Cargobull Finance (CBF), the joint
venture leasing programme between German trailer company, Schmitz
Cargobull AG (SCB) and De lage Landen, has made strategic expansion
moves over the past several months.
In March 2008, Cargobull Finance expanded into Russia, following
the lead of Schmitz Cargobull, which entered the market in
1999.
De Lage Landen, the Dutch asset financier, which has achieved
double-digit growth in the past five consecutive years, is set on
CEE expansion and has hailed its vendor finance programme with
Cargobull Finance as the best method to achieve this. 

Rene Roelfsema, managing director of CBF said: “This is a
natural progression for Cargobull Finance to expand into Russia
with the growing market of SCB. We are putting one more ‘blue
elephant’ on the European map.”

SCB’s Eastern European expansion has seen increasing demand for
Schmitz Cargobull trailers, which has had a positive impact on home
economies, Ulrich Schopker, Schmitz Cargobull AG’s European sales
director said.
Cargobull Finance provides hire purchase, leasing and full-service
leasing (contract hire) and supports all of Schmitz Cargobull’s
vehicle products. Despite record growth in Schmitz Cargobull sales,
Anne Smith, sales support manager at Cargobull Finance said that
the truck leasing market, particularly in the UK, is competing
against an increasingly “tough climate.”
“It’s a funny market, a lot of haulers have closed their doors;
it’s a tough time, particularly with the rising cost of fuel,”
Smith added.
Schmitz Cargobull UK announced a sales increase of 40 per cent for
the first nine months of the 2007/2008 financial year and the
pan-European contingent experienced strong double digit growth in
trailer sales ahead of the previous year.