Delivering finance that fits

The way busi­ness­es finance growth is chang­ing all the time, mean­ing more choice for own­ers and exec­u­tives than ever before. In this envi­ron­ment, lenders are com­pet­ing to dif­fer­en­ti­ate them­selves from the pack and pro­vide tai­lored ser­vices that over­come client chal­lenges.

Lom­bard, an award-win­ning provider of asset finance, takes an entre­pre­neur­ial approach to these chal­lenges. We take time to iden­ti­fy the right fund­ing solu­tion that will help our cus­tomers obtain the tools nec­es­sary to get the job done.

These solu­tions help cus­tomers to acquire the vehi­cles, machin­ery, office IT equip­ment, tech­nol­o­gy and green ener­gy they need to oper­ate effec­tive­ly – and to grow their busi­ness­es. We are proud of our track record and long list of sat­is­fied cus­tomers.

Our flex­i­bil­i­ty and depth of indus­try-sec­tor knowl­edge means we can pro­vide rel­e­vant finance to busi­ness­es in most sec­tors, but we focus on man­u­fac­tur­ing, com­mer­cial trans­porta­tion, agri­cul­ture and tech­nol­o­gy, and have spe­cial­ist teams that oper­ate with­in green ener­gy, marine and avi­a­tion. As a result we can assess client needs and deliv­er the finance that fits.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES DRIVE BUSINESSES FORWARD

As the UK’s largest asset finance provider with the longest his­to­ry (our ori­gins date back to 1861), Lom­bard is steeped in expe­ri­ence and has the breadth of facil­i­ties to cater to a broad range of busi­ness cus­tomers from small and medi­um-sized enter­pris­es to FTSE 100 com­pa­nies.

Asset finance is a flex­i­ble form of fund­ing where the asset is used as secu­ri­ty, help­ing busi­ness­es to release work­ing cap­i­tal that can be invest­ed in growth or oth­er busi­ness require­ments.

At Lom­bard, we believe that it is impor­tant to tru­ly under­stand what are our cus­tomers’ busi­ness require­ments and long-term goals. To do this, we have invest­ed in our teams and estab­lished ded­i­cat­ed sec­tor spe­cial­ists in key areas such as man­u­fac­tur­ing, agri­cul­ture, com­mer­cial trans­porta­tion, tech­nol­o­gy and green ener­gy or renew­ables.

Asset finance is a flex­i­ble form of fund­ing where the asset is used as secu­ri­ty, help­ing busi­ness­es to release work­ing cap­i­tal that can be invest­ed in growth or oth­er busi­ness require­ments. It lets busi­ness­es invest with­out tak­ing mon­ey out of the cash-flow cycle.

It’s an increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar form of fund­ing in an econ­o­my where the lat­est equip­ment, vehi­cles and tech­nol­o­gy can be the dif­fer­ence between com­pet­ing busi­ness­es.

Asset finance is an umbrel­la term for a range of spe­cif­ic facil­i­ties cater­ing for the finan­cial needs of busi­ness­es in dif­fer­ent indus­tries, regard­less of size or stage of growth.

We offer, for exam­ple, hire pur­chase agree­ments allow­ing cus­tomers to rent an asset with the option to buy it at the end of an agreed term; oper­at­ing leas­es for high-val­ue or spe­cial­ist equip­ment; and con­tract hire for vehi­cles which can include a ser­vice and main­te­nance ele­ment.

There are a num­ber of solu­tions offered by asset finance which are designed to meet spe­cif­ic needs. For exam­ple, using hire pur­chase enables a busi­ness to spread the cost of a pur­chase over an agreed peri­od, at the end of which the busi­ness takes own­er­ship. In a sim­i­lar way, an oper­at­ing lease pro­vides the ben­e­fit of fund­ing an asset for a fixed peri­od, per­haps for a spe­cif­ic con­tract, with­out the risk of being left with an asset that is not need­ed once the con­tract ends.

So whether work­ing on as a sin­gle prod­uct or in con­junc­tion with oth­er fund­ing options, asset finance can be used by small, medi­um and large enter­pris­es with­in their port­fo­lio of fund­ing solu­tions.

What­ev­er the cus­tomer needs, Lom­bard has the exper­tise to tai­lor our com­pre­hen­sive range of asset finance solu­tions to match client com­pa­nies’ aspi­ra­tions pro­vid­ing the fund­ing for busi­ness­es to acquire the assets need­ed for growth with­out plac­ing undue strain on your bank bal­ance.

