As Vision Asset Finance (VAF) celebrated its 10th anniversary
last month, Trevor Finlay must have breathed a sigh of relief. The
MD of the Ballymena, Northern Ireland-based company was not only
glad for the contract wins of the past weeks, but also for the
recovery from a large hit in fortunes VAF had suffered a couple of
years ago.
Finlay founded the small broker and lessor in
1999, having “identified a niche in the market for leasing computer
systems during a spell of consultancy with a large Belfast-based IT
reseller”.
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VAF quickly expanded, benefitting from a
position which allowed writing business for its vendor partners
across the UK as well as the Republic of Ireland, and the range of
assets it financed soon included cars, boats, plant and catering
equipment.
But the company took a major blow following
the withdrawal of the Home Computing Initiative (HCI), a UK
government programme which allowed employers to loan computers to
their staff in a tax-efficient manner.
The scheme, which gained momentum in the early
2000s, convinced Finlay to set up a new branch of the business
specifically for tackling this, and VAF increased its staff number
to 20 people with additional offices to support demand.
He said: “There was a lot of encouragement
from the government for employers to make this deal available to
their staff. We set up a sister company to act as a reseller, and
it traded very swiftly until Gordon Brown removed the tax break in
2006.”
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By GlobalDataThe withdrawal, according to Finlay, resulted
in a loss of 2,000 jobs across IT resellers. VAF also took a major
blow, and the sister company had to be wound up with immediate
effect. But that is now “well in the past” and, according to
Finlay, VAF’s recent financial situation has shown an improvement
in profitability.
In fact, despite banks tightening credit
criteria – which inevitably affected VAF, too – the company still
writes a good amount of business, and has some innovative deals in
the pipeline.
VAF’s most prolific client has been the
Grampian Police in Scotland, which recently completed the 11th
marketing wave of the Cycle2Work scheme in association with
Halfords.
This scheme works exactly as the HCI, in that
the bicycle retailer leases bicycles through a third party finance
company to businesses for their employees. VAF finances the cost of
the bicycles over 12 or 18 months and the employers market the
scheme to their staff.
VAF is also involved in financing renewable
energy projects, the most recent being a combined heat and power
unit to Blackrock College in Dublin.
Finlay said: “We don’t go chasing large wind
farms or anything like that, because banks are directly involved in
those projects, but anything under £1 million is something we are
interested in helping fund.”
He expects opportunities to grow, thanks to
the relationships with vendors and local authorities that VAF has
established over the years, and is working hard to secure enough
credit to meet clients’ expectations.
Antonio Fabrizio
