Lexington, SC Restaurant Loans: Fryers, Dish Machines and a Second Location

The range of financing a restaurant can look at runs from one machine to a full month of costs, and the product follows what the money buys rather than the size of the kitchen. A diner replacing a fryer and a group opening another dining room are asking different questions, so they end up on different products.

No amount is set on this page. A funding partner can size an offer from the quote, the sales record and the years the restaurant has been open, and two partners can answer the same request differently.

Restaurants carry heavy payrolls, and that shapes how a food order gets paid for. In Lexington County, SC, the 246 full-service restaurants reported 5,245 employees for the March 2023 pay period, about 21.3 per location, and the 264 limited-service restaurants reported 6,274, about 23.8 each (CBP; our arithmetic). Annual payroll divided by those headcounts comes to roughly $19,858 per full-service employee and $16,902 per limited-service employee, a figure that includes part-time staff.

With wages taking that much of each week, a large distributor order can squeeze the account even when sales are steady. Working capital pays the distributor now and is paid back from sales over the following months.

Illustration only, invented figures: a kitchen that orders $5,800 of food and paper goods a week and keeps two weeks on the shelves has $11,600 paid out for stock not yet sold. That standing balance, not the weekly order, is the number a working capital request can be sized against.

When a fryer, range or dish machine fails, the line slows or stops, and the first question is whether the fix is a repair bill or a replacement machine. A repair invoice leaves nothing a partner could hold as collateral, so it fits working capital; a replacement machine with its own quote can go into an equipment request. Ventilation and fire safety systems are building work, which stays outside this site.

• Repair or replace: a written quote for each from the equipment vendor
• Which part failed, and what the repair invoice covers
• How many days the line runs short and what the menu loses in that time
• Payroll that still falls due while the line is down
• Whether cash on hand covers the bill without leaving the account thin

When the line stops, the whole shift stands around it: in 2023, 198 of the 246 full-service restaurants in Lexington County, SC had five or more employees and 48 had fewer (CBP; our arithmetic).

Ranges, fryers, dish machines, refrigeration and a combi oven are machines with serial numbers, which is why equipment loans suit them: the equipment itself backs the financing, and the term can run close to its working life. A request lists the vendor, the model, the price, delivery and installation, and whether anything is being traded in. Adding a second fryer line works the same way as replacing a worn one.

Illustration only, invented figures: $18,000 for two fryers and a six-burner range at an annual rate of 11% over 48 months works out to $465.22 a month. Across the term that is $22,330.56 in payments, of which $4,330.56 is interest. The real rate and term come from whichever partner makes an offer.

Used equipment from an auction or a closing restaurant can be financed too, though the partner can ask for the age, the condition and the seller's invoice before deciding how much of the price it will cover.

New booths, tables, chairs, a host stand, a bar back and point-of-sale stations are movable items and can go into an equipment request. Lighting, flooring, work on the building itself, outside seating areas built onto the lot, and buying the property are outside this site.

The cost that catches owners is not the furniture but the weeks of reduced seating while new pieces are delivered, when payroll and rent continue and covers drop. Working capital can carry that stretch and is paid back once the new seating is in use. The same logic applies to a second location, where staff are hired and trained before the first ticket prints.

Separately from the employer counts, the 2024 Nonemployer Statistics list 65 full-service restaurants and 45 limited-service restaurants in Lexington County, SC with no paid employees (NAICS 722511 and 722513).

Kitchens are one trade on the Lexington, SC industries page, and ZIP and town figures for the office town sit on the Lexington, SC business loans page.