RELATIONSHIP APPROACH TO CUSTOMER NEEDS

Lom­bard can offer tai­lored ser­vices and com­pet­i­tive rates, but unlike some oth­er finance providers, we can also offer a strong work­ing rela­tion­ship with our cus­tomers. Our sup­port won’t end when you sign on the dot­ted line.

As part of the Roy­al Bank of Scot­land Group, we can con­nect cus­tomers with a range of qual­i­ty bank­ing ser­vices that will aim to help your busi­ness grow while aim­ing to pro­tect it from unex­pect­ed sur­pris­es, as well as invoice finance to help to improve cash flow by advanc­ing pay­ments on invoic­es.

In addi­tion, con­sul­tan­cy ser­vices are offered by the bank’s Men­tor divi­sion to ensure that busi­ness­es com­ply with reg­u­la­to­ry and com­pli­ance oblig­a­tions such as employ­ment law, health and safe­ty, and envi­ron­men­tal man­age­ment (fees apply).

We take a rela­tion­ship approach to our busi­ness and work with cus­tomers as they grow to keep the prod­ucts and ser­vices they rely on rel­e­vant, ben­e­fi­cial and opti­mised for the next lev­el of growth. Cus­tomers with ques­tions or who just want to chat can con­tact us by phone, e‑mail and even through social media.

At Lom­bard we have been work­ing active­ly to raise aware­ness of asset finance and to high­light that it pro­vides a form of fund­ing which is read­i­ly avail­able. Between Octo­ber 2012 and Decem­ber 2013, we approved nine out of every ten appli­ca­tions for lend­ing with fig­ures based on finance appli­ca­tions approved by our cred­it team

It’s no won­der Lom­bard enjoys a great rela­tion­ship with its cus­tomers and has a long list of suc­cess sto­ries in which it has made a major impact on the con­tin­ued growth and suc­cess­es achieved.

Con­sid­er the exam­ple of Irwin Mitchell, one of the largest and most respect­ed law firms in the UK, with exper­tise in every­thing from fam­i­ly law to cor­po­rate cas­es. When the firm need­ed to upgrade its tech­nol­o­gy, it turned to Lom­bard Tech­nol­o­gy Ser­vices for an inno­v­a­tive cash-gen­er­at­ing solu­tion.

Lom­bard pro­vid­ed a £280,000 facil­i­ty to sup­port the acqui­si­tion of new lap­tops on three-year resid­ual leas­es. It paid Irwin Mitchell for a stake in the val­ue of the equip­ment at the end of the peri­od, mean­ing the customer’s total rental costs were less than they would have been pay­ing for the com­put­ers upfront.

Andrew Mer­rick, chief finan­cial offi­cer of Irwin Mitchell, says: “Work­ing with Lom­bard Tech­nol­o­gy Ser­vices has been a seam­less process. They have deliv­ered an inno­v­a­tive solu­tion with this financ­ing pack­age which reduces our expen­di­ture on assets that are essen­tial to the day-to-day ser­vice we deliv­er to our clients.”

Anoth­er hap­py cus­tomer is Tony Lee of A L Lee & Sons, who agreed a deal to pur­chase machin­ery using an asset finance facil­i­ty from Lom­bard. The Cam­bridgeshire-based farm­ing busi­ness farms around 10,000 acres of land, of which 2,000 acres are devot­ed to pota­toes.

The busi­ness want­ed to meet grow­ing demand from cus­tomers and had to invest in new equip­ment to help it achieve its goal. After tak­ing time to get to know the busi­ness and under­stand its needs, Lom­bard ini­tial­ly fund­ed three new pota­to grad­ing sys­tems in a £3.6‑million facil­i­ty.

Own­er Tony Lee says: “We’ve worked with Lom­bard for a num­ber of years and financed a range of machin­ery with them. It’s an afford­able way to invest in equip­ment which helps us grow and devel­op. Thanks to Lom­bard, we have been able to ful­fil our orders and ser­vice our cus­tomers more effi­cient­ly.”

High­land Expe­ri­ence Tours pro­vides tours between Edin­burgh and Loch Ness. Incor­po­rat­ed in 2005 with a sin­gle vehi­cle, it now offers a vari­ety of mini-bus and mini-coach tours, with trips rang­ing from one day to more than a week.

To cater for grow­ing demand, the com­pa­ny want­ed to expand its fleet. Short-term hire agree­ments were eat­ing into prof­its, so the busi­ness agreed a £373,000-hire-purchase agree­ment and fund­ing with Lom­bard, enabling it to acquire three Plax­ton Chee­tah bus­es.

