s what they discovered:

“The speed of the transaction is much faster compared to a traditional bank. In Norway, you can wait up to 5 days for the transaction to go through, especially if it’s outside of Europe. With Revolut Business, it goes through within a few hours. “

The value multiplied when PERGOLUX realised this method wasn’t just easy and fast, but cost-efficient too, with low rates on currency exchange, and low, transparent fees that help them save money when doing business globally.

PERGOLUX also took advantage of multi-currency accounts: “One of the greatest benefits of Revolut Business is that you can open a new account in a new currency within a minute and start using it right away. With other banks, you pay fees for this kind of thing. They ask a lot of questions, and you pay a lot of currency exchange fees etc.”

Once a new currency account was set up, PERGOLUX could use the local account details for countries like the UK right away (available in UK & EEA), to make domestic payments to suppliers with ease, or send money internationally at speed. And they manage funds in their account smoothly, exchanging currencies and moving money between currencies with ease

“One of our biggest pains before Revolut Business was not having money available, even if we had it in a bank account. We’d wait 4-6 business days (or more) to move from one currency account to another, which requires planning. With Revolut, you can do an internal transfer within seconds.”

Sounds pretty good, right? While simplifying complex tasks is an obvious win, but PERGOLUX got more than just ease out of their new approach.

Results: saving on speedy payments and exchange

PERGOLUX started to see concrete results from using Revolut Business, beyond just smooth and seamless operations. Let’s dive into a few of them.

First – the savings. PERGOLUX saved over €25,000 on transfer fees alone within the first 6 months of using Revolut Business. That’s not even including low fees from the real exchange rate, reduced accounting costs, and lower running costs compared to traditional bank accounts.

On top of this, Lauchenauer points out the trust they’ve built with suppliers thanks to our payment notifications. “It’s really cool that recipients get automatic notifications by email. When they get an email from Revolut Business, they know we’ve already paid. Whereas, with the other banks, we can’t prove that so easily.”

And this does more than just build trust. It means manufacturers can start doing their work 3-4 days earlier, improving the efficiency of production without wasted time.  

Ultimately, Lauchenauer was pleasantly surprised at how much of a win Revolut Business was. “I would definitely recommend Revolut Business. It’s very convenient, easy to use, and helpful. Payments are much cheaper, much faster, and it’s easier to manage all access levels.”

If your business faces similar challenges to PERGOLUX, discover the Revolut Business tools you need to streamline your payments and make the headache go away.

Get started: speak to our team

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Note: Revolut Bank UAB holds a full banking licence in Lithuania, allowing us to offer cross-border banking services to our business customers in the EEA.