“We were look­ing to grow the com­pa­ny and need­ed sup­port to get the high-qual­i­ty prod­uct we want­ed. The agree­ment with Lom­bard has meant we have been able to add sig­nif­i­cant car­ry­ing capac­i­ty to our fleet,” says Michael Brem­n­er, High­land Expe­ri­ence Tours’ man­ag­ing direc­tor.

These are just a hand­ful of Lombard’s many hap­py cus­tomers. We are spread­ing the mes­sage that we want to lend mon­ey – indeed we want to lend more – so get in touch to start dis­cussing your finan­cial goals.

To find out more about how Lom­bard can help you finance eli­gi­ble assets, call 0800 502402

Text Relay 18001 0800 502 402

www.lombard.co.uk

Secu­ri­ty may be required; prod­uct fees may apply

CASE STUDY: REDFORD FLOWERS

Anatomy of the deal

• Cus­tomer indus­try: hor­ti­cul­ture.
• Finance agreed: asset finance; hire pur­chase.
• Pur­pose of the deal: to pur­chase machin­ery.

Deal highlights

• Some £400,000 of fund­ing enabled Red­ford Flow­ers to make sig­nif­i­cant ener­gy and effi­cien­cy sav­ings.
• The busi­ness will ben­e­fit from improved bud­get­ing due to the cost effi­cien­cy of using wood pel­lets rather than fos­sil fuels, and also from mon­ey gen­er­at­ed by renew­able heat income.
• Cash-flow ben­e­fits pro­vid­ed by hire pur­chase fund­ing.

Red­ford Flow­ers was found­ed in 1970 by hus­band and wife team Peter and Angela Red­den. Today the busi­ness is run from ten-acre Sycamore Farm in Lin­colnshire and the couple’s son Simon is in charge.

It grows between eight and ten mil­lion flower stems each year, includ­ing lilies, iris­es and tulips, and sup­plies whole­salers who in turn sell to super­mar­kets and florists across the UK.

Hav­ing spent time in Hol­land study­ing the prac­tices of oth­er grow­ers, Simon decid­ed to invest in new pro­duc­tion process­es that would increase effi­cien­cy and reduce costs.

One of Redford’s biggest costs was the oil in the heat­ing sys­tem that keeps bulbs at a con­stant tem­per­a­ture. After con­duct­ing research Simon con­clud­ed that a bio­mass boil­er would pro­vide sig­nif­i­cant sav­ings over fos­sil fuel burn­ers.

He also iden­ti­fied areas of the busi­ness ripe for automa­tion, so he took steps to acquire an auto­mat­ed bunch­ing machine at a cost of £50,000 and a £350,000 bio­mass boil­er.

“I recog­nised that intro­duc­ing green ener­gy and automa­tion into the busi­ness would have a pos­i­tive impact on our bot­tom line. Using asset finance meant this invest­ment could be man­aged effi­cient­ly,” he says.

Hav­ing been intro­duced to Lom­bard through Redford’s bank NatWest, Simon agreed a hire pur­chase arrange­ment on a five-year term. Secu­ri­ty for the deal came from the boil­er itself, mean­ing no oth­er col­lat­er­al was required.

“As the secu­ri­ty is actu­al­ly in the boil­er, using asset finance has meant there was no require­ment to offer land and build­ings as addi­tion­al secu­ri­ty, and there are also cash-flow ben­e­fits to us as a busi­ness,” he adds.

Acquir­ing the assets through hire pur­chase alle­vi­at­ed pres­sure on cash flow, while the lack of a require­ment for addi­tion­al secu­ri­ty helped to give Simon pace of mind. In anoth­er ben­e­fit, repay­ments are being off­set against reg­u­lar renew­able heat income (RHI) pay­ments.

RHI is payable for 20 years, mean­ing that at the end of the hire pur­chase term the pay­ments become an addi­tion­al income stream for the busi­ness. As a result of the invest­ment, Red­ford expects to reduce its ener­gy bill by more than a third.

Redford’s exam­ple demon­strates how busi­ness­es can use asset finance to invest in growth while reduc­ing costs in the long term. It’s a win-win that oth­er busi­ness­es have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to repli­cate, mak­ing them more effi­cient while shrink­ing their envi­ron­men­tal foot­print for gen­er­a­tions to come.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES DRIVE BUSINESSES FORWARD

RELATIONSHIP APPROACH TO CUSTOMER NEEDS

CASE STUDY: REDFORD FLOWERS